For real. Listening to the opening monologue of "Dead Flag Blues" is already so haunting, it's even more haunting with what is going on worldwide and specifically in Gaza. And it's from 1999, incredible.
@@prometheusboatgodspeed's purpose has always been to convey these feelings of political/social/environmental unrest WITHOUT necessitating lyrics. they'll go about it in so many ways; field recordings, samples, reeling you in with these grandiose, ebbing and flowing orchestral movements that sound massive and therefore convey the emotion of a melody of similar tone tenfold. Id highly recommend listening to their first two works, "F#A# Infinity" and "Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada" to get the best grasp on what im trying to get at here.
I fell asleep once with my in-ear headphones and my library playing on shuffle. Sometime during the night I woke up with the storm section of this song playing. Not knowing what was happening to me, I almost got a panic attack. 10/10.
The first time that the megaphone section clicked for me, I was stunned for a good five minutes. Defeat is a good word for it. To me, it's like watching the news, and suddenly becoming aware of the spin on the story. Hearing a speech that seems oddly familiar in an unnerving way. Fighting for a cause for ages, but achieving no meaningful change. It is difficult to express through words, and I'm actually glad the speech is incomprehensible. It's less about one event, but rather the same event over and over again but with different coats. As an aside, I feel GYBE albums are better listened to in one sitting, because they usually start bleak and dreary but end hopeful. So it feels like a journey through a dark place, but you're guided back out at the end and get closure in a sense.
My favorite album. I know it's not for everyone. And some of the drone probably goes on for a tad too long, but I love it. I laughed the first time I heard it because I couldn't believe what I was listening to
This was another album where I also took a lot of notes 😁 One of the things that impressed me about it was it had the grandeur and sophistication that you would expect from say a prog rock group, but it had a directness and simplicity that was akin to punk. Those two things were not mutually exclusive. I can understand if the thought of nearly ninety minutes of GYBE may be daunting, especially if you haven’t really clicked with them. But I would recommend giving this album a listen as I think it’s still the best thing they have ever done.
You’re right to think it’s not just about a literal storm. Given their intensely politically charged ethos, I’ve always interpreted this song as the journey of the political youth. A journey that starts with intense building vigor, sours into jaded acceptance and ends with a numb hope for the future
I always felt like the indistinguishable talking in the outro was a mayday call in a different language. A cry for help from someone in a grave situation yet there's no-one that can understand him. I think that's the reason I find it so haunting.
Your comment about the tension shows me you do actually get what people are enjoying when they rave about the band. Their albums have so many peaks and valleys it becomes very cinematic, you can't help but see or feel something(traditionally enjoyable or not).
20+ years of listening to this album and still doesn't get old or boring for me. You can just put this on and dream and drift away in your thoughts. Hoping for you Bryan to do the rest of the album too! Howabout a whole album listen😳
Yeah, it's a timeless masterpiece. As is most of anything any of the band members do on the side as well. I feel the same way about A Silver Mt Zion. Can't live without it.
My appreciation of this band went to another level after experiencing them live. They had this guy in the back running a video projector with actual film roll. Towards the end he burned the film in front of the lens as a neat effect. The "story" displayed behind them fit the music perfectly. Also, great performances
I think their music is comforting because they are really good at producing catharsis, there's a lot of dread and indignation in the atmosphere they create but that makes the hope that manages to shine all the more powerful
I used to be huge into post-rock but really got pretty bored with it after a while. They're a perfectly fine band, but I basically blame Explosions in the Sky for why post-rock got boring; they have that really (now) stereotypical tremolo-picked delayed reverb guitar with slow buildups to huge climaxes, with that distinctly post-rocky wistful nostalgic mood halfway between minor and major. I think that formula was the most easily copied sound in all of post-rock, so after they took off, basically every post-rock band ever was playing the same sorts of stuff as EITS and it got tired quick. GY!BE, on the other hand, are a whole other thing. I wish more of post-rock had been this inventive, daring, and yeah, even a little dangerous and revolutionary. Excellent use of instrumentation and extended techniques, at once very carefully composed yet full of fire and fury and punk rock ethos. Truly a great marriage of a sort of avant-garde modern classical approach to composition yet retaining a lot of quintessentially rock 'n' roll instrumentation and mindset. You see far fewer bands taking inspiration from GY!BE than, say, EITS, because of the musical knowledge and imagination required to make music like this.
Also, yeah, this band is intensely political and famously were even held on suspicions of terrorism in Oklahoma due to some of their music-adjacent materials (texts and photos) which were extremely critical of capitalism and western government.
