F# A# ∞

Well this is pretty different from what I usually listen to. Godspeed You Black Emperor! make soundcollages or ambient soundscapes if you will. Their sound include samples, strings and slow building songs that ends in different climaxes throughout the songs. There are almost no vocals here on Godspeed You Black Emperor!`s debut album so the excitement is up to the slow building post rock notes.

The Dead Flag Blues starts really good with an apocalyptic sample which sets the mood for the rest of that song. It´s hard to call this a song though as this is more sounds mixed together to make a whole. It´s a pretty ambient song IMO.

East Hastings is a bit more exciting to me that The Dead Flag Blues. Again it starts with a sample and then sounds for a couple of minutes until the guitar starts and for the first time on this album there is something which vaguely reminds me of normal song structure. The drums then comes in an the repetitive riff builds slowly to a climax. This part of the song is where I finally find something that excites me just a bit. It´s actually a very melodic section. The songs ends with more minutes of noise.

Providence starts like the two other songs with a sample and this song also have different climaxes that are build up from almost nothing. This is almost 30 minutes long but never gets boring. There are lots of different sections and soundscapes.

The musicians seem competent but the playing is very minimalistic most of the time and subtle playing seems to be prefered here as opposed to dynamically louder parts. When it is most intense there some good energy in the songs but most of the time they just drag along in a slow tempo.

The sound quality is excellent and it makes the music sound much more exciting than it really is. At least this is how I feel.

The composition quality is high throughout the album the problem for me is I don´t really like the style. I find it too minimalistic and when things get going it is too repetitive. It´s not like the music is boring though, lots of things happen. If you like music that is slow building with intense climaxes this post rock album might be for you. Personally I only think this deserves 2 stars though. I´m having a hard time enjoying the slow and minimalistic songs. It´s very progressive and innovative though.