GODSPEED YOU! BLACKSPEED EMPEROR

GODSPEED YOU! BLACKSPEED EMPEROR
SLOW RIOT FOR ZERØ KANADA E.P. (1999)
320 KBPS

Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada may last only half an hour, but in that time it imparts an internal experience akin to that of watching a cast-of-thousands Hollywood epic. Godspeed You Black Emperor! are a Montreal-based nine-piece ensemble that uses massed strings, ringing electric guitars, and martial drums to evoke endless vistas and stir strong emotions. "Moya" opens with a solemn drone overlaid with resonant violin overtones, then builds to a crashing, unapologetically melodramatic climax. The CD's second (and final) selection, "Blaise Bailey Finegan III," is more ambitious. Like a director who grabs his audience's tear ducts with both fists, the group inserts field recordings of a ranting paranoiac between sweeping spaghetti-Western passages that rise to exhilarating multiple crescendos, then fall away to ghostly, echoed violins.

Personnel
Efrim Menuck — guitar, keyboards
David Bryant — guitar, tapes
Mauro Pezzente — bass guitar
Thierry Amar — bass guitar
Aidan Girt — drums, percussion
Bruce Cawdron — drums, percussion, keyboards
Sophie Trudeau — violin
Norsola Johnson — cello
Mike Moya — guitar

1. Moya 10:51
2. Blaise Bailey Finnegan III 17:45