The Answer Is In The Beat

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra: Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything (Constellation, 2014)

January 17, 2014 at 10:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Newest album from Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s most well-known offshoot. Much more concise and song-driven (but still sprawling and epic), not to mention psychedelic, than previous efforts. Tense, grinding, furious, but still ecstatic, even joyful, in its rage and world-weariness. “Fuck Off Get Free (For The Island Of Montreal)” starts with a short spoken sample of a child speaking about living in Montreal, then gets down to business, keeping up the intense pace until the last few minutes, when it comes to the arresting “hold me under” chorus. “Austerity Blues” starts with sparse guitar, adds in layers of noise guitar, drums, vocals, strings, etc, builds up then settles into a motorik rhythm around 5 minutes. Then keeps building more, vocals, etc, then calms down around 9 minutes. Soft vocals, then last few minutes goes to noise feedback. “Take Away These Early Grave Blues” starts with spoken words (“…they just got closed minds, that’s all”), gets right to it with anti-police lyrics and striking violin and guitars. “Little Ones Run” is a total change of pace, a quiet, fragile, childlike acoustic piano folk song. “What We Loved Was Not Enough” is a slow-burning lament about the destruction of the world, followed by uprising. “Rains Thru The Roof At Thee Grande Ball-Room (For Capital Steez)” begins with an excerpt from a radio interview (which is also translated into French), explaining about how music is an expression of one’s self, not just a part-time gig or hobby. Once the song comes in, it’s sort of a sad comedown, keeping a steady tom-tom rhythm, mellotron, piano, and lyrics about holding on. Almost sounds like recent Flaming Lips, actually. A strangely subdued and straightforward ending to such an electrifying album.