On Sale
Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
CST012 2x180gLP
Release date: 08 November 2000
Duration: 1:25:00
"A massive, achingly beautiful work, alternately elegiac and ferocious." – Pitchfork
"Further demonstrates the band's flair for dynamic, expertly paced, emotionally resonant soundscapes. Few instrumental acts can claim to create such a palpable mood of unsettlement." – A.V. Club
"Imbued with a sense of impossible grandeur, this is undoubtedly one of the most important albums of the year. Bliss, hope, beauty, sadness and despair are contained herein." – Platform
"[A] continually shifting collage of sound replete with haunting strings, edgy percussion and eerie, often apocalyptic-sounding samples… Words just aren't enough for this band." – The Independent
"[A] perfectly realised game of delay and release; a series of thunderous climaxes of guitar, strings and drums tantalisingly held off by softer sections, where snatches of sound-bite reportage give second-hand shape and the impression of meaning to less immediately arresting ambient doodling." – The Sunday Times (UK)
"Spills over with unbridled emotion… Lift Your Skinny Fists is an elegiac statement of this group's search for hope, meaning and humanity in a world that revels in indifference and senselessness." – Scene
After two years of constant touring and near-unanimous critical acclaim, Godspeed You Black Emperor! assembled a collection of new recordings that charted the creative evolution of the band as well as its literal physical movement on the road, criss-crossing North America and Europe. Five expansive full-band compositions are framed by various field recordings, tape manipulations and ensemble pieces in a return to the narrative sonic collage techniques that marked their 1997 debut (F#A#∞). Four seamless sides of vinyl unfold a world of aching sadness and beauty, with musical quotes ranging from heartland americana to mitteleuropa folkways, all distilled through the unique sonic filters of Godspeed’s pedal-crazy orchestral rock instrumentation. Harrowing guitars, plaintive strings, pulsing basses and explosive drums combine with glockenspiels, horns and tape drones to form an overwhelming palette of sounds, always driven by fierce melodic momentum and intense emotional resonance. GYBE! continued to paint on an impossibly large canvas, with an uncanny blend of world-weariness and naive exuberance that spoke volumes about the conflicts and contradictions permeating our political and cultural life. The tension between humility and hubris conjured an epic scope and a raw hope that such sweeping gestures might survive with some semblance of substance.
PACKAGING NOTES
2xLP is pressed on 180g audiophile vinyl at Optimal in Germany and comes in a thick paperboard gatefold jacket.
CREDITS
Aidan, Bruce, David, Efrim, Mauro, Norsola, Roger, Sophie, Thierry
FEATURED GUESTS
Brian and Alfons: Horns
Recorded and mixed at Chemical Sound in Toronto by Daryl, February 2000.