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: - tragically brilliant
beautiful, elegant, and yearning for one to listen to over and over

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Note: - Indescribably powerful.
The minimalist packaging suggests that it is a poverty-stricken indie rock band trying to be mysterious. The name evokes some kind of Nordic black metal thing. (Key words being "Emperor" and "black"). It was described to me as "epic." So I bought it, not really sure what I was going to be hearing.

No one could have described the music in a way that could have me anticipating its greatness. To me, the music of Godspeed You Black Emperor! is surreally powerful and nearly impossible to describe without resorting to trite comments. The band is a nine-piece "post-rock" group, accurately depicted by others as a rock orchestra -- the instrumentation includes violins, cello, guitars, bass, kit drums, percussion, and French horn (\m/). Entirely instrumental, GYBE!'s music is identified by its moody epics of a build-build-build-crescendo pattern. Each song on _Lift Your Skinny..._ is around 20-minutes long, consisting of individual movements that are about seven-minutes long. Movements build like the swell of the ocean, until a crest breaks in climax...then it begins anew.

It may sound repetitive, but this is not the case. Within this framework the band deploys dynamic creativity and musical worlds to spend a lifetime exploring. Ambient stretches, crying strings, booming guitar themes, astutely complex percussion, spoken word samples...the works -- all comprise this band's music. GYBE! creates some of the most compelling soundscapes I've heard from anyone. Even if a movement relies on the same melody all the way through, the nonpareil textural richness makes a seven-minute expanse seem to fade away all too quickly. There is so much to hear, but the sonic images are fleeting, as in a dream.

Each song tells a story, but only the listener can articulate it. For me, the music explores feelings of love and sadness, deeply melancholic but often with a glimmer of hope to be found. The album is worth every penny for the downright stunning first track on the second disc, "Sleep". It is unquestionably one of the most emotional pieces of music I have heard, and it defines this band's power for me. The beauty of "Sleep" lies in its crush of melancholy which persists for the first 18 minutes, before hope blooms with a spine-tingling, triumphant finale. Every song, not just "Sleep", is an impressive excursion through music and emotion. This is the only band I have heard so in touch with the emotional conveyance of their instruments that the drums are sad. SAD DRUMS!

My plans for world domination are on hold -- my new objective is to get all of this band's albums (easy, since they don't have many right now). When that is done, I can get back to building my super-laser.

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Note: - * perspective ...
Yes, you could say this is original but that doesn't mean it's good. So there's someone banging on a glokenspiel at a campsite in Rhinbeck. Big deal! There are a few good musical moments here but they are hardly worth the stamina you need to get there. Overall it kind of ameteur. I'm obviously not one of those brainwashed fans who claim that 'this disk changed my life'. Someone suggested it to me because I liked Sigur Ros. By the way, no comparison. Oh and It's not that I don't like experimental music. I've been listening to that kind of stuff for 20 years. All this said, I give them credit for going down this path. I don't think they need to worry about 'selling out'.

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Note: - title
who thinks in terms "i like yet not for everyone this one"? does it matter? This album is, has, was changing life, my own. that's the only thing that matters. for if a cell is only one of trillians of essential building blocks to create man, then what would man be without those cells? yes we are important enough, words made up of pure musical expression such as these express it sufficiently for one to understand that the only shine that really bursts through our lives are the moments when we realize that a beauty too brave to objectively behold can carry us further than the strongest declaration of independence could possible imagine in an instant.

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Note: - * Gods ...
This blockbuster double album by Canadians Godspeed You Black Emperor is like something I've heard before. Yet it comes off as wholly original. All instrumental, it sounds like Glenn Branca guitar symphonies, Spiritualized and Sigur Ros. Yet it is so inventive it does not come off as pretentious as any of the latter. (Well, the album notes and diagram are pretty cryptic but still...I love it.) The mostly untitled songs seethe with building guitars, propulsive drums, strings, glockenspiel and more. A great introduction to GYBE.