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Underground > Radio & Music >

New Godspeed.. album

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12:26 / 26.10.02

((NOTE: I'm changing this thread so that it's also for general discussion of 'Yanqui U.X.O' .. just to clear things up..))

OK, so a drunk guy at a gig the other night was trying to convince me that..

(wait for it)

..Godspeedyoublackemperor! are recording the soundtrack to a zombie movie!

Does anyone know whether there's any truth to this slurred announcement?

If yes, let us psychotically run around in circles going "FUCK, YEH!".

If no, let's just imagine how great it would be if this was true.

13:57 / 26.10.02

It seems that 28 Days Later features some Godspeed... tracks. Whether this is new stuff recorded specifically for the film or just stuff ripped from previous releases, I don't know.

15:02 / 26.10.02

ooh.. well that's close enough for my liking, either way.

I would have thought that, what with their rather hardline anti-corporate, anti-media, leave-us-alone stance, it would have been pretty difficult to get Godspeed.. to licence/record music for a movie soundtrack.. wonder how it came about..

Our Lady of The Two Towers

15:58 / 26.10.02

It does sound a bit dubious, and their new album is due out next Spring (IIRC and probably don't, can't remember where I heard that now, fuckit, I'll blame it on Expressionless)

18:33 / 26.10.02

The new album is actually due out in a couple of weeks.

While we were still shooting Session 9 the director had cut a bunch of footage with Godspeed... as temp music (from a CD I loaned and never got back, fucker). I don't know if they tried to follow up and get their music in the finla film or not. It's not there, so it doesn't matter now...

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:06 / 27.10.02

Anyone heard anything in advance about the new album? I mean, other than the fact that it comes out in two weeks?

10:10 / 27.10.02

George reviewed it in this week's upcoming batch of Splendid reviews. He liked it. I think the review runs on 10/31.

20:00 / 27.10.02

i've heard some stuff about this band but never heard them. i wonder if anyone can give me a link so as i could check some out. thanks.

20:07 / 27.10.02

Official site.

Previous Godspeed... discussions seem to have been wiped from the board over time, but there's a tiny little bit here.

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:11 / 31.10.02

Review here.

It's out on November 11, I think.

22:43 / 31.10.02

Danny Boyle was interviewed on my local BBC "what’s on" guide last night promoting 28 Days Later. The actual interview was the usual throwaway arselicking but was supplemented with scenes from the movie, which I think looks pretty interesting.

The Godspeed score in the clip they played was an old one – first track from Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada I think – and melded perfectly with the desolate and sombre tone of the excerpt.

I’m surprised they haven’t been used on a soundtrack before this, as I tend to think of their albums as film scores anyway.

07:26 / 01.11.02

I heard that it's East Hastings from f# a#. And as the guy who told me that got thew song title, I'm going with him.

It's the only GY!BE track in the film, and it fits perfectly, even if it's climax is a bit sucky.

The film's good, by the way.

11:13 / 01.11.02

That's a damn fine review in Rothkoid's link.. didn't know the record was produced by Albini.. can scarcely wait!

The cover art's fucking magnificent..

00:47 / 02.11.02

I remember reading an interview in which they said they'd contribute to a soundtrack if the right movie came along. I guess it's only been dull film-makers up to now.

11:47 / 05.11.02

I'm halfway through my second listen to Yanqui U.X.O. I'm reserving judgement on it until I've let the whole thing sink in a few times. One comment that I will make is just how little impact Albini has had... they sound pretty similar to previous outings, and the production really didn't do much for me until I cranked the volume up a bit. He seems to be talented by association, an Emperor's New Clothes Producer, employed to make bands sound self-produced. I've worked with mates who could get results that were just as good.

15:24 / 05.11.02

I don't think Albini has ever made any great claims for himself as a producer (or engineer, as he prefers to be called) and has always been open about the simplicity of his methods (which involve geting something as close to a live sound as possible and being very strict about re-takes - ie, they're not allowed). He's the 'one-of-your-mates' that major bands' record companies have heard of and, therefore, trust.

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:02 / 05.11.02

The damn thing's not out here until next week, just like the US. Bah. Curse you UK barbeloids.

Hmm. I don't think Albini's made any claims about himself for anything - but there is that thing about his production that does it for me. It's the drum sound, most likely...

