Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Classic or Dud?

still though...they seem to be coming out with better music when not doing things that are gybe specific (i.e. do make say think, a silver mt. zion)...the new album is kinda blah..but whatever.

So, classic or dud? Uh. Mind you I did like the one piece of e-mail I got after the review I did, a GYBE fan (mark that) writing in to say "you take yourself too seriously".

- First of all, nothing repulses me. Nothing is unpleasant.
- The whole thing feels very much like it was structured as a film score of some sort. (So much post-rock always felt like it was trying to be a score for some public TV family drama! This kind of does too.) It makes sense that they apparently play with films.
- It's cool that they're trying to incorporate a wider range of instruments, including some more traditional folky kinds of sounds
- The moments that are more dense and textural without a beat are nice. However, they tend not to last for very long.
- Much of the rest of the album seems to consist of very slow simple melodic passages, some of it a long guitar solo, some of it a more folky thing with other instruments. These passages are sometimes pleasant but do feel extremely simplistic and perhaps limited in terms of both melody and rhythm, more so than almost any mainstream rock or pop music. The drummer maintains a totally even totally straight slow 4/4 'beat' throughout these passages. When there are tempo changes, they are performed at a totally even rate as to be completely predictable. The guitarist seems to tend to almost always play right on the beat, which is bizarre. This seems to contradict such a basic musical principle that it must be a conscious aesthetic choice but I don't understand what it is. This might possibly makes me similar to people who don't get why Indian music has no chord changes. Why a pulse is even introduced here with hardly any rhythmic tension is what I wonder. It is possible that it might make more sense with further listening but it just seems to make things almost totally predictable now. Like I said, not overtly offensive or even not-pleasant or anything, but it also fails to achieve much more than this. It seems like it has potential that it doesn't realize.

It is a certain kind of music, and I find it interesting that some people say "I couldn't sit and listen to it". I guess that depends on what one looks for when putting on music to listen to. For me, GYBE is faboulous music to write, draw and even program to (well so my partner tells me). It is about immersing oneself in another place. The music moves through moods, peaks and troughs, shadows and light. It has some mindblowingly moving bursts of wall-of-noise guitar, and some beautifully melancholy quiet moments (fave quote from "Dead Flag Blues" - we're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine... and the machine is bleeding to death)

Uhh... yeah. I love them.

POCXY FULE SEZ HEDHEGOF

Nick OTM

Search: First one (where is the hash key on a Mac?), Slow Riot For Zero Kanada

Destrrrrrrrroy: Levez..., Yanqui UXO

sterling clover wrote:
I think that I would be impressed to see any live band do just one long ninety-minute build-up fuck-off track.

search: Physics -- a veritable who's who of san diego indie rock circa 1992 did this live several times, attempts at minimalism ("in E") and post-branca-isms.

I saw Dirty 3 live once and hated them. Droning, boring, dreadful wank. And I love GBYE and Mogwai so go figure.

One of the few regrets I do have, as their music deserves to be experienced live (preferably in a small- to medium- sized joint).

Search: Tortoise, Disco Inferno, Trans Am, Mogwai
Destory: Godspeed You! Black Emperor (as I believe they call themselves, the fucking wankers), Sigur Ros

Search: Tortoise, Disco Inferno, Trans Am, Mogwai, Bark Psychosis
Destory: Godspeed You! Black Emperor (as I believe they call themselves, the fucking wankers), Sigur Ros

Henry Cow are more interesting to me but both of 'em have this dry sound.

And from the notes on that Discogs page:

Jeanette Leech wrote in "Fearless: The Making Of Post-Rock" (Jawbone Press, 2017) on Page 302-303:
"Menuck was 'doing this four-track thing in my house, usually at three in the morning, coming home from a bar, just doing something quickly, and then trying to turn it into something the next day'. In 1994, as 'a young man's formal experiment', Menuck self-released a cassette, in an edition of thirty-three: All Lights Fucked On The Hairy Amp Drooling.
'The idea was this would be the last thing I would ever do,' Menuck says. 'A big dramatic gesture that nobody would care about. It was a private thing, let's get this out of my system, and then figure out something else to do with my life. It's pretty ragged, and there are some shared qualities with what Godspeed became, but I don't know if those similarities would be evident to anyone but those of us on the inside.' The tape was mostly just Menuck, but Mauro Pezzente also plays on a couple of tracks; the biggest difference between this material and Godspeed, Menuck says, is, 'There's singing on it. I can't really listen to it objectively, and it's not like I listen to it a lot. I think the last time I listened to it was six years ago. I think it's interesting.' Despite many hoaxes, to date the cassette hasn't been leaked on the internet or offered for sale on the open market. 'For years, I've been saying it's gonna get out there someday, and people are gonna be pretty disappointed, because it's of the time,' Menuck says.

😮

reminds me of when someone found the "By Request Only" album from Ken, it's okay but way more fun as a lost media piece

Wow!

