Ágætis byrjun - Sigur Rós

Tracklist:

1. Intro (1:36)
2. Svefn-g-englar (10:04)
3. Starálfur (6:46)
4. Flugufrelsarinn (7:48)
5. Ný batterí (8:06)
6. Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm) (7:08)
7. Viðrar vel til loftárása (10:13)
8. Olsen Olsen (8:03)
9. Ágætis byrjun (7:39)
10.Avalon (4:01)

Members

- Jón Þór Birgisson (Jonsi) – vocals, guitar
- Kjartan Sveinsson – keyboard
- Georg Hólm – bass
- Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson – drums


Sigur Ros is a band from Iceland which plays a peculiar brand of post-rock. Some of their best known work has more in common with chamber pop and indie rock than with the gloomy landscapes and apocalyptic nature of post-rock. They are also experts in creating extremely moving and soulful songs, some of which have brought me very close to tears with their pure nostalgic beauty. Ágaetis Byrjun is the second album by Sigur Ros and it is the first one I had the privilege to listen to and it contains some of the best material the band has ever released, as well as some of their most awe-inspiring compositions.

This album is very difficult to explain: its music has to be felt and experienced. Sigur Ros has created in Ágaetis Byrjun some of the purest, most beautiful songs of our times. The album is also a musical statement; the band uses new techniques for creating atmosphere and experimenting with unusual structures and sounds. The extent to which they push the limits of the guitar to discover new possibilities is fascinating. Jonsi does this mainly by playing it with a cello bow, which is a signature style the band uses in most of their tracks.

The sensation of being in an unknown musical territory starts with the first song and never leaves the listener. Svefn-G-Englar is a long atmospheric piece that goes through many moods, but never leaving its beautiful tranquility. In the background we listen to the beautiful sound of Jonsi’s guitar being played with the cello bow. This has different effects on each track, sometimes providing a noisy sound and a dark tone, and others, like here, creating a harmonic atmosphere, as if listening to the sounds of waterfalls. 

Svefn-G-Englar seamlessly flows, as if it were a river, until it reaches the gorgeous ocean that is Starálfur. Listening to Starálfur for the first time is an experience that I wish I could have over and over again. An absolutely gorgeous song that takes you into an emotional journey in its short length that makes it one, if not my favorite track among this series of challenging and complex compositions. If there is one track that you should listen from this album, even if it is one of the less sophisticated and innovative on it, it is this one.

The tracks that follow are more in the experimental side of the spectrum. Flugufrelsarinn, another personal favorite, the mixture of synth and guitar sounds create a captivating atmosphere that keeps the listener in constant expectation. The extremely emotional chorus meets those expectations with Jonsi giving one of his best vocal performances in the album. Ný Batterí is the darkest song in the album, featuring a repetitive mesmerizing bass line accompanied by atmospheric guitar sounds produced by the cello bow and a brass section. The drums then become prominent and the song builds up until it explodes into an amazing climax that makes it the heaviest song here

The album gives a very pleasant surprise in Hjartad Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm), which features an uncanny folk sound and jazzy rhythms uncommon in Sigur Ros’s catalogue, as well as a harmonica, an unconventional instrument for them. Jonsi’s voice is also in a tone that is closer to a whisper than actual singing in the verses, which only adds to the uniqueness of this track among Sigur Ros’s material. It took me a while to appreciate this song as it is so different from anything else from the band, but it actually is one of the most daring and emotional songs here, having a wonderful chorus and a brilliant string section.

Vidrar Vel Til Loftárása is the center piece of the album, not only is it the longest track, but it is also the one that produces the most varied series of emotions here. The general tone is one of melancholy, but I have found myself feeling very confused while listening to it, as I couldn’t really understand the whole spectrum of things I was feeling at the same time. This is one of those songs that will leave you speechless and unable to do anything for some minutes, just to process the masterpiece of a song your ears have just listened to. A song that has to be experienced in all its glory, as words can do very little to explain its effect.

Olsen Olsen is the only song in the album not sung in Icelandic, but in vonlenska, the invented language Sigur Ros uses in some of its tracks. It is a language just made to fit the music, and it works really well in this cheerful track, probably the only one which is centered on just one emotion: happiness. Sometimes I can’t do anything but smile while listening to this song, it produces such pure feelings of bliss and joy. The ending climax makes me want to be part of the background chorus, singing along with the band playing their beautiful melodies; it is a perfect ending for another outstanding and touching composition.

