Godspeed You Black Emperor! "Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada" Kranky Records Kranky 034 1999 (28:37)
Moya (10:51)
Blaise Bailey Finnegan III (17:46)
Godspeed You Black Emperor! this time = Aidan, Efrim,
Mauro, Dave, Thierry, Norsola, Bruce, Sophie, Moya. Voice
on "BBF3" is mister Blaise Bailey Finnegan the third,
tape recorded on a sidewalk in Providence, RI
Overall impression: very good. GSYBE! followup last year's debut album, "f#a#oo", with an ep containing two primarily instrumental pieces. Either this is stronger material or I prefer my Godspeed in smaller doses, or maybe both. Regardless, I'm really pleased with these 2 tracks. Musically neither are much different from the tracks on "f#a#oo": climatic swells, builds and fades of guitar, bass, strings, drums/percussion and the occasional dialogue recording. Godspeed delve into sonic areas not unknown to the likes of Tortoise and SWANS as they utilize beautiful melodies throughout the different sections of their tracks. "Moya" is entirely instrumental. About the first half of the song is mellow (strings then guitar) then a full on heavy build of the entire band which fades in and out in the final minutes. "Blaise.." follows a different pattern: mellow the first 7 minutes or so, a minute of heaviness, 4 more minutes of mellow, 3 more minutes of heaviness and finally 3 minutes of fading strings. "Blaise.." also features the amusing socio-political rantings of Blaise Bailey Finnegan (a street person perhaps?) during several of the mellower sections. The cd comes in a keen looking black digipack with some sort of golden embossed lettering. Great looks and sound ... the future should be bright for this Canadian collective...
Godspeed
You Black Emperor!
Kranky Records
Where did I get this cd? - mail order via Rioux's Records. Email Jason. (tell him markw@southwind.net sent ya!)