Menuck was correct, it's pretty horrible

Huh! Seemed guaranteed to be a fake but someone on Twitter says it's real so.

Listening now.. I actually think this is pretty good? It's just not really a Godspeed album, it's something else. But it might be better than Menuck is giving it credit for (if it's real that is).

After listening, I think that this is the real thing, rather than an elaborate hoax. It's better and more interesting than I was expecting, at least as an artefact of the pre-history of the group. The mythology and mystery of it being totally lost for so long was great, but I'm happy to finally have the chance to hear it.

It's got some great atmosphere and a couple great moments, but yeah - it's a bit of a slog to get through.

Now can we have Carnival of Light and all those early Boards of Canada pressings (Acid Memories, Play By Numbers, etc) leak too?

I know this reflects poorly on me, but I can remember this being "leaked" on 4chan's /mu/ board literally 10 years ago. It's just doing the rounds again.

No opinion on its legitimacy, but weird that this is being claimed as a "new leak" when it's not. Actually I do have an opinion! That fact makes it pretty shady to me

a convincing rip of the whole thing hasn't turned up before, it's new. two tracks were uploaded in 2013 and this new upload that claims to be the entire album includes what appears to be a new rip of those two previously uploaded tracks. this doesn't confirm that any of it is legit though.

i'm not on music torrent sites anymore, but someone can just check whatever the equivalent of what.cd is now. in the old days there was an ENORMOUS bounty for the godspeed thing, and the previous leaks didn't cut it. i heard that the new leak is the real thing, but who knows

i'm not on any of the private trackers these days but i've heard they're waiting for proof of legitimacy before they allow it

True ufo, did not realise that.

the new what.cd is Redacted. Had an account but think it's been disabled due to lack of use (whoops)

yeah redacted has accepted it as real. bounty was 3TB at the end.

GY!BE have released All Lights Fucked officially.

https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/album/all-lights-fucked-on-the-hairy-amp-drooling

amazing.

I never thought I’d ever hear this, and yet am listening to it now. Wild.

Nice way for them to respond to it finally appearing too.

seeing them for the first time today
pretty stoked

Enjoy! I'm heading to the Glasgow gig tomorrow.

awesome.

I bought a new vinyl copy of f#a#infinity recently and was quite amused to find that constellation still included all that ephemera inside, crushed penny and all

Heard BBF3 for the first time in ~20 years and it held up...

New album: "NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD"

https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/album/no-title-as-of-13-february-2024-28340-dead

Haven't listened to it yet, but I've heard very good things. Devastating yet incredible album title.

Mine got delivered last night, but haven't had a chance to spin it yet.

godspeed you black emperor scene report; pic.twitter.com/I3b7GQArZX

— Fritz Pape (@fritzpape) September 29, 2024

More like "godspeed you black emperor scent report"

godspeed you black excrement

which is my sole contribution to this thread

I haven't been keeping up with GY!BE for a while but wore my F# t-shirt to college yesterday. I've worn it a few times and don't expect anyone to know what it references (it's just the cover of the record, no logo) but at the end of a lesson a kid said to me 'is that a Godspeed reference or am I just being stupid?' I was so happy I could only babble about favourite albums and gigs.

Anyway, I come home, check what they're up to and yep, played in London two nights ago and have a new album out on Friday. Amazing. (And now I read about some guy shitting his pants at the gig. I mean, they're good live, but not *that* good. )

Clearly called GodsPEED, not GodsPOOPED. Guy was confused.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41KE7XQAZ2L._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

oops it just popped out

the new album is amazing. some slow building tracks, some velvet underground jam session like tracks (raindrops cast in lead), some great climactic emotional conclusions, liking this a lot.

Saw them in Bristol last night and realised it has been TWENTY FOUR YEARS since Lift Your Skinny Fists came out

Excited to hear the new one. Going to see them next month with my son, the rare show we both want to go to.

it's out! no bandcamp mail, again :(

oooh and it's bandcamp friday too! time to update the whole folder then (have lots on CD but this is easier)

Thanks for the reminder!

They were great in Glasgow on Monday night. I picked up the new record then but I've been too busy to listen to it yet. Looking forward to it though!

I was there on Monday as well and agree, it was great. The almost two hours felt short as well, I was longing for more.

New one is very cool.

This is pretty great

loved my first listen earlier

Second listen this is really, really nice.

so nice to have a taper friendly band - last night's show is on archive.org, coventry video from the day before that is on youtube

oh no!

https://thehardtimes.net/music/godspeed-you-black-emperor-vocalist-mortified-to-learn-microphone-unplugged-for-last-27-years

good to know Hard Times is still as unfunny as ever

Really liking this on repeat listens. The first two tracks make a heck of an opener.

great album -- made the commute home into a movie

worth watching to the end, imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oInyT46gNHE