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: - if you're elitist, popbunny or a musician, you'll hate this
that's what i gather from the negative reviews i've read and the people i've met who hate GYBE. i don't know a thing about music theory, production, or anything else that goes into 'making' music. and i'm glad, since that knowledge seems to have killed the ability to JUST LISTEN and enjoy music within so many people. the guys i know who are hardcore musicians listen to stuff that 99.999% of people would hate, and the reverse seems to be true.

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Note: - One of the all-time Greatest
This album isn't for everyone. But those of you willing to dedicate your ears and your mind to the aural poetry Godspeed creates will not be disappointed.

Lift your Skinny Fists is arguably Godspeed's best album; two discs containing only four songs, each 20 minutes long. The pictures they paint range from post-nuclear holocaust burned cities rife with suffering to meeting god.

If you've never heard Godspeed before, this is a great place to start.

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Note: - * An epic of huge proportions ...
After building an underground following on their first two releases, Godspeed You Black Emperor pulled out all the stops for their third major release, "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven." Epic in every way, this record sees the band take everything they've learned to this point and apply it to the music. Tenfold.

Listeners not familiar with the band can get some insight into the music by this little fact: This two-disc record is over two hours long. And there are only four songs on it.

But you won't find 30 minutes of droning per song. These songs twist and turn, morph and change, bending, swirling, exploding, and buzzing as an extended wall of sound. They do not end in the same sort of place where they began, often going through a half-dozen movements or more before reaching the journey's end.

One could liken Gybe records to soundtracks for films that have never been made. It's a description that works, because their music conjures images in your head. It's epic noise rock on a classical music scale.

Built upon layers of instrumentation by a band that is at times more than a dozen members strong, Godspeed You Black Emperor, or Gybe for short, mix airy, noisy guitar with strings, sound collages, piano, chimes, and much more. They take fairly simple musical themes and, using this vast array of sounds, build them up over a long period, morphing simple melodies until they metamorphosis into something wholly different than what they began as. This isn't simply droning, lulling music. The effect is a journey.

But none of that does the sounds here justice. Trying to describe the music of Godspeed You Black Emperor is like trying to describe a dream. You can offer an accurate description, but actually capturing the essence is difficult. One must experience it firsthand.

So, too, is the music difficult to describe. You can describe the instruments and how they go about their business, but until you hear it, you won't have a clear picture of what this band is all about.

Godspeed You Black Emperor is a superb band for those who enjoy lengthy songs, sprawling soundscapes and music you can sink into. It's a heady experience listening to this stuff. And it's worth it.

If you're into Spiritualized, Bardo Pond, Dirty Three, Labradford, Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine, Flying Saucer Attack and others in this realm, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

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Note: - Antinomial Bending and Radical Art
#1. The labelings of Godspeed's music breed hypocrisy. To categorize this as "post-rock," with Mogwai, Explosions, and Sigur is a heinous crime. This is not to be labeled by those who are compelled to associate this sound with anything else.

#2. Human beings are wired so that they appease the desire to associate unfamiliar aesthetics (art/music) with familiar themes. This music is unbridled, anarchist, and primal cha(eth)os. It is very clear that these musicians are fed up with corporate America and multi-national corporations. In a time where multi-lateralizational political and economic policy is supported by both republicans and democrats as a beneficial financial policy for our Nation, GODSPEED stands as a beacon against the established majority of thought.

#3. Are GY!BE reactionary? No, they are authentic. This is a group of artists that believe in their cause, so whole-heartedly that they are willing to write their lyrics on cardboard and live in poverty.

#4.. MOST IMPORTANTLY: The music will move you. The sounds and swells embedded in this CD will conjure that dormant part of yourself that says over and over again, "am I living like everyone else should tell me I am?" "Do my philosophies reflect that innately inherited into my demographic grouping?"
THE SPLINTER IN YOUR SIDE THAT SAYS, "IS THERE SO MUCH MORE TO THIS LIFE THAT I AM MISSING BEYOND MYSELF?"

"Why do [they] not sleep no the beach anymore?" (CD 2.)

Be moved. Listen and ascribe. Agreement or rebellion, eastern or western philosophy, they are all one. Find the aesthetic, the emotional and artistic tool that leads to your, and ultimately all of our, 'Master Narrative.' There is a deep sadness here, even in the unveiling of such.

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Note: - * comfortably numb ...
I was first intrigued about GSY!BE (is that how you're supposed to abbreviate it now?)after hearing their name bandied about in the same circles as Mogwai and Sigur Ros. While I have yet to get around to purchasing any Mogwai, I took the plunge and bought this tasty little cd on the basis of a few audio clips, good word of mouth, and various Amazon reviews. Man oh man am I happy I picked this one up!!!!

The group definitely has a kinship with Sigur (and what little Mogwai I've heard)...and if this is so-called 'post rock', let it be. I was under the assumption that that tag referred to all those boring Chicago groups like Tortoise and Slint and that math-rock type stuff (though there is some Don Caballero I like-but I digress).

Post rock in this case apparently means 'Floyd-like' without the annoying histrionics of Roger Waters. So imagine the best parts of The Wall or Animals without Roger's anguished vocals and the slow pomposity inherent in most mid-seventies dinosaur rock.

No-that really doesn't do it justice. Maybe it's more like 'OK Computer' without the heavy-handed politics. Ah-forget it. These guys are in a league of their own. They satiate my Floyd jones with all their cool found-sound field recordings (I'm listening to the glockenspiel duet on disc two right now), fulfill my need for loud anthemic guitar-based rock (probably instilled in me from a youth spent listening to older siblings' Floyd, Zeppelin, and Yes records), and quell/excite that cool millennial vibe expressed in the best Sigur and Radiohead.

I read somewhere recently that since the dot.com bubble burst, we no longer need 'chill out' music or the aural wallpaper of the Chemical Bros. While I do miss those days, I also believe that bands such as GSY!BE, Sigur Ros, and the less-whiny moments of Radiohead are filling that void with music that matters: soulful, live, experimental, and emotional (not 'emo').

Simply put, this album has become my favorite repeated-listening experience since my college discovery of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. Ignore it at your peril.