Canadian band Godspeed You! Black Emperor (often abbreviated GY!BE) make music as eccentric as their name suggests: their signature style is characterized by long instrumental songs, replete with strange chords, rhythms, and timbres, that slowly build from quiet ambience to a thundering climax.Their music canonized the underground genre of post-rock, which also includes the bands Explosions in the Sky and Icelandic Sigur Rós.
“‘Allelujah!” features four tracks: two twenty-minute-long epics each followed by a six-minute-long drone piece. The shorter pieces, “Their Helicopters’ Sing” and “String Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable,” exhibit interesting drone-y textures and electronic experimentation, but lack the narrative structure of the longer songs.
The long songs are the centerpiece of the album. The first, “Mladic,” draws its name from Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladić and is appropriately dark. At first Middle-Eastern guitars and violin are layered under dissonant twangs; then powerful distorted electric guitars burst into a sinister melody. After a while the song returns to quiet drones, before distorted guitars take over again for the final climax: a thundering seven-chord sequence propelled forward by pounding percussion. “Mladic” displays just the right amount of dissonance to be both noisy and beautiful.
The second twenty-minute song, “We Drift Like Worried Fire,” starts by introducing a pensive plinking melody, constructed around only a few notes. Layer after layer piles on top, until it grows into a roaring joyful noise that suddenly drops away, only to spend the next few minutes building up again into a deeply satisfying conclusion, a hopeful ending that contrasts the stormy conclusion of “Mladic.”
GY!BE have an incredible ability to infuse lengthy instrumentals with emotional depth and beauty. It’s a skill we associate with the great Classical composers, but GY!BE also have the energy and authenticity of rock ‘n’ roll to give their compositions meaning. It takes a lot of patience to fully enjoy their music. It’s easiest when you’re lying in bed, half-asleep, letting the music wash over you; but be careful—falling asleep to “Mladic” is a great way to give yourself nightmares.
