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 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don’t Bend Ascend [Constellation - 2012]

Has it really been ten years since Montreal’s finest epic rock orchestra put out a record? While we’ve been suitably seduced in the intervening period by the reduced but no less climactic A Silver Mt Zion ensemble, Allelujah! Don’t Bend Ascend is a somewhat unexpected reminder that, just sometimes, more is more. And, even when compared to previous Godspeed releases, Allelujah!... is more alive, more angry, more resolute and, perhaps, more hopeful.

Often seeming to have difficulties with formal communication, swerving anything that smells of marketing with an all too wary worry of their success appearing to compromise their libertarian stance, this album was launched casually by slipping it onto merchandise tables during their recent reunion shows. In rare correspondence with The Guardian recently, they stated “we felt like getting this shit down in case it disappeared again. We… rolled tape and hoped for the best”. And it shows, the album being largely made up of two twenty minute grandiose rock symphonies that sound far more like head down, loose ‘n’ live takes than the more poised and wistful delicacies that populated their last album, Yanqui UXO.

Opening with ‘Mladiæ’ (previously known in their live sets as Albanian), its title the only overt indication of its political intent as it celebrates the arrest of the Bosnian Serb former general, we are immediately reminded of the band’s telepathy. Together they ever so gradually build to a proud protest – from gypsy violin laments to punk rock pounding, except instead of ‘no future’ their incendiary attacks are full of optimism for tomorrow as well as sadness for the past. As the torrent of electric and acoustic strings feels like it cannot build any further, the wild, splashing drums spur them impossibly on, a little faster each time around, until the collective freneticism falls into line to form a groove providing their trademark release of ecstatic proportions. The piece eventually ends with a recording of a sea of clanging saucepans struck by protesters at the recent student protests in Montreal to seal the political dimension that underscores their pomp.

To offset the fervour before further arousal, ‘Mladiæ’ is followed by ‘Their Helipcopter’s Sing’, the first of two short, home-recorded pieces. Menacing and stealthy sonorities are accompanied by moaning strings, stretching and extending with warm guitar tones. A sadly wheezing hurdy-gurdy joins the imperceptible build, thickening the mix to paint a dramatic sunrise. All a bit atonal but very much alive, it acts as the first track’s coda, clearing the air before the album’s second and final rousing opus.

At first, ‘We Drift Like Worried Fire’ eases us in with tentative, tip-toed pluckery to form an exotic, somewhat far-Eastern dance. Heady and seduced, we’re press-ganged into a barbed march; a palpable sense of hope spreads amongst the layers as they build to a stampede before launching themselves jubilantly into the sky. But this is no happy ending: cooling down on the arc’s doomy descent we’re rudely dropped amidst military drums and worried, restless strings that eventually resolve into sympathy before the final crescendo portends a kind of “it won’t be easy, but we’ll get there!” message, a violin morbidly mimicking an ambulance siren in its wake.

The second home-made ‘drone’, ‘Strung Like Lights At Thee Printemps Erable’, (its title referencing other recent student protests in Quebec), concludes the album with the agitated energies of oozing strings that ultimately reduce to an eerie cry that disappears on the wind. It’s an end that has arrived unexpectedly soon: almost an hour has passed but Godspeed’s drama and energy, hope and yearning, has obscured time to conclude all too quickly. Let’s hope it’s not another ten years before we hear its like again.

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Russell Cuzner
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