22:31 / 05.11.02

The key to drum production: UP IN THE MIX

The Return Of Rothkoid

22:56 / 05.11.02

I had a feeling you might support that line, exp. I wonder how I knew?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:23 / 06.11.02

Bollox. I ordered it from StreetsOnline and come Monday morning it's magically on 'back order'. Now got to work out if I'm going to be going shopping in the realworld in the next few days to make it worth cancelling my order and doing it the old fashioned way (AND buying the Bjork CD with the bonus three Singles).

11:20 / 06.11.02

I can't find a copy in Leicester.. this record's distribution seems to be pretty, um, variable..

And for what it's worth, I reckon Albini's production IS usually really fucking good - I mean, the stuff he's recorded for the Pixies, Nirvana, the Breeders, Low and Mclusky all sounds loads better than those bands sound without him.. (which is not to say they aren't/weren't all still really good without him).

11:06 / 08.11.02

OK, so I got a copy yesterday.. and what to say except .. it's amazing..

Admittedly I've so far only listened to it once (VERY LOUDLY), but would I completely out of line in saying that this is perhaps the best recording Godspeed.. have made?

Not a progression from their previous work at all, but when it's this fucking good, I don't think it needs to be.. seriously, "Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls" absolutely floored me .. it's like, the ultimate Godspeed.. track.. the way it builds to about the biggest climax they've ever done within the first six minutes and then falls into that terrifiying doom march section and then goes straight back to the level of the previous climax and builds and builds and BUILDS until .. AAAGGGHHH!!!!

Unlike lots of people, I don't really see the desperate need for Godspeed.. to 'move on'. It's more like they've just stuck to what they do and, well, got better at it.. which is perfectly alright by me.

And the Albini production really makes it sound bigger and wider and clearer than their previous records too..

And more string section. And louder guitars. and, well, YES! basically.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:05 / 10.11.02

Goddamnit Rizla, you've said it all better than I ever could. Only listened to it once so far, I'm saving it for nighttime which seems to be it's time. I was a bit disappointed when I saw it wasn't a double album like 'Lift Your...' until I heard it. Stunning, absolutely stunning.

I realised a few months ago that since I got into Godspeed I stopped listening to 'In Sides' as often as I used to. Hmmmm.

22:15 / 10.11.02

I miss the found sounds and the less band oriented compositions. They broke up peaks and troughs on this record's predecessor, gave it a vast scope, and it remains their most ambitious record, brimming with ideas. I also think it sounds better than Yanqui U.X.O, warmer and more soulful: playing Levez Vos... sends frequencies spinning off round the room, so many amazing tones and resonances and harmonics. That album remains the sound of the band at their most spiritual. Don't get me wrong, I love the new record... it only sounds one-dimensional in comparison to what this group are capable of.

12:41 / 11.11.02

point taken, to an extent.. Skinny Fists is certianly a more musically interesting album, and probably one that'll stand up to a lot more listens, but I just love the way Yanqui is like "Godspeed: doing exactly what you expect them to do .. REALLY LOUDLY! Eat This!"

It's definitely the one I'd play to people who wanted to know what the group were all about.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:19 / 11.11.02

Some of the found sounds on 'Lift Your Skinny Fists...' really mess things up though, mainly the folk singing halfway through the second disk.

19:41 / 11.11.02

It's not a found sound. It's Moya, an ex band member, singing Baby-O. As it says on the inlay. And do you honestly think that this band would let anything near their music that wasn't meticulously pre-planned?

The lyrics are actually kinda awesome:

What'll we do with the baby?
What'll we do with the baby-o?
Send him off to his mammy
That's what we do with the baby-o
That's what we do with the baby
That's what we do with the baby-o

Every time the baby cries
Stick my finger in the babies eyes
That's what we do with the baby
That's what we do with the baby-o

Every time he starts to grin
Give the baby a bottle of gin
That's what we do with the baby
That's what we do with the baby-o

What'll we do with the baby?
What'll we do with the baby-o?
Send him off to his mammy
That's what we do with the baby-o
That's what we do with the baby
That's what we do with the baby-o

Throw him up in the old treetop
The wind will blow and the cradle will rock
That's what we do with the baby
That's what we do with the baby-o

Wrap him up in a tablecloth
Throw him up in the old hayloft
That's what we do with the baby
That's what we do with the baby-o

What'll we do with the baby?
What'll we do with the baby-o?
Send him off to his mammy
That's what we do with the baby-o
That's what we do with the baby
That's what we do with the baby-o

