With characteristic little fanfare, Godspeed You! Black Emperor
are back with album number four, an album that was announced the day
they released it at a gig in Boston on the 1st October 2012, fourteen
days before it’s official release date. In a time when record labels
feel a need to give a release a good three month PR blitz prior to
release to ensure complete saturation of the market, it’s a refreshing
change of pace and a real thrill for fans of the band – a band who
admittedly need no introduction or pompous self-aggrandizing. No
cock-tease audio samples, no slow release, just an end product on your
lap from a band who are spoken of in only the most revered terms as
innovators, anarchists, and artists. Don’t fear friends, ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! is exactly the kind of Godspeed album you’ve been waiting ten years to hear.
And building on the innate sense of anticipation that is carried with
a new album from a cult band, Godspeed immediately kick things into a
flurry with opening opus “Mladic”, a song that had been performed by the
band in a slightly different form all the way back in 2003 (along with
“We Drift Like Worried Fire”). Atop a bed of drone, guitars chime and
whine like some demented birdsong before a backbone of rhythmic drums,
piano and distortion unfurls, propelling the song into an insanely
energetic and chaotic episode. High guitar notes introduce a
middle-eastern-tinged melody before the bass sweeps in to double up on
the melody, adding significant clout to the now all encompassing
atmosphere of noise the band has created. Ten minutes into the song and
you suddenly realise that you’re short of breath and the hairs on the
back of your neck are standing to attention – Godspeed have always been a
magnificent band, but having been largely absent for ten years you can
now appreciate just how much you missed them.
As “Mladic” simmers down, “Their Helicopters Sing” comes droning in.
One of the two ‘drone’ tracks on the album, it sounds like the
disorientated, shell-shocked aftermath of some air-strike. It’s on this
song that I became intrigued by the disarmingly serene photograph
gracing the cover of the album of a isolated, white, flat-roofed
building in what looks like a desert or otherwise-arid landscape. One
can imagine a scene in which this enigmatic building is soon levelled by
bombs and gunfire, and “Their Helicopters Sing” soundtracking the
ensuing, otherworldly, slow-motion chaos.
“We Drift Like Worried Fire” begins with tense plucked strings before
relaxing into a glacial, Tortoise-like groove. A lulling, repeated
guitar refrain is joined by strings and slowly building layers of noise
and rhythm to euphoric effect. But just when things are seeming a bit
too life-affirming for comfort, the song takes a decidedly minor-key
turn, you’re left with a slightly bitter taste in your mouth and you’re
reminded that in Godspeed’s world there’s no such thing as
black-and-white. It’s all about the broad range of emotions and mental
states, and judging by the ominous strings that lead the song out, not
all is hunky dory in the world of Godspeed’s imagining. Final drone
track “Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable” is the slow-burn
comedown to the album, an atmospheric afterglow of amps warming down and
order being restored.
You honestly couldn’t have asked for a better album from Godspeed
You! Black Emperor at this point in their career. So many bands return
after a long hiatus for the wrong reasons and sound like shadows of
their former selves because of it. But Godspeed sound like they’ve
picked up right where they left off, with the same intention and the
same commitment to the music above any desire for glory, sales or
lucrative tours. This is exactly how to do a comeback album correctly,
now let’s just hope they don’t make us wait another decade for album
five. Welcome back Godspeed, oh how we’ve missed you.
[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 06/11/2012]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/g/godspeed-you-black-emperor-allelujah-dont-bend-ascend-cd-lp-dd-2012/
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