Released August 14th, 1997 on Constellation Records.
As I mentioned in my review of Final Fantasy’s Spectrum, 14th Century I have a major love for neo classical music including the Canadian monsters Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Ever since a very wonderful article was produced on Thursday's third album that never came to fruition as they wanted it, which was a double album that included many instrumental passages akin to the work of said Canadian monsters, I have been hooked on their GYBE's music. Their blend of post rock, classical music, and found, manipulated sound has provided the background for many study sessions. I even once titled a short essay "East Hastings" after a section of a suite on this album.
Honesty though there is something about this album that I never have wanted to get through it, I think it is akin to the feeling of not wanting to see it done much like Damien yesterday. It is just such a gloriously creepy, thought provoking album that leads the listener down so many paths. Somewhere along the path you will hear a homeless man talking about preaching and the end of the world, other times a man will tell you the saddest story that sounds like a post apocalyptic nightmare, and finally be presented with music that would be both great for quiet thinking and for the soundtrack to a zombie attack [which it was, part of "East Hastings" was included in 28 Days Later].
The music especially on the second track, the nearly eighteen minute epic "East Hastings" blends so well together. From the opening yelling in a foreign tongue and bagpipes to the crashing mid section "The Sad Manifoso" with it's repeated cadence in different instrumentation from vocals to guitar to drums and string instruments, the tracks just blend together with a stunning beauty that is really only fully understood when you are listening to the music on your headphones. Although the music blends together really well, the best part of the album is one segment hidden on the CD version at the very end of the final suite. After almost four minutes of silence we are presented with "J.L.H. Outro" which is a beautiful, meandering assault on the senses that just builds and builds, it is particularly startling because of the silence but it just is a monster instrumental.
Some music just has a timeless feel; it is relevant always from now in the Obama era, to the Clinton era where it was produced, to a hundred years from now when the world might look a lot like the music that was produced on this album. However, this is not for everyone. Like Nick Hornsby said in The Songbook about Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop", and I am paraphrasing, that certain music is only to be listened to once to understand the ferocity of it. GYBE are a band that fit very much into this description, they are, for some, to be experienced once and put back on the self, but for the screwed up few that see the beauty in such heartbreakingly ugly music we return to it again and again.
Rating - 5 out of 5
Favorite Track - "East Hastings"
No comments:
Post a Comment