SLOW RIOT FOR NEW ZERO KANADA E.P.

This is another one of those rare surprises that I owe entirely to Prog Archives for pointing me in the right direction. Not often does one have the privilege of experiencing music this beautiful that one would assume that it is played by angels welcoming you to joint the peaceful afterlife... but now I'm loosing the grip of the subject matter at hand here.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (or GY!BE) is a band that has set out to create some of the most original and gorgeous music out there but that's not even half of it! There is also a message here that most liberal thinkers will appreciate if only one chooses to dig deep down under the layers of sound available for exploration. I was fortunate enough to have this EP pave the way for my future exploration of this nine-piece collective since if I had started off with any of the full length albums then I might have missed out on the attention to detail featured in their music. After all, GY!BE albums are quite hefty in size and would have most certainly overwhelmed any rookie listener not knowing what to expect of this music.

Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada is just below the 30-minute mark and features two of the shorter tracks in this band's repertoire, that is if you can believe that any track above the 10-minute mark can be called "short". Moya is a perfect introduction of the build-up style that GY!BE seem so fond of. It's definitely easier to gasp the mind set when dealing with an 11-minute composition than the band's usual format of double that size. The composition does take time the get off the ground but once it does you'll surely know what I was talking about in the beginning of my review!

BBF3 or Blaise Bailey Finnegan III is the definite highlight of the EP. Apparently there was a minor controversy regarding the narration used on the track which doesn't really bother me all that much, still if you're interested in details then you can look it up of Wikipedia. There is an interesting aspect of social criticism embedded in the spoken narration but those who aren't too keen of this use of the music format can definitely still enjoy the underlying instrumental arrangement that complements the "man on the street" interview marvelously.

If you've never heard/heard of GY!BE then I suggest that you start with this EP and work your way for here on. I'm sure that fans of the full length albums have already heard Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada but it goes without saying that it's a must-have release well worth exploring.

***** star songs: BBF3 (17:45)

**** star songs: Moya (10:51)