Ágaetis Byrjun is maybe the simplest track in the album, even more so than Starálfur, it is a simple piano driven song, which features an acoustic guitars and jazzy drums. The title track serves as a more laid back composition in contrast to the rest of the album; it gives the listener a sense of closure and homeliness. Jonsi uses his signature falsetto tone throughout this song, always reaching the right note, making it a treat from the vocal standpoint, with the whole band creating the perfect accompaniment for it. It is a fitting epilogue to an outstanding piece of art.

Sigur Ros’s sophomore album is their most consistent one, showcasing their darkest moments as well as some of their most hopeful and innocent melodies. It is a unique experience, with sounds that are sometimes unidentifiable for the listener. I could only describe it as an otherworldly journey, a magical trip through galaxies of sounds unknown. With this album Sigur Ros started being recognized by critics, and their music slowly became more and more popular. The notoriety they have achieved throughout the years is a very rare feat for a band of this nature. The current popularity of the band shows they were right when choosing the title for this album: it was indeed A Good Beginning.
 

Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven - Godspeed You Black Emperor!

Members

- Thierry Amar – bass guitar
- David Bryant – electric guitar
- Bruce Cawdron – drums
- Aidan Girt – drums
- Norsola Johnson – cello
- Efrim Menuck – guitar
- Mauro Pezzente – bass guitar
- Roger Tellier-Craig – guitar
- Sophie Trudeau – violin

Other musicians
- Alfons – horn
- Brian – horn

 

 

 

 

 

Tracklist:

Storm

1.  Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven..(6:15)

2.  Gathering Storm/Il Pleut à Mourir [+Clatters Like Worry (11:10)

3. Welcome to ARCO AM/PM..' [L.A.X.; 5/14/00] (1:15)

4. Cancer Towers on Holy Road Hi-Way (3:52)

Static

1. Terrible Canyons of Static (3:34)

2. Atomic Clock (1:09)

3. Chart #3 (2:39)

4. World Police and Friendly Fire (9:48)

5. [...+The Buildings They Are Sleeping Now]

Sleep

1. Murray Ostril: '...They Don't Sleep Anymore on the Beach..." (1:10)

2. Monheim (12:14)

3. Broken Windows, Locks of Love Pt III (9:53)

Antennas to Heaven

1. Moya Sings 'Baby-O' (1:00)

2. Edgyswingsetacid (0:58)

3. [Glockenspiel Duet Recorded on a Campsite In Rheinback, N.Y.] (0:47)

4. Attention... Mon Ami... Fa-Lala-Lala-La-La (1:18)

5. She Dreamt She Was a Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone in an Empty Field (9:43)

6. Deathkamp Drone (3:09)

7. Antennas to Heaven (2:02)

Godspeed You Black Emperor!  is a band like no other. Being one of the pioneering bands in the post-rock genre, their music is different than probably any band that is considered part of this genre. Their symphonies succeed in creating the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic world, a mental picture of a desolated earth where nothing grows anymore and life is just a memory of the past.  Beginning with their debut album F♯ A♯ ∞ (1997) they have been known for their long-scaled compositions, their long build-ups, their use of classical instruments, drone guitars and tape recorded speeches.

Their second album though, is a work of epic proportions, even for GYBE standards. Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven (2000) is not only GYBE’s longest and most ambitious album, being a double album composed of only four “songs” (they would be better called movements or compositions), it is also probably their most complete one. It is a career defining effort for the Canadian band, being heralded by most since it was released as the band’s masterpiece and as a classic post-rock record.

The music found in this album features some of the most intense and varied feelings, even when the general tone is somber. From sheer happiness in the beginning of Storm all the way through the hopeless desperation at the end of Antennas to Heaven, it encompasses some of the most powerful buildups, transitions and melodies the band has ever written. They work together to create a sense of completion, as if the album as a whole is trying to make a point about the human experience in its entirety.

Even without lyrics, it can be said that in their work, GYBE show clearly how poignant a band they can be regarding current social and political events, having had problems themself in the US in the wake of the War on Terror. LYSFLATH is probably their less political album though, not having any politically charged messages such as earlier albums had, like the introduction of The Dead Flag Blues in their debut or the one in BBF3 from their sophomore EP Slow Riot for NewZerø Kanada (1999).