@@chips161 they're definitely not a bad band at all - they just had a sound that was very easily copied by lesser writers/performers, which I think led directly to the stagnation of the genre by all the trillions of me-too EITS clones with sentences for names. It's not really their "fault" as it wasn't intentional influence.
That's what killed post rock for me too. I mean that genre was invented for rock music that can't be categorised and suddenly there were all those EITS-copycat-bands with their fan-base that decided that this is now the official post rock sound and bands like 65dos are post rock with electronica.
Thank you for listening to this one. Been listening to this one for years and it’s still great to me. Here’s what the movements are called: Storm" "Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven..." / "Gathering Storm" / "Il Pleut à Mourir [+Clatters Like Worry]" / "'Welcome to Barco AM/PM...' [L.A.X.; 5/14/00]" / "Cancer Towers on Holy Road Hi-Way" … the track starts off strong and then slows down because it flows into the second track, “Static.” I suggest a shorter track from their newest album- Job’s Lament. It’s less than 8 minutes and actually seems to call back to parts of “Storm”
Another great video! i like hearing other people’s thoughts on the music i enjoy : ) this song and Sleep from the same album will always have a spot in my heart. Sleep especially
I introduced a friend to Godspeed. He was totally in love. But he knew that it was a bad thing. He said, it was too private, too strong, too violent. The more he listened to them, the further he felt from his friend group ... I get it.
Had similar feeling when I first heard 65daysofsfatic. Felt evil, but irresistible. Addictive, perhaps. And by that time I was deep into GY!BE (or GYBE! ?) already.
Another great track, another brutally honest review! Like with any post rock, I think this song is better interpreted within the context of the entire album, but my god is that easier said than done! I've always viewed 'Lift Your Skinny Fists...' less like a single album that I enjoy listening to, and more like a series of experiences that I don't engage with often, but do so with GLEE when I'm finally ready to return. (And as someone else mentioned, will never forget listening to it for the first time as an 18 year old and laughing out loud at what was hands down the most bizarre piece of art I had ever experienced at the time.) I think their records including and after 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!' incorporate a lot more melodic elements and contain something that at least resembles song structure. Mladic from this album is my favourite song of all time, with two distinct movements that build in similar ways and compliment eachother perfectly. Bosses Hang (Pts 1-3) are probably a great place to start for a more structured GY!BE listen, if you ever feel so inclined. Thanks for the content as always m8, have a good one!
It might be an unfair comparison but there's another storm-themed rock-adjacent instrumental song called Rage of Poseidon by Apocalyptica. Curious how similar yet different they are. I still hope one day we'll see a reaction to something from the first album, though :) the only sort of gy!be music remained uncovered.
I get that this can be draining to listen to with everything that is happening, especially for the first time and if trying to figure/analyse all the sounds and patterns. But I like that I can take this as it is as a wall of sound or pin-point to certain instrument/s and find something interesting in their lines. 🙂
The slow guitar that plays at 7:50 onwards... I just can't not hear Amazing Grace :D (yes, double negative) EDIT: And of course you mentioned it afterwards!
Great reaction, as always. Nothing to add, from me. I will say, however, that it would be great to see you give them one more spin: Government Came. It'll be even more illuminating, in regards to the band. Thanks for doing what you do, either way. Cheers!
About the relaxing effect and the Storm section specifically: I can perceive it in kind of two different speeds. If I listen closely, I feel each tremolo note and every dissonance as something spiky, irritating. But when I "zoom out" and listen, um, "in bars," it all starts gliding like one one huge textured melody. I still wouldn't call it particularly soothing, but meditative, somewhat - yeah. Ominous but meditative :D It's close to the black metal thing, when there's so many notes being played that they blur into one drawn out fuzzy fluffy texture. At this "mode," the cheerful sections become much more irritating because all the energy comingcreated by the dynamics.
Nothing to add that the many comments did already. You just need to check something out from their debut album imo, it won't change your look on them, but I still believe any of the three songs from that record would be a great addition to what you've experience by GY!BE so far. Great insight as always, Bryan!
I think I said this before but GY!BE was the first post rock band I ever heard. I discovered them not long after this album was released and spent a lot of time listening to their first three albums but after their 10 year(!) hiatus I lost interest and moved on to other similar bands I ended up liking more. I still appreciate GY!BE for being one of the bands that helped pioneer the genre, but these days if I'm going to listen to post rock it's usually going to be the originators like Talk Talk or later pioneers like Sigur Ros. Nothing against GY!BE though, and I definitely enjoyed revisiting this.
