A post-rock masterpiece (Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven - Godspeed You Black Emperor)

Member Name: DAC1983

Product:	Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven - Godspeed You Black Emperor
Date:	20/05/09 (3 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rich orchestration, big crescenos, a range of emotions

Disadvantages: Some may find the album a little long

Every so often you discover something that leaves you reaching for superlatives - and a growing frustration with the inadequancies of the English language. "Lift Your Skinny Fists...", GYBE's much-anticipated follow-up to the "Slow Riot..." EP, in many ways epitomises this sentiment.

A multi-layered yet sparce offering, "Lift..." offers a number of contraditions over the course of its 4 tracks - spread over a double-album. Covering a myriad of human emotions - at times uplifting and at the same time sad - the album is a fantastic unique achievement from the "post-rock" Montreal nine-piece.

With rich orchestation, drawing on strings, piano, guitars and intertwined with sampled voice segments, "Lift..." is unlike anything else you're likely to hear. In each of the four movements, the way in which the music gently builds from quiet, understated arrangements before exploding into full-blown
crescendos, will leave you shaking - and wondering how on earth you're listening to the same track.

The highlight of the album is the 23-minute track "Sleep". Starting with a bittersweet narrative from an elderly man reminising his time as a boy on Coney Island, "Sleep" begins its epic journey. Gently building from melancholy strings, the track slowly layers instrument upon instrument, sound upon sound, before errupting loudly into a rich, dense soundscape that seems to signal the end of the world.

Covering a breadth of styles, emotions and dynamics, "Lift..." is an incredible album. Anyone interested in discovering "post-rock" or indeed something quite unlike anything else, would be well advised start their investigation with this masterpiece from GYBE

Summary: Probably GYBEs best effort, this is a rich, dense collection of sounds