Performer Notes

Personnel: David Bryant (electric guitar, dulcimer); Efrim Manuel Menuck (electric guitar, hurdy-gurdy); Mike Moya (electric guitar); Sophie Trudeau (violin); Thierry Amar (cello, electric bass); Bruce Cawdron (vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, drums); Mauro Pezzente (bass guitar); Aidan Girt (drums).
Recording information: Concrete Jamspace; Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango.
Photographers: Tim Herzog; Yannick Grandmont.
When Godspeed You! Black Emperor reassembled to tour in 2011 after nearly a decade off, fans were simultaneously excited and filled with trepidation. Despite the fact that there was precious little new material in the show, the rearrangements of particular tunes from their repertoire proved that they were still well invested in expanding on what they'd built. A few short weeks before its release, GY!BE announced 'Allelujah! Don't Bend Ascend, their first new album in a decade. Now expanded to a nine-piece, the album features four tracks. There are two longer ones clocking in at 20 minutes each, and a pair at around six-and-a-half. Fans will be familiar with the longer tunes, "Mladic" and "We Drift Like Worried Fire" have been in the band's live set since 2002. That said, they have been thoroughly re-imagined and expanded for this larger ensemble. "Mladic" commences with the now-trademark sampled, obscure vocal tracks. It opens in a simulated Middle Eastern mode played by a treated violin, sounding like a ney. The distorted guitars and bass commence as a drone, as a detuned slide carries dissonance into it that gradually gives way to a wall of churning guitars in alternate tunings, wailing strings, and deep thudding drums. Its orchestral changes in the last third are GY!BE at their most aggressive. By contrast, the other long work, "We Drift Like Worried Fire," is almost a suite. Low bass drones, plucked guitars, and strings that suggest an Eastern European folk melody introduce it, answered by guitars; some playing distorted, restrained sonics, while others offer plucked, repetitive lines. The result is a languid, yet lovely, melodic series of repetitions. The strings enter to create a second, minimalist lyric line. Drums, feedback, and bass gradually quicken the pace until it gels into an intense, gorgeously melodic, and thunderous epic that soars. It disintegrates midway to assert another part of the journey, more minimal and tense. The musical dialogue is by turns contrapuntal, sinister, and elegiac before rising once more to a dramatic peak before feedbacking to close. "Their Helicopters Sing" and "Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable" are the shorter new works. (On the LP version, they're on a separate 7" single.) They act as pauses, different tonal meditations between the extended works. Both are based on slow drones, and explore more dissonant, cacophonous, electronic elements in GY!BE's sound. They offer rich, spacious entries into different, far more experimental aspects of the group's soundworld. It would be inaccurate to call 'Allelujah! Don't Bend Ascend a major work on the scale of Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna to Heaven. That said, given the discipline and experimentation in the short pieces, and in the creative imagination displayed in rearranging the longer ones to accommodate a larger band, 'Allelujah! Don't Bend Ascend proves that GY!BE still has plenty of captivating things to say. ~ Thom Jurek

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (p.72) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Godspeed's music remains as deep, angry, tender, ecstatic and uncompromising as ever."

Q (Magazine) (p.105) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Twenty-minute opener 'Mladic' picks up where 2002's YANQUI UXO left off, a simple riff emerging from the static that then builds mesmerically, crescendo upon crescendo..."

Fishpond works with suppliers all over the world to bring you a huge selection of products, really great prices, and delivery included on over 25 million products that we sell. We do our best every day to make Fishpond an awesome place for customers to shop and get what they want — all at the best prices online.

About Fishpond

You can earn a 8% commission by selling 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! on your website. It's easy to get started - we will give you example code. After you're set-up, your website can earn you money while you work, play or even sleep! You should start right now!

Are you the Author or Publisher of a book? Or the manufacturer of one of the millions of products that we sell. You can improve sales and grow your revenue by submitting additional information on this title. The better the information we have about a product, the more we will sell!

Submit Information

Album: 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
#	Song Title		Time
2)	Their Helicopters Sing	More Info...	0:06
3)	We Drift Like Worried Fire	More Info...	0:20
4)	Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable	More Info...	0:06

Album: 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
#	Song Title		Time
2)	Their Helicopters Sing	More Info...	0:06
3)	We Drift Like Worried Fire	More Info...	0:20
4)	Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable	More Info...	0:06