I think for me, I feel the storm in question is most likely metaphorical. Similarly to you, this feels ambiguous for most of the track, like it could be a literal representation but the ending recontextualizes it all for me. When we release out into the field recording and piano, to me that brings a distinct feeling of remorse and grievance for all that was lost in the storm, be that civil unrest, political struggle or war. Narritively Im reminded of All Quiet on the Western Front, a story that starts with positivity, almost the idea of an explorative journey, misled by naivete and propaganda that sours rapidly through each horrifying experience. For me, the use of trumpets alludes to the false grandeur of war and the marching snare helps in that regard too. The final section to me is the realisation that everything you did and went through was for nothing and furthermore, the premise of the journey, everything you believed in was wrong and hateful from the start. But yeah thats just my read, glad you found a decent amount to enjoy in it. Interesting that you found the production quite individualistic! I think it might be when applying your critical ear that you've talked about before but for me when listening it feels like a wash of different soundscapes one after another, working into a beautiful mush haha
I am not that familiar with GY!BE, but my guess about the "long time" statement toward the end is a reference to an end to capitalism, knowing their politics. I don't think they expect an end any time soon. (That's obviously not an endorsement of their political views, just how I think they might apply here.) As for the theme of war, GY!BE is pretty well-known for their anti-war statements, something that contributed to my initial curiosity about them. I remain pretty staunchly anti-interventionist. Musically, I don't like them a whole lot more than you do.
Godspeed's music is more relevant now than ever before: Political unrest, civil unrest, environmental degradation.
By music, do you rather mean the accompanying lyrics? What does the music have to do with any of those issues?
@@prometheusboat Do you not know anything about Godspeed You! Black Emperor?
For real. Listening to the opening monologue of "Dead Flag Blues" is already so haunting, it's even more haunting with what is going on worldwide and specifically in Gaza. And it's from 1999, incredible.
@@prometheusboatgodspeed's purpose has always been to convey these feelings of political/social/environmental unrest WITHOUT necessitating lyrics. they'll go about it in so many ways; field recordings, samples, reeling you in with these grandiose, ebbing and flowing orchestral movements that sound massive and therefore convey the emotion of a melody of similar tone tenfold. Id highly recommend listening to their first two works, "F#A# Infinity" and "Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada" to get the best grasp on what im trying to get at here.
I fell asleep once with my in-ear headphones and my library playing on shuffle. Sometime during the night I woke up with the storm section of this song playing. Not knowing what was happening to me, I almost got a panic attack. 10/10.
The first time that the megaphone section clicked for me, I was stunned for a good five minutes. Defeat is a good word for it.
To me, it's like watching the news, and suddenly becoming aware of the spin on the story. Hearing a speech that seems oddly familiar in an unnerving way. Fighting for a cause for ages, but achieving no meaningful change.
It is difficult to express through words, and I'm actually glad the speech is incomprehensible. It's less about one event, but rather the same event over and over again but with different coats.
As an aside, I feel GYBE albums are better listened to in one sitting, because they usually start bleak and dreary but end hopeful. So it feels like a journey through a dark place, but you're guided back out at the end and get closure in a sense.
My favorite album. I know it's not for everyone. And some of the drone probably goes on for a tad too long, but I love it. I laughed the first time I heard it because I couldn't believe what I was listening to
Just an outstanding album, it's so intensive
Personally it made truly fall in love with Music and what it can do, I love so much about it
I don’t think the drone goes on for too long, I think it accentuates the melodic, epic sections more, and its also pretty in its own right
This was another album where I also took a lot of notes 😁
One of the things that impressed me about it was it had the grandeur and sophistication that you would expect from say a prog rock group, but it had a directness and simplicity that was akin to punk. Those two things were not mutually exclusive.
I can understand if the thought of nearly ninety minutes of GYBE may be daunting, especially if you haven’t really clicked with them. But I would recommend giving this album a listen as I think it’s still the best thing they have ever done.
imo one of the most beautiful songs ever written to kick off one of the most beautiful albums ever written, thanks for doing it!
You’re right to think it’s not just about a literal storm. Given their intensely politically charged ethos, I’ve always interpreted this song as the journey of the political youth. A journey that starts with intense building vigor, sours into jaded acceptance and ends with a numb hope for the future
I always felt like the indistinguishable talking in the outro was a mayday call in a different language. A cry for help from someone in a grave situation yet there's no-one that can understand him. I think that's the reason I find it so haunting.
