F# A# ∞

Unlike the majoraty of people on this site GYBE!/GY!BE was not the first post rock band I had heard. By the time I got around to purchasing F# A# (infinity) I was already a fan of EITS, 65days, Sigur Ros and Mono (and many more not on this site), and so I think that I am able to make a somewhate objective opinion of this band and this record, and I think it is THE most important recording in the genre because they took the sound that was laid out by Tortoise, Cul De Sac, Talk Talk etc. and expanded it into a bigger sound and laying the foundations for most of todays bands.

Compared to most godspeed albums this one sounds fresh. The buildup- crescendo formula was not as established at the time, allowing for a higher variety of song formats.

The Dead Flag blues is a beautifull peice, starting off with some great spoken word narration that sets the mood fore evrything that would follow it not just in this song or record but in GYBE!'s whole career. "the car is on fire, and there is no driver at the wheel, and the suers are all muddied by a thousand lonly suicides, and a cold wind blows" it chills me to the bone evry time I hear it and I feel that I am being transported into some magical far off place, that sadly has been ruined by industry and the evils of captialism and turned into a giant distopic city. I then Take a train ride with GYBE! to the next spot in the song, in the city where I am quickly lost both musically and conceptually, but I think that is the point.

East Hastings is an elegant peice starting with bagpipes and some christian religious speach (listen closly and you can hear "jesus christ" and "spread the word") after the bagpipes fade out we are introduced to some Pink Floyd style spacey keyboards and then silence, following this it goes into a more traditional sounding post rock piece that builds up extremly slowly to the crescendo and then we get some amazing strings building up again. At the end of the song we get a lot of crazy static, it brings to mind the first part of the song for some reason even though they dont sound particuraly simmilar on their own. This is probably GYBE!'s best song, and that is saying a lot.

Providence begins with a man warning a woman that she is in a bad part of town, and then explaining that he dosent trust the preacher who says its the end of the world. That man sounds just like a lot of people I know with that half hidden despair in his voice. what follows the speach is an amazing soundscape that seems to bring you in closer connection with the man, I think that this song is about him, though the next part feels more like it might be about the "preacher man" the the soundscapes in this song are incredible, even giving Tangerine Dream a run for their money.

5 stars This is THE essential post rock piece and should be lisened to by evry prog fan and owned by every post rock fan worth his socks. This record and band defined post rock so much that more often than naught people wont even consider a band to be post rock if they dont have a crescendo even though the early bands in the genre didnt for the most part use them.