The theme of the album seems to revolve around the most sentimental side of their mostly anarchist worldview rather than on the intellectual side of it. Even when they get more political in the recording they use as an introduction to Sleep, clearly a criticism of savage progress in the wake of the new millennium, it appeals more to the emotions of the listener rather than trying to enrage him into action. It’s that change of direction which gives LYSFLATH its soulful nature; its mysterious and magical appeal.

GYBE wear their heart on their sleeves on this album. Sometimes it even seems like they are begging for people’s understanding, as in the ending of Storm or in the whole Sleep, the saddest and most heartfelt composition on the album. They also succeed in creating the paranoid, almost schizophrenic atmosphere of the times the album was released, with the fear of terrorist attacks and the new millennium coming. The mid-section of Storm and the outstanding Static are the best examples for this.

Although the compositions work as a whole, they are each divided in different sections. Some of this sections are the whole base on which this movements stand upon. Take for example the achingly gorgeous She Dreamt She Was a Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone in an Empty Field. It opens with some of the most beautiful violins on the whole album followed by the band playing the most urgent section ever recorded by the band. It ends with a build-up that sounds like a dirge for lost hope, the kind of melody you hear in your head when there’s nothing left to do.

Other highlight sections are the cheerful Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven..., with its horns and victorious drums, opening the album with a blast, or the nerve-wracking World Police and Friendly Fire which builds up to a wonderfully noisy and apocalyptic explosion of sound.  The musical peak of LYSFLATH comes with the melancholic  Broken Windows, Locks of Love Pt. III which ends Sleep with a highly complex and instrumentally rich section. This section alone defines perfectly what GYBE’s music is, with all its diverse nuances.

One of the main characteristics that have been attached to this band is how cinematic it is, to the point of GYBE being described as “cinematic post-rock”.  Throughout this album in particular you can’t help picturing different images whenever a build-up comes, or a tape recorded speech or noise, or when the main melodies kick. Even in the quietest moments of the album, the sense of it being the soundtrack for an unwritten movie about life itself doesn’t fade until the last screeching sounds of  Antennas to Heaven.

In the end it is probably the soundtrack for all of our lives, for the whole society we are living in. The question that’s being asked here is: Where do we go now? What’s next? The album leaves no answer, just a final cry for help to make sense of all this. Maybe a baby inside its mother’s womb or the heart of the earth itself, the final sounds of  Antennas to Heaven end the most desperate composition of the album, and the album itself in a mysterious note.

Probably the album makes more sense following the events that came to be just one year after its release. They left some with no hope or tomorrow to look forward to, and others with the gargantuan task of living through all the ashes and pain left. Still the amount of questions just increased since that moment, leaving this album as a testament of life in the last days leading to the moment when we were pushed a little bit further into the abyss.

Neither/Nor - Charles Atlas

Album: To The Dust: From Man You Came And To Man You Shall Return

The opener of the album, Neither/Nor, prepares the listener for a voyage into post-rock’s most ambient and cinematic side. The track opens with a mesmerizing guitar line that is repeated through most of the song. Then the piano enters with a mournful melody, followed by the melodica, they start a slow and quiet build up when suddenly a guitar solo takes the stage. All of this sets the stage for an outstanding listening experience, as then the cello and the synthesizer are introduced with a very gentle mumbling in the background appearing sporadically.

The instruments work together to create a cohesive composition. While some of them are the main feature during some passages of the song, they leave the forefront for others when the song needs it, creating a beautiful sensation of harmony throughout it. At the end the instrumentation starts to fade away, leaving the listener with a cathartic sensation as the guitar and cello take their last breathe before the song ends

Post-rock is mostly a genre that focuses on what images music produces in the listener, Charles Atlas create a very cinematic atmosphere throughout this song. Personally it feels as if I was in a desert of snow, a sea of white which no traces of human life ever touched it. There is a feeling of loneliness and wondering in the song, as if the listener was about to be part of a long and lonesome exodus towards the absolute nothing. At the same time it is a rewarding one, as there is a certain warmth in the song, a feeling of fulfillment and self-realization that is achieved during the hard, long and lonely trip on which the song takes you.