I always assumed it was a preacher giving a sermon.
Your comment about the tension shows me you do actually get what people are enjoying when they rave about the band. Their albums have so many peaks and valleys it becomes very cinematic, you can't help but see or feel something(traditionally enjoyable or not).
20+ years of listening to this album and still doesn't get old or boring for me. You can just put this on and dream and drift away in your thoughts. Hoping for you Bryan to do the rest of the album too! Howabout a whole album listen😳
Yeah, it's a timeless masterpiece. As is most of anything any of the band members do on the side as well. I feel the same way about A Silver Mt Zion. Can't live without it.
My appreciation of this band went to another level after experiencing them live. They had this guy in the back running a video projector with actual film roll. Towards the end he burned the film in front of the lens as a neat effect. The "story" displayed behind them fit the music perfectly. Also, great performances
I think their music is comforting because they are really good at producing catharsis, there's a lot of dread and indignation in the atmosphere they create but that makes the hope that manages to shine all the more powerful
H O P E
🔨
@@bmwdagang🐈🐈🐈
You MUST listen to Sleep on this record if you haven't already. DO IT. You will be moved.
One of the most grandiose songs one will ever discover!
I used to be huge into post-rock but really got pretty bored with it after a while. They're a perfectly fine band, but I basically blame Explosions in the Sky for why post-rock got boring; they have that really (now) stereotypical tremolo-picked delayed reverb guitar with slow buildups to huge climaxes, with that distinctly post-rocky wistful nostalgic mood halfway between minor and major. I think that formula was the most easily copied sound in all of post-rock, so after they took off, basically every post-rock band ever was playing the same sorts of stuff as EITS and it got tired quick.
GY!BE, on the other hand, are a whole other thing. I wish more of post-rock had been this inventive, daring, and yeah, even a little dangerous and revolutionary. Excellent use of instrumentation and extended techniques, at once very carefully composed yet full of fire and fury and punk rock ethos. Truly a great marriage of a sort of avant-garde modern classical approach to composition yet retaining a lot of quintessentially rock 'n' roll instrumentation and mindset. You see far fewer bands taking inspiration from GY!BE than, say, EITS, because of the musical knowledge and imagination required to make music like this.
Also, yeah, this band is intensely political and famously were even held on suspicions of terrorism in Oklahoma due to some of their music-adjacent materials (texts and photos) which were extremely critical of capitalism and western government.
@@chips161 they're definitely not a bad band at all - they just had a sound that was very easily copied by lesser writers/performers, which I think led directly to the stagnation of the genre by all the trillions of me-too EITS clones with sentences for names. It's not really their "fault" as it wasn't intentional influence.
Exactly my experiences.
That's what killed post rock for me too. I mean that genre was invented for rock music that can't be categorised and suddenly there were all those EITS-copycat-bands with their fan-base that decided that this is now the official post rock sound and bands like 65dos are post rock with electronica.
Ever listened to Lift to Experience ?
Thank you for listening to this one. Been listening to this one for years and it’s still great to me. Here’s what the movements are called: Storm"
"Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven..." /
"Gathering Storm" / "Il Pleut à Mourir [+Clatters Like Worry]" /
"'Welcome to Barco AM/PM...' [L.A.X.; 5/14/00]" /
"Cancer Towers on Holy Road Hi-Way" … the track starts off strong and then slows down because it flows into the second track, “Static.”
I suggest a shorter track from their newest album- Job’s Lament. It’s less than 8 minutes and actually seems to call back to parts of “Storm”
wait i actually didnt notice that about Job's Lament thats crazy
Another great video! i like hearing other people’s thoughts on the music i enjoy : ) this song and Sleep from the same album will always have a spot in my heart. Sleep especially
I introduced a friend to Godspeed. He was totally in love. But he knew that it was a bad thing. He said, it was too private, too strong, too violent. The more he listened to them, the further he felt from his friend group ... I get it.
Had similar feeling when I first heard 65daysofsfatic. Felt evil, but irresistible. Addictive, perhaps. And by that time I was deep into GY!BE (or GYBE! ?) already.
Another great track, another brutally honest review! Like with any post rock, I think this song is better interpreted within the context of the entire album, but my god is that easier said than done! I've always viewed 'Lift Your Skinny Fists...' less like a single album that I enjoy listening to, and more like a series of experiences that I don't engage with often, but do so with GLEE when I'm finally ready to return. (And as someone else mentioned, will never forget listening to it for the first time as an 18 year old and laughing out loud at what was hands down the most bizarre piece of art I had ever experienced at the time.)
