F# A# ∞

Godspeed You Black Emperor! the band name, album name and track titles don't give away anything about what kind of music is on the disc and leaves the listener without a clue what to expect, very cleverly. I was expecting total weird music like pink floyd meets soundchaser meets radiohead. I guess this music is very weird yet it is also very formal, beautiful and splendidly orchestrated and arranged.

This music is full out, progressive expansive instrumental pieces using a lovely array of instruments to create a progressive and almost spacey sound which is very multi layered and professional. I see a strong Mike Oldfield influence in this band and similar concept ideas. Each piece on this album has a slow build up that gradually gets more and more layered until it explodes into a great finale before it travels to the next movement within the suite or next track. Each track normally has an epic climax too.

This album, along with their others are very gentle and relaxed. They demand lots of patience but i see it as great music to have on in the background. The music they have created is very daring and is really one of a kind. There is so much beauty in the vision they have created. The band combine their pieces with voices over the top of the music raising interesting messages. "The Dead Flag Blues" has an incredible monologue that narrates most of the track with some very touching and honest subjects mentioned. It fits in well and doesn't spoil the music at all. It really adds to the dark ambience of the piece and adds drama to the album. A brilliant opening. The looming basslines and ebow/violin parts deserve a lot of credit to for fueling this track along. I see this as one of the most defining post rock tunes.

This piece then travels into the next movement which starts with a train horn. "East Hastings" ends with some really eerie sounds which i found were a strong highlight on the album. "Providence", lasting half an hour long, is one of the strongest pieces and progresses well. It has strong talk about a preacher man and the end of the world too so you can really learn a lot from this music!

There isn't really any general parts of each track that i can directly pinpoint and comment on. It really needs to be taken in as a whole. I know this kind of music isn't for everyone but i strongly urge people to be daring and give anything by this band a listen as it is very rewarding and beautiful. Its not one of those things you might want to listen to all the time but just one listen will satisfy any listener and let people see how good this band are.

"F#A#00" is quite a defining post rock release. This was one of the very first major post rock genre releases which came out even before the stereotypical post rock cardboard gatefold cd holders. "F#A#" is most definetly my favourite GYBE! album and one that i find to be a landmark post rock album.