Search - The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-la-la Band :: Born Into Trouble As the Sparks Fly Upward

"Please believe."

Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 05/09/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

""A tiniest worried symphony." This is music for the death of an great ideal, and the question of whether or not it can rise again -- a painfully sad work for a world there seems no possible restoration for. I'm not sure whether the music gives me hope or takes hope away -- it is easier to think the former though, since the sorrowful initial themes eventually rise into something more defiant and strong by the end. This makes for extremely intense music and not something I am able to listen to often. A Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band comes closer to their formal connection with Godspeed You! Black Emperor with their second release. The original trio that comprised the band is here joined by three others, doubling the lineup, not to mention the guests on drums, trumpet, and trombone. The songs are still mainly centered around strings, however the orchestration is now much more dense (as opposed to the stark _He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms_). Like GY!BE, they are able to build to huge, rushing crescendos and sonically I suppose they are not so different. However, the overall tone of the music makes it an ENTIRELY different experience. I must quote another reviewer who said it very well: "There is strength in Godspeed's wordless soft/loud anthems. Here there is vulnerability, fear, and faith in secret beauty and tiny resistance." "Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire Falling from the Sky!" and "Could've Moved Mountains..." are layers and layers of crisscrossing violins and guitars and other instruments sawing at each other for a tragic melody, both glacially shifting and hypotizingly textured. "Build then Burnt (Hurrah! Hurrah!)" is a slow, sad dirge. "C'Mon Come On (Loose an Endless Longing)" is the first hint of optimism, but it is obscured by various other layers. These eventually peel away On "The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes" Efrim's vocals are unpleasant, off-key, and cracked -- but I find a strange poignancy to his radical, desperate socio-political rants using such a voice. His voice and ugly broken guitar distortion on this track are joined by florid strings and luminous guitars, a light crescendo that swells to a heavenly end. "Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River" is a pulsating atonal trance with tortured vocals wailing over it. It ends with calming nature sounds, a soothing reprieve after the clamorous first part -- however even this peace seems threatened somehow (hinted at by the dog barking and the bassy background noise). The childish voice giving a strangely poetic monologue on "This Gentle Heart's like Shot Bird's Fallen" is a weird but compelling touch. Without a doubt this is some of the most beautiful and powerful music ever (subjectively speaking, of course). Up there with the most godly pointillist tapestry of King Crimson, the highest heavenly gateway of Tool, or Opeth's latest album. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION."

Godspeed you sensative anarchists!

Adriano | Berkeley, CA United States | 10/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm totally seduced by the musical dynamics and quiet rage of this album. "Born Into Trouble..." differs from their first album in so far as it expands the "Silver" sound. Shimmering reverb, delicate loops, and echoing beats deepen the tiny orchestra soundscape. I know a lot of Godspeed You Black Emperor! fans who are turned off by Silver Mt. Zion's use of vocals, but I'm totally entralled by the mix of populist religiousity and radical politics in their lyrics. In the Silver Mt. Zion world angels guard Black Bloc anarchists and empty streets and industrical wastelands are the foundations of a separatist church. On the first album they "kill first the bankers" while "the wind calls out my grandfather's name". On this album there is more desparation. The liner insert is a meditation on "The Failure of One Small Community in Achieving its own Ill-Defined Dreams And/Or Goals." There is strength in Godspeed's wordless soft/loud anthems. Here there is vulnerability, fear, and faith in secret beauty and tiny resistance. I hope I haven't foreclosed on my membership in Godspeed's tiny army by writing this review. Maybe my faith in multiaxial resistance is naive.
For those uninterested in the Godspeed/Fly Pan Am/Silver Mt. project I'll summarize with comparisons: this is Mogwai and Gorecki with a crypto-revolutionary consciousness."

Another stirring disc from the mighty Kranky Records

Bianchi Joe | Austin, TX United States | 11/26/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To know SMZ is to love them; an offspring of the incomparable Godspeed You Black Emperor, this consortium of musicians extends that group's vision without being derivative. The quiet, whispered vocals harken back to "He Has Left Us Alone..." but the comparison really ends there. This album feels more completely realized, somehow. It's somewhat more melodic, I guess, and the songs play the tension-and-release game with an even more dramatic effect. But mostly it's those beautiful GYBE strings and the sustained guitar against the plaintive, haunting piano that renders this clearly a work of art. Since buying GYBE's "Skinny Fists," I have voraciously gobbled up virtually every record and side project they've produced. This disc is clearly one of the best of the whole "post-rock" genre, and stands as a monument to the power of these Montreal geniuses."