Product Description

This two-disc Godspeed You Black Emperor tour de force is considered something of a milestone of the post-rock age. Thefirst disc opens with slowly drifting ambient droning, which gradually begets mournful strings and a distant, pitch-shifted evangelical sermon before an increasingly ominous thudding rock beat, guitars, glockenspiel, distortion, and bass come spiraling in to break things up for an ever-tightening crescendo. The following piece, "Static", is marked by the early arrival of a hauntingly sad melody (yes, an actual melody), followed by slowly accelerating beats and the ghost of adying bagpipe--one of Emperor's truly majestic moments--which later segues into shopping announcements and more treateddistortion.
The second disc starts off with a sample of an old man reminiscing about the long-lost glory days of Coney Island. The music coasts on through the ashes of time from there, drifting with swooping guitars that sound like Yma Sumac vocals, building into crescendo after crescendo, with drums increasing, pounding, and expiring. The last track kicks off with some bluesy folk crooning that then dissolves into an evaporating haze of strings and guitars. By turns operatic, rocked-out, and mournfully apocalyptic, ANTENNAS conjures deep emotions, landscapes, and even socio-political commentary, and some might sincerely argue that it also makes wonderful housecleaning music.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven/Gathering Storm/Il Pleut A Mourir/Clatters Like Worry/W
2. Terrible Canyons Of Static/Atomic Clock/Chart #3/World Police And Friendly Fire/Buildings They Are S

Disc 2:

1. Murray Ostril: They Don't Sleep Anymore On The Beach/Mo nheim/Broken Windows Locks Of Love Part III
2. Moya Sing 'Baby O'/Edgy Swingset Acid/Glockenspiel Duet Recorded On A Campsite In Rhinebec

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20978 in Music
• Released on: 2003-12-01
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
With no vocals (the closest they get is spoken word samples) God Speed You Black Emperor let the music speak for itself. The two CDs which make up Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven divide into four compositions (each about 20 minutes long) that see a continuation of GSYBE's orchestral exploration of space rock, utilising instruments such as violins, cellos and French horns along with the rock standard guitars. These are used to create richly woven and layered music which rises into dramatic crescendos and--when combined with subtle percussion and feedback--falls back into ambient soundscapes. This enables God Speed You Black Emperor's music to have a narrative, cinematic feel as it moves between intense emotions like anxiety, loneliness and anger, often within a single track. For some this is a weakness in Lift Your Skinny Fists..., making it more fragmented than Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada--it is clear GSYBE are trying to say something, its just not clear what. For others however, this is their beauty. --Caroline Butler

Customer Reviews

Very slight music with some originality
This music is generally catorised as "post rock"; in fact it has nothing to do with rock. From a theory perspective this is music which explores the concept of "less is more" - it's a kind of minimalism that is exploring similar ground to many modern classical composers who have pared music down to a few key components and frequently dispense with rhythm, melody and other conventions of music. There is a strand in modern classical music referred to as "sacred minimalism" which seeks to make this approach listenable and take it beyond the fringe of pure creativity. I think that this is where GYBE is probing.

For me - and having auditioned this music on numerous occasions - this production fails on all counts; there is simply so little content that the music disappears. Clearly music doesn't have to be all about noise, vocals and chord progressions; the pared down minimalism of Arvo Part, Philip Glass or even John Taverner are vastly preferable to GYBE. Try there instead.

Amazing
Probably the most moving album I have ever heard, the four tracks are like quarters of a life in reverse, I thought godspeed are saying the USA are stuck in the third. Such a great album.

Lift Your Fists and Give Thanks for This Band!!
Godspeed You Black Emperor! enjoy a pre-eminent position in the post-rock field, proved by the fact that the majority of other bands in this genre are compared to them in reviews. Most pale by comparison.

`Lift Your Skinny Fists..' is generally reckoned to the band's defining work and with good reason. The power and gravitas that the nine musicians achieve is simply extraordinary. Your CD player will tell you that there are only four tracks over the two discs, but in reality the work is split into over twelve passages that segue into one other to form an album that needs to be listened to as a whole to be fully appreciated.

Musically, the range and breadth of styles here is dizzying. There are gentle passages of mournful strings, piano and plucked guitars which in the next heartbeat may build to fearsome guitar crescendos. Godspeed You Black Emperor also employ `field recordings'; found sounds and samples of spoken words which are by turns mundane, banal, nostalgic and evangelical. The sense of atmosphere that the band evoke is thrilling, yet the music is also accessible and melodic.

There are few relevant musical reference points here, because the band's large personnel allow them to create an orchestral power that is virtually unique, but I was reminded in places of the equally epic `Soundtracks for the Blind' by Swans. This is most apparent in the pounding drums that cut in towards the end of `Gathering Storm' on the first CD. Godspeed You Black Emperor's use of spoken word samples also owes a debt to Swans in my opinion. If you love this CD and have not heard `Soundtracks for the Blind' do check it out - you will not be disappointed.

Essential stuff for any serious music fan. Five stars well deserved.