One of the great things about the album is its ambiguity, especially the bold move of ending on a twenty-five minute piece that uses virtually none of Godspeed's obvious tropes, consisting almost entirely of fragments, all heartbreaking. Antennas to Heaven itself (the final movement of the track which shares its mane) feels like the point of the entire album, ninety minutes to reach this beautiful space rock guitar, channeling sounds from the cosmos. Gockenspiel Duet is indescribable. By comparison the new record is a blunt instrument, functional and stripped down, but somehow weighed down at the same time. It's brilliant, though.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

11:11 / 12.11.02

All right, so it's not a found sound, but it's still dumb

11:20 / 12.11.02

I find difficult to talk about and understand when people talk about G!YBE because I never know the titles of the tracks, or when they begin and end. The CD booklet confuses me greatly, and my memory is not as good as it used to be.

I suppose I could tell you how much I like that one when they go bling-bling-klin-klin-klink and then the kids go "attention, mon ami, lalalalaa" and then they start to rock really hard with a fuzz-fed solo like weeee-woooo-weee-weee-wooo and a guitar going jangle-jangle in the background... but it seems too much work to describe a single song... (I'm just expecting someone in the back to shout "Oi! that's the middle of the track already, you dummy!")
But then, great album. Hardly can wait to listen to the new one.

The Return Of Rothkoid

20:51 / 12.11.02

Hmm. I'm not entirely convinced by the new album. As exp has indicated, it's not really the deepest of the things they've done; there's a lack of ... sandpaper? Maybe that's what the voices give the other discs? Then again, I think that there's few places on the disc that hit the emotional hotspots of "Moya", either. It's good, yes, but not great by a long chalk; some of it sounds a bit phoned-in, methinks...

15:13 / 14.11.02

I find difficult to talk about and understand when people talk about G!YBE because I never know the titles of the tracks, or when they begin and end.

Gantt charts. God, I hate Gantt charts.

15:29 / 14.11.02

There's the pop-rock mindset at work again. It's not a bunch of short songs, it's one long piece--in fact I thought Skinny Fists copped out a little by dividing each disc into two halves.

It's a distinction that doesn't exist in the same way in other musics: symphonies have movements (some of them, anyway), but god forbid you clap in the pause between movements: the piece needs to be considered as a whole.

This morning I was listening to Miles Davis playing Gil Evans's of the adagio movement from Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, originally written as a concerto for guitar and orchestra. The piece is seventeen minutes, and it shifts tempos and moods and melodic themes any number of times. There's no schema for it—all you can say is, "I like the fast part, there, where the tambourine comes in and it goes ba-ba-bum, ba-ba-bum, ba-ba-bum, ba-ba bum up the chromatic scale... oh, that's a great bit when the oboe does this... did you here what he was doing on that little tango bit...?"

By experimenting with extended forms, Godspeed demand a lot of trust (and a long attention span) from their listeners: you can't skip tracks on the CD to hear your favorite songs, you've got to sit back and wait for them to arrive in a time of their own choosing, not yours—applying the paradigm of live performance to the construction of a recorded document.

Unless you're the type who shouts out requests when you go to a live show, assuming in your arrogance that you can devise a better set list than the band can. If that's the case, there's no hope for you.

17:04 / 14.11.02

Not the case. As I said, it just makes difficult to me to refer to the tracks, not to enjoy them. Because G!YBE *do* name them, roght? I know, however, that those titles are just marking different passages of a bigger track, and I like the idea. So, there's hope for me, Jack?

17:11 / 14.11.02

Ego te absolvo.

Go thou and sin no more.

07:52 / 15.11.02

ONE- GY!BE (see that "!"? LEAVE IT THERE!) seem to rely on the internet, and all the spuiours rumours the it creates. They're a self-creating myth. This is why they rock so much outside of the music. YOU CAN MAKE UP WHATEVER YOU LIKE ABOUT THEM. It's interactive! Here's a tracklist for you, tho, because I am generous.

TWO- Jack, Skinny Fists divided each disk into two parts to create a faithful reproduction of the vinyl copy, where each piece fills one side. This is also why each disc is also only 40-odd mins. Which is odd, considering how the two versions of f# a# are deliberatly different...

THREE- Jade, not even GY!BE themselves can talk about tracks easily. They draw diagrams and take weeks. Apparently. According to the internet. See ONE now.

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