LIFT YOUR SKINNY FISTS LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN

Post Rock was a very recent discovery starting of cource with Sigur Ros's Agaitus Byrjun. I loved that and so I moved down the list to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. What I would find will probobly end up on my top 10 list. This album is a very long journey through beautiful chamber music, erie soundscapes, and spoken word that takes incredible amount of patience to listen to. Best to listen to while you are lying in bed trying to fall asleap, or if you are reading a book. I also find that this is the easiest album to listen too out of all four (including slow riot) because, while the music is slow, it still has more energy than F#A# and not as repeditive as parts of Yanqui U.X.O. It is also the most uplifting of the three (not that it makes you feel happy, but it sure dosent talk about 1000 lonely suicides as well).

Storm: (9.5/10) Very powerful and uplifting song. Full of motion. The song starts with slow guitar and a trumpet which always made me imagine that I was sitting on a deserted beach watching slow rolling waves. It builds with the addition of a cello and a violin and the occasional glockenspiel (or maybe its a marimba, I dont know). Then the bass comes in to anticipate the marching style drums that kick in and explode into a climax of sound that builds and builds only to drop down to a level where the song started. Thats only the first part! Another movement of the song starts and builds much like the first one with a simalar theme. Then the entire band holds a note over thundering drums. This is the only downside to the song because it is too long, and can get very annoying, especially the for the first listen. This part builds tension for when the song releases all energy into a fast paced movement that always reminds me of ISIS for some reason. This slowes down very carefully untill it just stops, and the song ends with a spoken part, followed by some very etherial and dark piano (drowned in reverb)

Static: (8.5/10) The darkest song on the album. Starts with some ambient soundscapes that very purposly resemble the title of the song. Then very moving religious ramblings are played behind very beutiful violin, cello and guitar which turns out to be one of the most emotionally moving part of the song. Then a gloomy slow building guitar riff followed by cello and violin eventually snowball into a collage of strange ambient sounds that slowly die out into the last part. The end is another collection of noises that they are so good at using effectively. I dont want to say it is a filler track, but it is much less organized than the other three songs. Still not a bad track whatsoever.

Sleep: (10/10) My favorite GYBE song. Starts off with a man reminsising about his childhood. Then, the guitar comes in and builds like any other GYBE song would, which is how they perform their magic; they are masters of dynamics and building off of simple ideas. A screaming noise being played over top of the origional chord progression only adds to the power of this section, which eventually leaves the rest of the band behind for about a minute. Then it fades out to the bass and guitar locked together keeping a precussive background and with the chime of the glockespiel, the percussive background slowly forms into the melody (pure genius!) This leads into one of the best parts on the album, when the drums fill into another explosion where the trumpet takes the melody. When that dies down, the drums start playing a very standard trip hop beat, with the violin and cello harmonising together, then for the last time in the song, the tension builds and climaxes so well all the way untill the end of the song. My personal favorite track on the album!

Antennas To Heaven: (9/10) The most diverse song on the album. It seems to take ideas from the rest of the album and melt them all into something compleatly different. Starts off with Moya singing Baby-o, a folk song, and once again we hear ambient noises that soon get overtaken by the glockenspiel ringing beautifully. Then the voices of french children overtake the glockenspiel smoothly. After they are done, this is when really starts to sound like a song. The slow moving cello and violing dont build this time, but immediately suprise you with a beautiful but short jam remisiscent of Storm. Then it suddenly stops with some feedback and gives us more ambience that reminds me of Static. The rest of the song is overtaken by broken bits of soundscapes and guitar riffs that truly do put the image of flying or at times simply floating through the atmosphere or something to that extent. Distorted tremolo gives the song a new color than the rest on the last half of the song . The ending is simple, but perfectly fitting

To sum it up, this is a musical masterpiece that may not be enjoyed by some, especially if you cant sit still for too long, or if you think any kind of space rock or post rock is noise. This album also takes all of your attention to enjoy, because otherwise it will pass right through you, and you cant decide whether you like it or not. Definetly an album that should be listened to at least once if you are a prog fan or a musician yourself.

4.5+/5 stars

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