Track Listing

1. Sisters Brothers Small Boats Of Fire Are Falling From The Sk
2. This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Bird's Fallen
3. Built Then Burnt (Hurrah Hurrah)
4. Take These Hands And Throw Them In The River
5. Could've Moved Mountains...
6. Tho You Are Gone I Still Often With W/you
7. C'mon Come On (Loose An Endless Longing)
8. Triumph Of Our Tired Eyes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36513 in Music
• Released on: 2001-11-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .14 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
There is much to explore in Silver Mt Zion's Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upwards. The first movement ("Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire are Falling from the Sky!") is a lush, richly scored orchestral piece, with found sound loops and complex instrumentation all contributing to a truly uplifting, climatic dirge. The second movement is much slower, with more traditional rock elements--feedback, silence and discordant guitars--creeping in among the neo-classical instruments. It's the album's centrepiece track "Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River" which really astonishes, however-imperilled ricocheting vocals, violins wailing like The Dirty Three, suffocating atmosphere like Mogwai, lyrical paranoia, a pulsating beat, all building up to a tumultuous climax. After the storm comes the lull, with birds twittering and cooing, but the pace soon builds up again culminating in another climax of distortion and noise, a pop melody and a final arpeggio guitar. The message at the end is "Musicians are cowards". --Everett True

CD Description
Second album from Godspeed You Black Emperor side-project. Similar in style to GYBE's neo-classical post-rock, but featuring fragile, whispered vocals. Expansion to a sextet has allowed them to introduce richer, denser arrangements and greater harmonic complexity into their mournful, angry music.

Customer Reviews

The BEST of the Constellation label's releases
Yep, I believe this to be the best release on the label that include's Godspeed You Black Emperor (mostly members of this band anyway), Do Make Say Think etc. This is just an utterly captivating album. From the opening "Sisters! Brothers!.." which weaves beautiful piano and violin melodies, to the REAL album highlight, "Could've Moved Mountains" (one of the best songs ever written), this album is relentless in its waves of power. Not bombastic forcefulness, but gentle, persistent power, drawing you into the richness of the album. Every track is brilliant, the closing "Triumph Of Our Tired Eyes" is gorgeous, with evocative phrases and echoing guitar, with beautiful violin counterpoint, and some gentle pizzicato.

If you enjoyed their first release, or any Godspeed (especially the less frenetic bits) you really HAVE to own this album. It's that simple. In my all-time Top 10.

If You Liked the Debut Then This is a Must....
As I first started listening to this album I found myself a little bit disappointed. 'Is this it?' I thought. There seemed to be nothing here that was not offered by the first album or any Godspeed release. The strings, piano and dialogue samples are all still in place.

However, as the album unfolds it soon becomes apparent that the band have made huge steps forward, expanding and improving on the vocal elements that were only hinted at on their debut. There are some tracks here that adhere to an almost traditional rock structure, but it never detracts from the beauty of the music nor does it appear akward sitting next to their instrumental tracks.

In short, the music is still beautifully melodic melancholic, but the band has stretched into new musical area's not covered by their debut, or any other GYBE! related release for that matter.

No Second Rate Spin Off
I would imagine most people, like me, will come to this CD through first enjoying the music of Godspeed, but Silver Mt Zion are no mere second rate spin-off.

The band conjure their music using strings, piano and vocals but they achieve their own musical identity. When it works it is gorgeous: the opening track is a beautiful piano piece; `Could Have Moved Mountains' starts from minimal instrumentation and gently builds to a wonderful melody and `The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes' is a superb closer. On this track Ephrim's fractured vocals lend the lyrics real emotional depth.

In places the focus is not so strong. Strings meander somewhat aimlessly in `Built Then Burnt' and `Tho You Are Gone..' and the spoken word piece on `This Gentle Hearts..' annoys me slightly every time I hear it.

However, the band also have the ability to surprise; `Take These Hands..' is an urgent, scraping violin piece with tortured vocals which arrives with a shock from the gentle preceeding track.

To summarise, this CD is full of varied, thought-provoking, interesting and challenging music. Not quite the absolute classic some other reviewers seem to think but very good nevertheless.