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From Amazon.co.uk:
There is much to explore in Silver Mt Zion's Born lnto Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upwards. The first movement ('Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire are Falling from the Sky!') is a lush, richly scored orchestral piece, with found sound loops and complex instrumentation all contributing to a truly uplifting, climatic dirge. The second movement is much slower, with more traditional rock elements--feedback, silence and discordant guitars--creeping in among the neo-classical instruments. lt's the album's centrepiece track 'Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River' which really astonishes, however-imperilled ricocheting vocals, violins wailing like The Dirty Three, suffocating atmosphere like Mogwai, lyrical paranoia, a pulsating beat, all building up to a tumultuous climax. After the storm comes the lull, with birds twittering and cooing, but the pace soon builds up again culminating in another climax of distortion and noise, a pop melody and a final arpeggio guitar. The message at the end is 'Musicians are cowards'. --Everett True









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Note: - No more.....please.
I am into post-modern rock, have been for the last few months. I have recently bought everything from Mum to Explosions in the Sky. I've dabbled in Mogwai(buying all their cds) and become fixated with Godspeed. So when I read all the glaring reviews on The Silver Mt Zion, I bought both their cds without batting an eyelash. While I enjoyed their other cd, this one was bizarre, dark, and somewhat sinister. To put it plainly, this cd frightened the #4@! out of me! It possessed me with thoughts of nothingness. There was nothing redemptive about this cd and, although I'm not a big fan of that aspect, I think Silver Mount Zion was trying to accomplish just that. That's why I gave this cd three stars because it accomplished it's mission. I wouldn't, however, recommend it to anyone looking for a Godspeed soundalike. This is something entirely different.

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Note: - Get it, but know this...
I found this album to be way too simple in structure and in approach. I will admit the sound is beautiful at times BUT because of excessive(DYI nothing special)repetition on certain tracks, the "unreachable" quality is lost. At times the strings sound almost to "easy" or elementary. I can't help but imagine my high school band tuning up for practice. Is this an overt attempt to be different? I hope so. It's too damn obvious. One more gripe. The quarkiness of the vocals and the moodiness of the music do not go together. They repel.

The only thing that really had me on this album was the awesome choice of field recordings and how they played well with the music especially where it was needed for tension. I will have to hand it to them they know how to incorporate field recordings. On this alone I'll give it 3 stars. Should you get this album? Well, it's a gamble. If you have money to waste, get it.

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Note: - * \"Please believe.\" ...
"A tiniest worried symphony." This is music for the death of an great ideal, and the question of whether or not it can rise again -- a painfully sad work for a world there seems no possible restoration for. I'm not sure whether the music gives me hope or takes hope away -- it is easier to think the former though, since the sorrowful initial themes eventually rise into something more defiant and strong by the end. This makes for extremely intense music and not something I am able to listen to often.

A Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band comes closer to their formal connection with Godspeed You! Black Emperor with their second release. The original trio that comprised the band is here joined by three others, doubling the lineup, not to mention the guests on drums, trumpet, and trombone. The songs are still mainly centered around strings, however the orchestration is now much more dense (as opposed to the stark _He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms_). Like GY!BE, they are able to build to huge, rushing crescendos and sonically I suppose they are not so different. However, the overall tone of the music makes it an ENTIRELY different experience. I must quote another reviewer who said it very well: "There is strength in Godspeed's wordless soft/loud anthems. Here there is vulnerability, fear, and faith in secret beauty and tiny resistance."

"Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire Falling from the Sky!" and "Could've Moved Mountains..." are layers and layers of crisscrossing violins and guitars and other instruments sawing at each other for a tragic melody, both glacially shifting and hypotizingly textured. "Build then Burnt (Hurrah! Hurrah!)" is a slow, sad dirge. "C'Mon Come On (Loose an Endless Longing)" is the first hint of optimism, but it is obscured by various other layers. These eventually peel away On "The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes" Efrim's vocals are unpleasant, off-key, and cracked -- but I find a strange poignancy to his radical, desperate socio-political rants using such a voice. His voice and ugly broken guitar distortion on this track are joined by florid strings and luminous guitars, a light crescendo that swells to a heavenly end. "Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River" is a pulsating atonal trance with tortured vocals wailing over it. It ends with calming nature sounds, a soothing reprieve after the clamorous first part -- however even this peace seems threatened somehow (hinted at by the dog barking and the bassy background noise). The childish voice giving a strangely poetic monologue on "This Gentle Heart's like Shot Bird's Fallen" is a weird but compelling touch.

Without a doubt this is some of the most beautiful and powerful music ever (subjectively speaking, of course). Up there with the most godly pointillist tapestry of King Crimson, the highest heavenly gateway of Tool, or Opeth's latest album. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

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Note: - Best GYBE! side project yet
owning every gybe! and fly pan am release i needed more and decided to buy this album. Hearing this was a breathe of fresh air. This cd is every bit as good as any gybe! release. This album has great vocals aswell reminiscent of the The's "Burning Blue Soul". The definate highlights of this album are Built then Burnt, Take these hands and throw them in the river, and Triumph of our tired eyes. any fan of gybe! or post rock will fall in love with this cd. sisters, brothers what are you waiting for? BUY NOW!!!

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Note: - * A decent CD, but certainly no GYBE album! ...
In all honesty, there are quite a few moments on this CD that I enjoy, but the more I listen to it, the more it rubs me the wrong way. While the group have captured some fantastic textures using tremolo-laden guitar swells and a string section, this disc is pretty underdeveloped. I understand that much post-rock (yes, I said the dreaded word) is about developing no more than 1-2 (occasionally 3) themes in a single song/movement, much of the music captured on this disc lacks enough dynamic contrast to warrant the song lengths -- No offense to the group, but "Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire Are Falling From the Sky!" could easy have been 1/5th of its length and still be too long; it is a fantastic theme, and very well orchestrated, but the dynamics are far too terraced for the listener to really even notice when there is a change in volume outside of when an instrument enters or exists the foray (and most often on this album, large groups of instruments stick together with the dynamic changes). Why so underdeveloped? It's fairly obvious that only a fraction of the members of Godspeed You Black Emperor! were involved with this album; there's simply a lack of creativity and substance.

I guess my only real other gripes about the album are the narrative overdubbed atop "Built the Burnt (Hurrah! Hurrah!)" and the far-too-thick delays and effects Efrim masked his singing with on "Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River." The former just comes off as obnoxious to me, and the latter is obviously the result of Efrim's self-conciousness about his singing. After having heard the group's last album, I felt that they could have benefitted from having someone else sing Efrim's lyrics; the lyrics were intelligently written, but I simply could not digest Efrim's thick drawl in his singing.

I personally would suggest this only to diehard GYBE fans; a decent album, but it just lacks that intangible flow found on most GYBE records.