Chroniques et points de vue:

Un incontournable québécois:
C'est loin des projecteurs que Godspeed You Black Emperor ! a concocté Lift Your Skinny Fists…, un impressionnant enregistrement post-rock qui a voyagé discrètement mais sûrement autour du globe. 0n y trouve un travail des atmosphères qui séduit autant qu'il commotionne.

From :
Canada's Godspeed You Black Emperor raise the ante on their already ambitious orchestral rock by releasing a double CD of material as their second full-length album. The group combines the drums and guitar of typical rock-band instrumentation with horns and strings to create a music built around drones and slowly evolving melodic figures. lt rises and falls from delicate introductory passages to unabashed grand climaxes. Their juxtaposition of drums with violins and lush romantic tonality brings to mind Rachel's, but their compositional scale and the pounding repetitive intensity of their dynamic peaks evoke Glenn Branca's The Ascension. Although the two discs are indexed at only two 21-minute tracks each, the package includes a handy road map to the movements into which each is subdivided. The opening piece starts with five minutes of a 15-beat circular melodic pattern that is gradually embellished as the volume swells to an ecstatic roar. The release drops down to a pastoral drone that rebuilds to support an acid-etched guitar solo, which in turn yields to a unified 4/4 kraut rock pound that eventually explodes, leaving behind field recordings of public announcements mingled with wandering late-night Swell Maps piano. The other pieces use a similar set of sonic building blocks to take the listener on comparable journeys. Fans of Godspeed's previous work will be very happy, and the curious might want to hop on board as well. --Bob Bannister

Amazon.ca:
Godspeed You Black Emperor! récidive avec son rock instrumental somptueux et ses paysages musicaux enveloppants dans sa troisième production, Levez vos skinny fists comme antennas to heaven!. Le collectif montréalais – deux batteries, deux basses, trois guitares, un violon et un violoncelle – livre ici un disque double où l'expérimentation sonore, parfois proche du bruitage, se fait plus présente, l'orchestration encore plus riche, la charge émotive toujours puissante.

Les quatre morceaux, d'une vingtaine de minutes chacun, sont divisés en sections qui s'enchaînent à la manière des mouvements d'une symphonie. À partir d'un motif répété en sourdine, Godspeed échafaude de lancinants crescendos, qui aspirent inéluctablement l'auditeur dans des tourbillons de guitares bourdonnantes et de percussions appuyées. La tempête finit par s'apaiser, mais la quiétude cède bientôt le pas à l'intervention lyrique des cordes, à l'irruption solennelle des cuivres, à l'orage affolant des guitares.

Les compositions quasi filmiques du groupe incorporent des voix, captées hors du studio, qui donnent à l'ensemble un incroyable pouvoir d'évocation. lci, un vieil homme se remémore le paradis de sa jeunesse, Coney lsland ; là, un duo de glockenspiel débouche sur des comptines d'enfants, comme autant d'hommages à l'innocence dans un monde en décrépitude. Une sorte d'espérance obstinée, de foi enragée, affleure, malgré les ambiances angoissantes qui baignent l'album. Levez vos skinny fists comme antennas to heaven! est une bouleversante invitation au rêve et au cauchemar de la part d'un groupe qui échappe aux comparaisons. --Noémi Mercier









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Note: - Beautifull
First of all this music is not for everyone, some find it boring and repetitive(i hope that I spelled taht correct). However if you enjoy long instrumental music, this is THE album for you.
I discovered this band through a live performance I heard on the radio, I was so hypnotised by the music, that I went out and bought every album they had out. I have to say that this is my favorite together with the slow riot EP. These two records are simply the best in this sort of music.
If you like bands like Mogwai or Explosions in the sky, you should really buy this album. You can also try any A Silver Mount Zion album, they're beautiful as well.

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Note: - soundtrack to the fall
Right around 1998, American culture transformed. It became, suddenly, the horrible beast it is today. This is the soundtrack for that era, which I term "The Fall." This is the soundtrack for the few intelligent kids set adrift in a society full of morons and paranoid psychos.

This is music for people that have more going on in their heads than "I need to look cool, I need to ride the latest trend, I need to conform, I don't want to think too much about anything."

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Note: - * Mesmerizing ...
Godspeed You Black Emperor's are without a doubt in a league of their own. There have been just a few albums that have had such a tramendous effect on me and this is one of them. Its very hard to rightly categorize their work because it is incredibly fresh and original. Their music blends in contemporary classical influences (reminiscent of Arvo Part, Gorecki , Morton Feldman ) with a post rock style. The group consists of 9 members with 2 members playing cello and violin. One word that I can think of to categorize GYBE is APOCALYPTIC. This will be the album played when the the world and human kind will come to a dreadful end. What is remarkable about their sound is that the guitars are not used in the traditional sounding manner. The guitars are used in a droning way, evoking spacious and dreamful sounds that fit so well with the string section. Its very easy to forget that what you are hearing are guitars because of them sounding so full and orchestrated. Another wonderful aspect of their work is the slow ambient soundscapes athe begining of each song that work up to a crescendo that later explodes into a large epical and orchestral blast of music. The field recordings heard on some of the intros fit brilliantly with the bleak mood of the music with one of them being children laughing and playing which creates a contradiction to the whole melancholic feeling of what is heard. Behind their tragic sound their lies a sense of hope in each song. Any of Godspeed's recordings should be without hesitation in a music lover's library. I strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to experience dreamy and fresh sounding music.

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Note: - These guys are genius...
Okay, this past January I was coming home carpool style from National Conference on Organized Resistence (NCOR for short) - and this guy in the front seat popped this in... I was blown away from beginning to end... These guys are absolutely genius... I finally picked it up... I played it for a political comix artist friend and he enjoyed it as well... i would love to see them live and hopefully soon i will - godspeed in anarchy - Savannah Skye...

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Note: - * a conceptual piece ...
There is a good amount of interesting material here. I guess "soundscape" is the correct term (or perhaps post-rock tone poem.) Yes, this is far from the mainstream, yes, it is very exciting, yes, you should listen to it if you are curious. There is some praiseworthy electronic material mixed in, and both traditional and avant-gardy sounds come together pretty organically.

These tracks do shift and cross fade, however, so don't expect sonata form; putting everything into long long tracks is a bit of an affectation and there are some cross-fades which should just not be there. But it's not a large problem, and if a little conceptual stuff is what it takes GYBE to get going, well, good for them.

GYBE is a political band. Their samples suggest things like "gosh how desolate is the corporate supermarket environment" and "aren't super-right wing radio guys scary." That sounds a little trivial, but the effect is powerful; sometimes the music feels like it should be accompanying a documentary on National Public Radio. Maybe Pacifica Radio? The political content is unobtrusive and fair; this is not an explicitly polemical album, rather one that wants you to confront aspects of [North] American culture you'd rather not.

Soundscapes have their limits. I was underwhelmed by the tonal structure of the first disk, which had a lot of warm chords resolution and some weak moments. If you're listening to this as an ambient work, however, you may not mind this at all; I was just disappointed that, at certain moments, GYBE seemed to "phone it in."

The second disk is a bit odd-ball; I can't really get a handle on it, and the crescendo noise-blasts are not really my style. I don't like it, but it's a matter of taste. To me it sounds like a disk not sure if it wants to be ambient or attention-grabbing rock.

Another thing that should be mentioned is that the album is two disks, which is quite a good value for money if you're looking for a range of experimental music.