THIS IS OUR PUNK-ROCK, THEE RUSTED SATELLITES GATHER + SING

Having taken his side project from Godspeed You! Black Emperor from a one off tribute to his dog Wanda to a veritable second career, Efrim Menuck found a new way to express his post-rock fantasies in the ever changing band that featured not only new members and new sounds but also a new name! On the third album the band that started out as A SILVER MT ZION had expanded into the mind boggling THE SILVER MT ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA & TRA-LA-LA BAND WITH CHOIR and if that wasn't a mouthful enough the title of the album, "THIS IS OUR PUNK-ROCK," TEE RUSTED SATELLITES GATHER + SING must take the record as one of the longest band name / album title combos in the history of recorded music.

THIS IS OUR PUNK ROCK takes the spectacle of SILVER MT ZION even deeper into extreme excess with an addition of Thee Rusted Satellite Choir which adds as well as the already expansive chamber folk backing that joined Menuck on "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward." And with four tracks that add up to almost 58 minutes of playing, what the ZION clan delivers this time around is another slice of cerebral slow burners dominated by lugubrious cyclical riffs that showcase the incremental tension that builds up to thundering crescendoes. Very much in the vein of Godspeed however Menuck intentionally steered his new project well away from any similarities other than the genre and captured the spirit of a 20th century classical orchestra that excels at multi-layered simplicity guaranteed to test the listener's patience.

With a much greater emphasis on vocals on THIS IS OUR PUNK ROCK, Menuck delivers his usual gruff singing style only accompanied by an amazing harmonic backing. The results give a larger than life presentation that takes the entire band project to new heights and while the musical flow is based upon simple repetitive melodic clusters, the ratcheting up effect and change of tones, timbres and dynamics are taken to post-rock's most outrageous logical conclusions with slow oozing chamber folk segments transmogrifying at glacial speeds into heavy fuzz guitar dominated noise-fest with percussion thundering that teeter on total chaos. And the best part is that once again Menuck delivers an album that sounds completely distinct from the one that came before through strong compositions and attention paid to every little detail.

Post-rock can really be one of the most difficult music sections in the modern world not because it's super complex like the knottiest prog albums of the past but rather because it demands a total focus on the minutia in order to fully comprehend its full magnitude. Menuck has proven his genius through a consistent flow of Godspeed and MT ZION albums that bedazzle and amaze in completely new ways and this third album continues that trend with four strong tracks that keep the initiated enthralled for its entire playing time. While i always find Menuck's vocals to be the weakest link in his otherwise flawless creative control, they never detract enough to keep me from loving his brilliance and on this third release he ratchets up the fire power of SILVER MT ZION several notches. Another brilliant release that doesn't end here.