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: - A little too ambient in places, otherwise a masterpiece
Godspeed You Black Emperor have become the new millenial
darlings of high-IQ rock, and "Lift Your Skinny Fists" is my favorite of their sweeping instrumental efforts. "Orchestral-rock" is a good description, and at times one will be reminded of Mike Oldfield's fusion on 70s works like "Incantations" (although the end result definitely has a sound of its own). Catagorized thusly as either an extreme prog-rock effort or (for those who do not wish to be identified with such the dinosaur genre) as an entry into the "post-rock" sweepstakes, the group lie comfortably somewhere in-between. I say comfortably, because they manage to largely avoid the occassional pitfalls which have plagued both genres. As one reviewer noted, the style of "Lift Your Skinny Fists" can become formulaic after a while (every track is based around an ambience which builds, crashes and then repeats), but the rich, full instrumental layers and original musical ideas found within the formula are for the most part exhilirating. Whereas most popular post-rock acts like Tortoise, Labradford and Jessamine are characterized by an extreme minimalism and deliberate lack of energy that sounds like aural wallpaper, GYBE (with the exception of a few ambient passages within each 20-minute piece which predictably overstay their welcome) manages to be exciting and emotionally involving. The finest track just might be the opening "Storm", which is built around an ecstatic movement which does not sit still but seems to propel itself forward with the addition of new instruments and thematic sections into greater musical revelations with each repetition (the editorial review above gives one a perfect description of the piece).

Anyone who says this album is bland or devoid of hooks must be kidding, for it is the prog-rock fusion blend of orchestral and rock instruments to create a sweeping sound, and the compositional prowess (both rhythmic and melodic) with which that sound is manipulated, which makes the group such a find. Furthermore, the playing seems very confident, as if the group has been a slick professional outfit for decades. Although I can see that it certainly may not be to everyone's taste, the CD should appeal to fans of prog-rock and post-rock, or anyone who is interested in epic instrumental music with a powerful and distinct emotional pull that is as high as the geeky compositional credentials of the musicians who created it. At the very least, it's the best music to come out of Canada since Neil Young picked up a guitar; after offering us Rush, Celine Dion, Alanis Morrisette and other terrors for consumption, Godspeed You Black Emperor seems to have arrived with precisely the urgency of its name to redeem our neighbor to the north.

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Note: - Exhaustively Impressive.
"Lift Your Skinny Fists..." marks Godspeed's third major release since their inception and does not disappoint.

As with bands like Sigur Ros, though not to be confused with such bands, the music is too all-encompassing to truly describe with words. While this sounds like a cop-out excuse, let me put it more clearly for you: if I think about the music and attempt to put it into words, I find myself on the brink of tears. It's simply that good.

The band will be gracing Canada with their rich presence at the end of March 2003 as they embark on their North American tour for Yanqui U.X.O. Do yourself a a favour and pick up this disc to expand your understanding of post-rock. Both albums are absolutely invigorating, but Lift Your Skinny Fists is an indescribable work of brilliance and poignant significance.

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Note: - * Really Average ...
Let me start out by saying that I am a fan of many different genres of music, and after hearing so many great things about this band thought, I'd give them a try.
I knew from the get go it was going to be long and repetitious, I have no problem with that (I'm a huge Philip Glass fan).
The bottom line here is that the music is simply not that interesting. It has none of the seminal qualities of minmalism and none of the hooks of popular music. It's not that it's unpleasant to listen to, it's just not the sort of thing that will make you want to hear more.
In a word, bland.

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Note: - The end of the world is coming.
It's building in the minds of the strangers around us, in the radio transmissions that permeate the air everywhere we go, and it's all condensed into 80 minutes through the sonic doom of Lift Your Skinny Fists... This is an apocalypse for the ears, a score with no film because it needs none. It's vivid enough to overwhelm the senses without any mere imagery standing in the way. Usually when I use the phrase "classical rock" it means an adapting of classical passages to a modern rock ensemble, but these guys have gone the other road - they use rock instruments (among others) but build each song to a powerful climax in a classical manner, taking a good 20 minutes at a stretch for each one.

GYBE! is a nightmarishly bizarre collective of nine, Canadians no less (and you know what whacked-out stuff they can produce), mixing everything from overpowering drums and atmospheric keyboards to violins, cellos, radio static, bizarre voice samples and furious white noise into their heady stew of orchestral bombast. The tracks do fall into a recognizable pattern after awhile - build, build some more, crash and repeat - but they're as different from each other as separate snowflakes. "Storm" begins positively happy and eventually fades out into bleak silence after jumping into alien-brain-wave territory. "Static" could be used as a background for any huge climactic movie battle you could name. Passages of slow-building strings give way to a furious slowburn of loud noise, which gives way to creepy atmospherics and ethereal voices, and vice versa all over again. It takes a certain balance to pull off this kind of grandiosity without falling into hopeless cliches, and whatever it is, these guys have got it.

Not recommended for children, mental patients or the easily frightened - LYSFLAtH is a journey capable of warping your mind if you let it. It's been known to induce headaches, bizarre visions, sudden panic attacks and perhaps random outbursts of violence. It's dinner music for one of Hannibal Lecter's soirees, perhaps; or maybe just for those times when you want to drive out unwanted guests by driving them crazy enough to claw the furniture. You'll feel like you can see into other people's heads. Really.

Sense I anymore making not think I'm, so I'd probably better end this now. Bwaaaaaaaahahahaha....

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Note: - * this is what the apocalypse will sound like ...
OK, this is NEW. Listen to it a few times to get acclimated and you will be hooked.