Chroniques et points de vue:

From Amazon.co.uk:
lt's hard to imagine this disc coming out of Montreal or, really, any urban habitat. The post-rock instrumentals on f#a#(infinity symbol), distantly related to the sounds made by the Australian band Dirty Three, serve as walking music for a loner hoping to hitch a ride in the middle of the Arizona desert and dealing with the inevitability of another night in coyote territory. Godspeed's swelling array of guitars, bagpipes, cellos, violins, trumpets, and drums is riveted together with an understated hope that is emotionally clutching, often devastating. This core of heavy Midwestern stoicism, saturated with waves of strings, hardcore interludes, and ripples of Morricone guitar, leaves listeners with the understanding that there is no escape from the badlands that surround and permeate us. --Michael Woodring

From :
0n first listen, Montreal collective Godspeed You Black Emperor sounds familiar, like sonic-landscape architects the Dirty Three. But pay closer attention to this debut full-length and you'll find something much more compelling: G.Y.B.E. mix found sounds, voices, lilting string sections, and musique concrète into structures that tell a story. With each listen, a new plot twist is unraveled, a new movie sample identified--you start to listen closely with headphones to pick up new subtleties you couldn't hear previously. Three tracks, a bit over an hour, of great music that defies categorization. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.ca:
Septième album solo de Michel Rivard, Le Goût de l'eau… et Autres Chansons naïves, paru en 1992, séduit rapidement avec ses ritournelles enjôleuses. L'enfant chéri de la chanson québécoise délaisse les synthétiseurs d'Un trou dans les nuages pour revenir à ses premières amours : les guitares acoustiques. Dans les mains agiles de Rick Hayworth, complice de toujours, elles côtoient l'autoharpe, la mandoline et la guitare hawaïenne.

Le résultat n'est pas pour autant exotique : on a affaire à 11 chansons bien ficelées, à des musiques à la fois simples et denses qui savent soutenir les textes intelligents de Rivard. Le ton se fait grave dans 'L'0ubli', brillant et émouvant hommage au cinéaste québécois Claude Jutra : 'll notait tout dans un carnet/Le nom des gens l'odeur des choses/Et quand le vent virait morose/Pour se souvenir il relisait/Mais il voyait entre les lignes grandir le trou blanc de l'oubli'.

Qu'il parle de l'enfance ('La Lune d'automne', 'Tu peux dormir', 'Bille de verre') ou des réflexions d'un chien sur la plage ('Sourire de chien'), Michel Rivard nous sert un album rempli de charme et d'humour qui fait la part belle à la nostalgie. À écouter la fenêtre ouverte, la tête dans les souvenirs d'enfance. --Yannick Duguay









Disponibilité: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Note: - a slow 8- miles an hour
Godspeed you! black emperor...

never before have i listened to an album and automatically had an out of body experience with no drugs involved. Gsybe may very well be the best group of working musicians in recent history. From the first note to the last note this album is absolelutlely amazing.

Listening to this album in my room with my eyes closed made me see everything all in one second. I was traveling down a highway in a car at an amzing speed, i was seeing buildings being demolished, cars exploding, people crying for help and there was nothing i could do, i opened my eyes and knew that i was in my room and everything was okay....godspeed you! black emperor is the best drug on the market...pick it up now!

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Note: - one of the best albums i've ever heard
let me first say that f#a# [infinity] is one of the best albums i've ever heard. i dunno if i can say this GY!BE best work (probably lift yr. skinny fists to heaven) but f#a# is definitely the most depressing and offers more. the album offers over 60 min. of music -- only three song tracks. weird eh ? now people say GY!BE is hard to get into considering that every song of their's is over 10 minutes long -- and no vocals. but don't be frightened, you be so glad you came across this band.

now f#a# brings us three tracks. The Dead Flag Blues, East Hastings, and Providence. all are amazing. the dead flag blues starts out with story telling and then begins the post-rock and classic [which i might add is the best combination ever] now its very hard for me to tell you the best track... because, well... they all rock!! but i think i'd have to choose East Hastings (the amazing beginning theme of 28 days later) which is 18 minutes long. now please i tell you, pick up this masterpiece. if you are just wanting to get into GY!BE, get this first since its their first album. then get their e.p. Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada, then lift yr. skinny fists like antennas to heaven (two discs), then get their stripped down work Yanqai u.x.o. [but still great]

without a doubt -- one of the best albums of the '90s

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Note: - * Very dark; very, very good: the best comes to those who wait ...
I've discovered Godspeed You Black Emperor's discography in a backwards fashion. I picked up their 'Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven' album a couple of years ago and was fascinated by their ability to create such complex soundscapes in the course of album's four long pieces.

Today I faced 1998's work by the Montreal-based ten-piece ensemble, 'f#a# (infinity symbol)'. Notice that I used the term "faced", because this is not precisely your ride-to-work type of music, which is what I like them in part: they challenge the listener, they invite him/her to get out of the comfort area, come close and LISTEN!

The album is definitely darker than their 'skinny fists...' album, and an indicator of their brilliance, how far ahead of their time they were six years ago: they were playing what today is labeled as post-rock, even before the term had been coined. Though I'd contend that I prefer 'skinny fists...' to this album, I have to say 'f#a#' has more than a few moments of brilliance.

They introduce the listener to a somewhat apocalyptic world with extended intros and samples of people and things leading into long songs (three of them, for a 60-minute long production) that last for what may seem like a musical eternity to most people. With the aid of a brilliant guitar work (by one or more of their three guitarists) layered on top of very rich atmospheres created by the two percussionists, strings (cello and violin), glockenspiel here and there, and further tape loops alongside the occasional bagpipes, the album results in a cratfy musical collage of a rather dark beauty that can be tough to appreciate if you don't give it a chance. As with your eyesight in a dark room, you need to give enough time for the album to sink in.

You may argue GYBE's view of the world back then (and these days too) is too dark and a little apocalyptic for your taste. While I respect that, I'd like to think that they're making a musical statement: there is quite a metaphor in their music inviting us to give ourselves more time, be more patient and develop a sense for things past the regular attention span that today's society has grown us accustomed to. Godspeed saves quite a few musical surprises within worth waiting for, to those who are patient enough to go past instant gratification.

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Note: - Awesome Album
This album is really good, i think it deserves 4.5 stars, but i can only give 4 or 5, and I don't think it deserves 5. I actually only wrote the review to point out something interesting i noticed 17 minutes into "Providence". There is a voice that is saying "Where are you going?" to the exact same tune that one of the characters in the musical "Godspell" says "where are you going?" and i just thought it was in interesting fact.

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Note: - * do not buy this cd ...
I was enticed by the words of the others but it is just plain bad. I really like lift your skinny fists... but this album is a waste of time and money. I enjoy what they do when they do it, but there is a total of maybe 5 minutes of good stuff spread out amongst 40 minutes of wailing and some guy talking- who cares? This CD is BOGUS, please do not get fooled like I was.