LIFT YOUR SKINNY FISTS LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GY!BE) is a band that has a massive cult following as an online oddity. I first encountered them on websites and was immediately drawn in by their high strangeness and sonic soundscapes of beauty and darkness. The band have received rave reviews online and have generated a mystique that is unique to the world of music. They rarely picture themselves on albums, in fact even replace themselves for an imposter punk band on this album, and they remain virtually anonymous. The music is made up of lengthy ambience and some chilling crescendos, and scattered throughout are soundbytes of narratives, voices and characterisations that have become synonymous with their sound.

"Lift Your Skinny Fists, Like Antennas To Heaven" is made up of an hour and a half of mesmirising musical scapes over 2 CDs, and is perhaps the pinnacle of the band in terms of atmospherics and emotionally charged climaxes. There is a distinct sadness that permeates the sound, as if one is wallowing in the pits of misery at the depth of their darkest hour, and yet there is something uplifting about the music, almost cathartic to purge the emotions at the edge of madness. It is almost impossible to explain or categorise the music, and even harder to describe what the music is doing to the system, but there is definitely a therapeutic impact that occurs that transcends the normal listening experience. I put this on not really expecting much but as the music gained momentum and became intense I was absolutely moved almost to tears by the sheer beauty and the creative tour de force of GY!BE; there is nothing else like this.

I sat down and read many reviews online as I listened and this even further cemented my impression that I was listening to modern day genius. There are only four tracks over the 90 minutes and they are all jammed with immeasurable dynamism; from the incredible darkness of 'Storm' to the incomparable beauty of 'Static'; and then onto CD2 with mesmirising haunting 'Sleep' to the strange finale 'Antennas To Heaven', this is one of the most compelling albums of the millennium. The sheer synergy of music, effects and atmosphere have the commanding power to absorb the listener and drag them into the sonic intensity. Don't just take my word for it; look at what some of the online reviewers on Prog Archives are stating:

Loserboy: "...easily draws the listener into that relaxed mental spacial void where all one can consider is relaxation. A sonic bonanza for your brain."

BrainRock Ben: "If you only buy one GYBE! album, buy this one."

Jim Garten: "You will not be left humming any melodies, as there are actually very few, you will not have inspirational lyrics to quote to your friends, as the album is completely instrumental, you will not actually know why you like the album, but I almost guarantee you will."

penguindf12: "The post-rock group of the new century. The herald of the apocalypse."

frenchie: "This album offers something new, daring, experimental and heavenly to listen to."

Fitzcarraldo: "Listening to these two CDs is a mesmerising experience. I come away feeling quite refreshed. There are no killer riffs, nothing to make you tap your foot, nothing to make you hum, yet the CDs are compelling."

hitandrun2@gm: "Beautiful, haunting, complex, long, ambient, exciting, gaining momentum, orchestral, voice overs, swept away, GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR!"

Cygnus X-2: "It often feels like you're in a dream when listening to these sections. But then when the band erupts into a bombastic section, the atmosphere changes drastically from light to dark, giving a sense of shock and awe to the listener."

Zac M: "A masterpiece like this cannot be overlooked by anyone."

the scientist: "Great monument of Post Rock. Slowly the band create a threatening atmosphere, which becomes all the more intense near the end."

Ricochet: "Gods of Sounds, of Vision, of Context and of Passion that "goes everlasting." "

ClemofNazareth: "This is a great album, just a razor-thin hair shy of indispensable, but better more intense and lasting than the vast majority of things you could stimulate yourself with today ... and not nearly as bad for you as some of those things. Well worth an hour-and-a-half of your life."

lightbulb_son: "The Holy Grail of Post-Rock."

Man With Hat: "This is one of those albums that shakes music to the core, and I am afraid that I can not do this album justice. I still don't think I can capture the pure power of this music in words."

Pnoom!: "I was left dazed, gasping for air, struggling to maintain consciousness as wave upon wave of admiration and awe washed over every pore of my body. I had never experienced anything like this."

Moatilliatta: "The soaring atmospheres will make you motionless, and the climaxes will leave you breathless."

gandalf31: "It was the only album? that changed my whole life forever and ever."

kaiser willhelm: "...spoken word, climaxes, frantic guitars, atmosphere, horns. This album takes a lot of patience and effort on the part of the listener... its a very demanding album but in the end, extremely rewarding."

Preciousgoo: "The songs themselves are vast, blazing deserts of sonic power, that conjure up images of hope, love, sadness, and fragile beauty. Every track seems to live and breathe."

The Truth: "...an eargasm. Music so hard to describe, so hard to get, and yet... You love it. It's just a rarity among music nowadays, something really refreshing to the ear."

I thought these reviews were over the top until I actually experienced it myself and then I knew I was listening to a masterpiece that transcends music and defies description. In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that this album will not be an easy listen but you will come out the other end feeling quite moved by this album. I believe the music causes certain feelings to surface and it will be a personal journey, depending on where you are at in life and what your circumstances are as to how this will affect you. In any case, I applaud the band for creating music for the senses, and not bowing down to what one may consider to be the essential ingredients of music. GY!BE break the barriers of convention and create music without a melody to hook onto, without sung lyrics, without time limits, infinitely patient, with layered sounds generated to fill the silence with sonic violence, and then move the listener with angelic beauty, and then building ever so gradually to a climax, only to break back to an ambience, before exploding into a new exploration of emotion. The album as a whole must be listened to from start to end and not broken into pieces or it loses it's hypnotic stranglehold. This is true earphone music that must be experienced. It may not grab you immediately but it soon transfixes and refuses to let go until the last spellbinding tone resounds. A maddeningly brilliant and unforgettable album of incoherent beauty.

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