Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (Kranky’00) Rating: B+
This press shy Canadian 9-piece (not a misprint) makes truly majestic music the likes of which I’ve never heard before. Sure, I hear echoes of Pink Floyd, Can, and Sonic Youth, among others, but Godspeed You! Black Emperor take those templates to the nth degree, and without the benefit of a vocalist or a single virtuoso musician. Instead, they start simply and then slowly add layers of instrumentation (3 guitarists, 3 string instrument players (i.e. violins, cellos, etc.), 1 drummer, 1 percussionist (i.e. vibes, tympani, etc.), and 1 bass player – though I also hear horns and piano), eventually building to beautiful crescendos before beginning the process all over again. There are limitations to this repeatedly rising and falling formula, but the band’s massive symphonic sound (the word epic doesn’t even begin to describe it) hits some beautifully thrilling highs along the way. Unfortunately, there’s far too many filler minutes interspersed within these four massive multi-sectioned songs, and had the band edited out some of the more boring bits (the final 5 minutes of the second song, for instance) this album could’ve been a stone cold classic. So chalk this up as another indulgent double album that could’ve been a killer (60 minute?) single cd. Still, this is one of the most ambitious and original new bands around today, and at their hypnotic best (the first song is my favorite) Godspeed You! Black Emperor makes brilliantly unclassifiable headphone music.

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