Godspeed You ! Black Emperor (GY!BE) specialise in extended quiet-loud instrumentals, classical in scope but punk in attitude .
They are proof positive that, musically speaking, there are more effective ways to subvert the system other than the clichéd rebellion of mainstream rock.
The Kranky record label once called their apocalyptic soundtracks “Hopeful and harrowing narratives for our darkening world”. If you are looking for further illumination of the band’s philosophy or political standpoint, you are in for a disappointment.
GY!BE’s own grammatically challenged and wilfully obscure album sleeve notes and minimal online communications read like frenzied missives from the front line of an unspecified global war. They are random stream of consciousness rants tapped out on cheap typewriters. Their opposition to corporate culture is plain but they resist setting this down in any coherent manifesto.
By using language that never wholly defines or explains their position they effectively place a stick in the wheels that drive cyberspace’s information machine. Only occasionally is their stance spelled out is less ambiguous terms such as in the footnotes to their last album to date (Yanqui U.X:O) which state things like: “we encourage you to avoid giving money to predatory retailers and superstores”.
The use of part of the track East Hastings in the film of Danny Boyle’s future as nightmare movie -’28 days Later’ (conspicuously absent from tie-in soundtrack album) is the closest GY!BE have come to bridging the gulf between underground guerrillas and mainstream rebels. Otherwise, simply by never recording tracks of much under 10 minutes they choose to opt out of the day-time radio/pod friendly unit shifters; instead, they positively thrive on obscurity.
Their standing as dead flag wavers for the dispossessed is literally put under the spotlight whenever they appear live. They haven’t been so exposed for seven years but ended this hiatus in 2010 when they curated and performed at UK’s Nightmare Before Christmas event in Minehead, Somerset.
They have followed this up with a tour which includes two dates in Italy. I saw them at the Estragon Club in Bologna – a typically functional yet soulless rock venue shaped like an airport hanger where the acoustics and atmosphere leave much to be desired.
GY!BE’s deliberate aloofness has more in common with the snooty airs and graces of Prog-Rockers than the spitting venom of Punks. I can’t help thinking that a more formal auditorium would be better suited to their shows – after all, occasions for head-banging are few and their music is mostly experienced in a state of rapt awe.
Their two-hour performance is efficient yet nowhere near as transporting as I had hoped it would be. I can sympathise with one punter’s comment at the end that there were “too many crescendos”. What are subtle, slow-moving beasts on record take on a different character in a live setting where there tends to be an impatient demand for the orgasmic all hands to the pump finale.
They begin with a lengthy intro that has been widely dubbed as Hope Drone and ,I think, a track off Yanqui U.X.O. The rest of the show is mainly drawn from the two full length albums upon which their reputation rests – F#A#oo (Infinity) and Lift Up Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. However, easily the highpoint of the show comes around midnight with a sublime version of hauntingly beautiful Moya from ‘Slow Riot.’
GY!BE is not a band built on personalities and their Anarchistic tendencies mean that they eschew any notion of leadership. Efrim Menuck is, however , the member with the highest profile largely due to his more visible role in the spin-off band A Silver My Zion. When I saw that band in April 2010 , Efrim bantered with the audience between songs and even invited questions. As part of the Godspeed cell he becomes a more anonymous figure in keeping with GY!BE’s enigmatic public profile . On stage, they play in near darkness; there are no introductions to songs or musicians, no between song chat, no encores. Black and white imagery is projected behind them but never has any narrative content.
A token wave from each musician at the end is the nearest you get to interaction.
They leave the stage; we exit into the night – the GY!BE mystique remains safely intact.
thank you for this interesting, stimulating post.
actually, their un-critical, ambiguous use of the politically loaded word HOPE is the only thing that left me a bit perplexed… although the fact that they associated it with a droning sound could suggest the idea of a hollow word, a soundbite hammered into the head of the masses.
Yes, the world has moved on since GY!BE first appropriated the H word. Isn’t it sad that how positive words become politically loaded?