Godspeed You! Black Emperor- ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND! (2012)

The internet went fucking bananas this week when it found out Godspeed You! Black Emperor was selling their first new record in a decade at their Boston show and Constellation confirmed it's existence by opening up pre-orders. I too was among those going bananas on the interhole. Godspeed You! Black Emperor is one of my favorite bands of all time and in the top five bands I've ever seen live. I couldn't fucking wait to hear this record. Luckily we live an an age of instant gratification and I didn't have to wait long. A mere hour after I found out this record existed, a vinyl rip was making its way around the web. In my excitement I almost posted it before even hearing it, but decided to give it a few listens to try and digest it a bit first so I wasn't tossing something up on the blog that I hadn't vetted. In retrospect I'm an idiot for even entertaining the thought that GY!BE might release something less than stellar.

ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND! features two songs, each of which runs just under 20 minutes and two drones of 6 and 8 minutes respectively. To be honest (and I'm sure this isn't a totally unpopular opinion) GY!BE's drones have never done much for me and these two are no exception. I don't mind some of the field recordings and other things they have done in the past while transitioning into and out of movements, but the standalone drone tracks are somewhat tedious. I get that they're there for atmospheric purposes, but drone has never floated my boat. The two actual songs however? If my ears could ejaculate, they would be doing so right now. Godspeed's approach to songwriting has not changed in the past decade, they still opt for the mood setting -> crescendo -> climax -> diminuendo and/or seemingly random part format. I may be jumping the gun here, but "Mladic" might be one of my new favorite Godspeed songs. After the usual formalities, the song builds into a guitar and drum driven section that reminds me quite a bit of Burning Off Impurities era Grails in it's Sabbath meets the Middle East vibe. It eventually moves into what is quite possibly my favorite section on the record, a classic Efrim weepy guitar line segues into a big swells of shoegazy guitar that will having you rocking back and forth in your chair until the bottom simply drops out. "We Drift Like Worried Fire" is another winner. A pensive opening section builds meticulously under blooms of fuzzy guitar, falls by the wayside and is replaced by volleys of tremolo picking. The song also features what is undeniably the most "poppy" movement in Godspeed You! Black Emperors' history, albeit rather brief. 

This album is a complete and very welcome surprise. One of my top records of 2012. Welcome back you magnificent bastards. Now, if you could give the guys in Fugazi a call and get them do a new record this could be the best year for new music ever.  

Try it.

Buy it:
Pre-order (LP)
Digital Pre-order in the iTunes Store

Black Clouds- Everything Is Not Going To Be OK (2012)

I had never heard of Black Clouds before I saw them open the DC date for the Alcest/Deafheaven tour. I'm not sure they really fit on that bill (actually, Auroboros, the other opener didn't exactly either), but I was way fucking impressed. Looking back on that show it was their set, not Alcest or Deafheaven, that left the greatest impression on me. Since then I've been looking forward to some recorded material and Everything Is Not Going To Be OK does not disappoint. I've been trying to think of bands with whom I can compare Black Clouds for the last week or so, but haven't found any of the comparisons to be satisfactory. But that might just be because I don't really listen to enough post-rock anymore. I think the best I can come up with would be a less mathy, more sinister The Cancer Conspiracy. Think post-rock with a little ambient thrown in the mix, but not of the triumphant, makes you feel like taking on the world variety, as you probably gathered from the album title.While the drumming and guitar are both totally excellent, what really stands out on this album is the bass. The bass tones aren't exactly standard fare for post-rock, it's more Godflesh than Explosions In The Sky, which I think plays a big part in why I enjoy this so much (referencing The Big Lebowski in a song title doesn't hurt either, he was a man who loved the outdoors...and bowling). I don't know how long these guys have been around, but for an initial release this is surprisingly well fleshed out and sounds much more like a band in their prime than one working to attain their own identity. Looking forward to hearing more from Black Clouds, hopefully in the near future.

Right now you can name your own price for Everything Is Not Going to Be OK over at bandcamp. Do it.

 bandcamp

Industries of the Blind- Chapter 1: Had We Known Better (2011)

Presumably none of you out there have heard of this band. That's OK, if a friend's brother hadn't played bass for them previously I wouldn't have either. From their inception in 2003 until last year, the only way to hear their music was to have seen them at one of their rare live appearances or a demo that wasn't widely circulated. One fact should reveal everything you need to know about this band: they're a 9 piece. No, they're not the second coming of pageninetynine, they're a post-rock band, as you probably surmised. Industries of the Blind aren't revolutionary, if you consider yourself a fan of post-rock you've probably heard a number of similar bands. It's likely that few of them execute as well as Industries of the Blind, however. If you're like me (and you should be) you can never have too much post-rock to put on when the mood strikes.

Chapter 1 is available for free on the Industries of the Blind website. There's a donation button on there too, so if you like what you hear send a few bucks their way.

Get it here.