Amazon.co.uk Review
There is much to explore in Silver Mt Zion's
Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upwards. The first movement ("Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire are Falling from the Sky!") is a lush, richly scored orchestral piece, with found sound loops and complex instrumentation all contributing to a truly uplifting, climatic dirge. The second movement is much slower, with more traditional rock elements--feedback, silence and discordant guitars--creeping in among the neo-classical instruments. It's the album's centrepiece track "Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River" which really astonishes, however-imperilled ricocheting vocals, violins wailing like
The Dirty Three, suffocating atmosphere like
Mogwai, lyrical paranoia, a pulsating beat, all building up to a tumultuous climax. After the storm comes the lull, with birds twittering and cooing, but the pace soon builds up again culminating in another climax of distortion and noise, a pop melody and a final arpeggio guitar. The message at the end is "Musicians are cowards". --
Everett True
CD Description
Second album from Godspeed You Black Emperor side-project. Similar in style to GYBE's neo-classical post-rock, but featuring fragile, whispered vocals. Expansion to a sextet has allowed them to introduce richer, denser arrangements and greater harmonic complexity into their mournful, angry music.