I think their records including and after 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!' incorporate a lot more melodic elements and contain something that at least resembles song structure. Mladic from this album is my favourite song of all time, with two distinct movements that build in similar ways and compliment eachother perfectly.
Bosses Hang (Pts 1-3) are probably a great place to start for a more structured GY!BE listen, if you ever feel so inclined.
Thanks for the content as always m8, have a good one!
It might be an unfair comparison but there's another storm-themed rock-adjacent instrumental song called Rage of Poseidon by Apocalyptica. Curious how similar yet different they are.
I still hope one day we'll see a reaction to something from the first album, though :) the only sort of gy!be music remained uncovered.
absolutely mindblowing
btw, try the song moya... it's inspired bij Górecki's symphony nr.3
I get that this can be draining to listen to with everything that is happening, especially for the first time and if trying to figure/analyse all the sounds and patterns. But I like that I can take this as it is as a wall of sound or pin-point to certain instrument/s and find something interesting in their lines. 🙂
The slow guitar that plays at 7:50 onwards... I just can't not hear Amazing Grace :D (yes, double negative)
EDIT: And of course you mentioned it afterwards!
Great reaction, as always. Nothing to add, from me. I will say, however, that it would be great to see you give them one more spin: Government Came. It'll be even more illuminating, in regards to the band. Thanks for doing what you do, either way. Cheers!
Sadly, I don't know too much about music theory, but to me , Godspeed sound like classical symphonic music translated into rock.
About the relaxing effect and the Storm section specifically: I can perceive it in kind of two different speeds. If I listen closely, I feel each tremolo note and every dissonance as something spiky, irritating. But when I "zoom out" and listen, um, "in bars," it all starts gliding like one one huge textured melody. I still wouldn't call it particularly soothing, but meditative, somewhat - yeah. Ominous but meditative :D It's close to the black metal thing, when there's so many notes being played that they blur into one drawn out fuzzy fluffy texture. At this "mode," the cheerful sections become much more irritating because all the energy comingcreated by the dynamics.
Nothing to add that the many comments did already. You just need to check something out from their debut album imo, it won't change your look on them, but I still believe any of the three songs from that record would be a great addition to what you've experience by GY!BE so far. Great insight as always, Bryan!
sounds like someone losing their religion, and then facing the world again without it
React to Sleep ❤️
I think I said this before but GY!BE was the first post rock band I ever heard. I discovered them not long after this album was released and spent a lot of time listening to their first three albums but after their 10 year(!) hiatus I lost interest and moved on to other similar bands I ended up liking more. I still appreciate GY!BE for being one of the bands that helped pioneer the genre, but these days if I'm going to listen to post rock it's usually going to be the originators like Talk Talk or later pioneers like Sigur Ros. Nothing against GY!BE though, and I definitely enjoyed revisiting this.
Have you thought about listening to their latest album?
you should listen to 'Sleep'
I think for me, I feel the storm in question is most likely metaphorical.
Similarly to you, this feels ambiguous for most of the track, like it could be a literal representation but the ending recontextualizes it all for me. When we release out into the field recording and piano, to me that brings a distinct feeling of remorse and grievance for all that was lost in the storm, be that civil unrest, political struggle or war.
Narritively Im reminded of All Quiet on the Western Front, a story that starts with positivity, almost the idea of an explorative journey, misled by naivete and propaganda that sours rapidly through each horrifying experience. For me, the use of trumpets alludes to the false grandeur of war and the marching snare helps in that regard too.
The final section to me is the realisation that everything you did and went through was for nothing and furthermore, the premise of the journey, everything you believed in was wrong and hateful from the start.
But yeah thats just my read, glad you found a decent amount to enjoy in it. Interesting that you found the production quite individualistic! I think it might be when applying your critical ear that you've talked about before but for me when listening it feels like a wash of different soundscapes one after another, working into a beautiful mush haha
The Best versión is godspeed you black emperor live 2002
I am not that familiar with GY!BE, but my guess about the "long time" statement toward the end is a reference to an end to capitalism, knowing their politics. I don't think they expect an end any time soon. (That's obviously not an endorsement of their political views, just how I think they might apply here.) As for the theme of war, GY!BE is pretty well-known for their anti-war statements, something that contributed to my initial curiosity about them. I remain pretty staunchly anti-interventionist.
Musically, I don't like them a whole lot more than you do.