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Pictures from some recent gigs we've hosted:

29 March 2013 - Brixton, London

Viv Albertine, VuVuVultures, Left Leg, Mickey Gloss, Big Wave, No Cars, Arthur Gunn, Simon Love (Pictures)

8 March 2013 - Lexington, London

R.Ring, Golden Grrrls, Slushy Guts and Equinox (Pictures)

On Our iPod

Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (album)

Antony Harding - Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear (album)

Black Angels - Indigo Meadow (album)

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (album)

Still Corners - Strange Pleasures (album)

Savages - Silence Yourself (album)

Mikal Cronin - MC II (album)

Can’s Ege Bamyasi played by Stephen Malkmus and Friends(album)

Victoria and Jacob - Festival 7"

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (album)

Sauna Youth - False Jesii Part II 7”

Lightning Bolt - Oblivion Hunter

Robyn Hitchcock - There Goes The Ice (2x 12")

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! Constellation

Article written by Michael H - Nov 26, 2012

‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!’ arrived unheralded by the band and label; pushed out with a “oh, and by the way, Godspeed have a new record out soon.” They were even selling it at their gigs prior to the release date. Such modesty and high regard for fans is admirable, especially with a work of brilliance such as this. The album is made up of two long pieces of amazing power and depth and two palette cleansing ambient drone tracks.

Opener ‘Mladic’ instantly reminds long-term fans what they’ve been missing. A cracked and looped sample of a preacher intoning “with his arms outstretched, with his arms outstretched” fades in before the guitar drone descends. Sharp notes are plucked from the churn and accumulate like a rain shower increasing in intensity. A banging clamor of drums, guitar and violin emerges and builds in violence before breaking into waves of distortion and howling feedback. The band then settles into a savage motorik headbanger. This is as straight a “rocker” as Godspeed has ever produced.

‘We Drift like Worried Fire,” the other long piece, is astounding. The most beautiful, emotionally affecting piece of music I’ve heard all year. Slowly beginning from an almost unbearably poignant combination of plucked and bowed violin and long streaks of yearning guitar sighs, it suddenly breaks into a patient but increasingly tense ascent of sweeping strings and hesitant melodic intent before a guitar drill exchange eventually launches the classic Godspeed reverb tsunami. I defy anyone not to involuntarily squeeze their eyes shut at the sheer raw power climax halfway through ‘We drift…’ After the summit the band pick delicate strings of order from the chaos, a regrouping before another violent ascent, spidery percussion and repetitive string sawing building another tense wall for them to crash through in an explosion of righteous liberating noise and martial drumming. Everything is perfectly placed, the space given to the various elements to let them breathe and grow show the band to be master composers.

Some questions of the continuing relevance of the band have been asked with the release of this album. For me, Godspeed You! Black Emperor remains vital. In the age of Occupy, GY!BE remind us that to sit isn’t enough, we must create and act. They are a call to arms; a burst of light; a skinny fist, lifted to heaven.

Links:
http://cstrecords.com/gybe/
http://www.cstrecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/gybeconstellation