Customer Reviews

Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward [Vinyl]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

the godspeed gang is quickly becoming the most successfully experimental group of musicians on this planet. this is a brilliant work of art. everyone who has heard the first album will do a triple take after hearing this one. fans have become so accustomed to the "drone-rock" thing that they will be surprised to find an actual variety of music in their lap when they purchase this record. it's a bit different, or perhaps more mature, then the normal GYBE! standard. Don't get me wrong though, there is absolutely nothing commercial about this album. this album has a lot of spirit. I highly suggest that you pay attention to all the artwork/liner notes/etc. because all the political poetry is definitely at it's most meaningful state. take it seriously, remind yourself that this album was recorded just months before the 9/11 attacks. this album does for music what scorsese's "the last temptation of christ" does for film.

I have given many rave reviews on amazon, while some deserved it, none hold a candle to this record. This record is truly a masterpiece. the harmonies are ridiculously mind blowing. After i compared this cd to other innovative bands that have recently gained a following, like sigur ros, it seems no one is even on the same level as these guys.

This cd is so expressive and emotional. The juxtapostion is like nothing I've heard before. If they didn't have such strong convictions, the greatest symphonies in the world would be opening for them. The classical music world would recognize this album as the next step in music innovation.

I would have been upset if this would have been another GYBE cd, but its not, its totally original. While I love GYBE, it would have just made me mad if they started another band just like it. That is totally not the case here.

The only flaw that I can even consider is on "take these hands and throw them in the river" it seems the songs builds and builds and then goes into to simple of a chorus. I see the song building and building and exploding into something as complex as that of the 2nd to the last track on the introduction to the second part. But that flaw is just simply my opinion, still one of the best records of all time.

owning every gybe! and fly pan am release i needed more and decided to buy this album. Hearing this was a breathe of fresh air. This cd is every bit as good as any gybe! release. This album has great vocals aswell reminiscent of the The's "Burning Blue Soul". The definate highlights of this album are Built then Burnt, Take these hands and throw them in the river, and Triumph of our tired eyes. any fan of gybe! or post rock will fall in love with this cd. sisters, brothers what are you waiting for? BUY NOW!!!

So screams Efrim in the closing track of "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward," closing an immaculately desgined and created album. Begun as a side-project of the huge Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion was really just Efrim's way of trying to express more gloom and less doom. Godspeed makes black records, but its black on a grander scale (read: the end of the world). ASMZ focuses more on the lonely, sad, and personal aspects of...well...sadness.

Similarities to GY!BE run rampant. Starting with the name of the band itself, there is an implied level of pretentiousness to this music. The band name that just keeps growing, the syntactical non-sequiturs, etc., serve to throw a distancing spike between the music and the listener. I think that's just what ASMZ are trying to do. By not allowing the listener to connect with the band, the focus is placed on the music, and not those creating it. They become a caricature- larger than life- and thus can serve as adequate vessels for a haunting message. The sentence-long song titles (i.e. "This Gentle Hearts, Like Shot Birds Fallen," one of the shortest titles) serve the same purpose.

As most GY!BE and ASMZ records, there are few words, and those that are present are spoken. The album opens with tape-effects, slowly layering in dual violins, playing a dissonant, terribly sad piece. A 3/4 piano joins as the violins fade out, a minor-key waltz that promotes anything but dancing. Sophie re-joins with her violin, and a cello provides the low-end back-up.

And that was the first four minutes of track 1. Honestly, I could write paragraphs like that for every 4 minutes of this album. For the next 54 minutes, ASMZ take you though sorrow, joy (small amounts), loss, gain, pain and finally...hope. The transitions are perfect, and the music simply drenches you with the slow, sad melodies. The record bends and swirls around a few key hooks, and the instrumentation is all but flawless (as can be expected from these guys).

Time is taken at the beginning of the third track for a monologue read by a young boy. It is, at its surface, a happy message ("Lets have a parade! Its been so long since we've had a parade"), but I think it is being used ironically in this position in the record. The title of the track ("Built then Burnt (Hurrah! Hurrah!"). The parade is only on the surface, but below the jubilation is still a Jericho waiting to fall, and fall it does. I still can't decide how I feel about it. When I'm alone in my chair in the dark, listening to this entire record, it fits perfectly. When I try to listen to the song itself, however, it seems pretty silly. I suppose it is a thematic device, and its really my fault for trying to consider it as a singularity.

The record's final track is entitled "The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes." Honestly, the record would be worth buying if this was the only track it contained. Yes...its THAT good. It is the only track on the album with lyrics...and also the only track on the record that I could call hopeful. The loss and destruction found in the previous seven tracks are finally met...with defiance and hope. "C'mon friends...to the barricades again.."...perfect.

The record (like most of GY!BE and ASMZ's work), is ultimately a political statement. They are fiercely anti-American, and much of their works revolve around what they see as the evil of the United States. Railroads are torn up to build strip malls, and things of beauty are torn down to build Wal-Marts. There is futility in fighting, they realize the bulldozers will eventually come to tear up what has been built, but they build in spite of it (to paraphrase the liner notes). The "barricades" are defiance itself. The message is both disturbing and hopeful, and one worth thinking about

Of course, your appreciation for Efrim's vocal stylings will ultimately determine if you can even find it listenable, but read below, and perhaps you can get past his voice. There is also much debate on the inclusion of Efrim's singing on this album (as opposed to HHLUABSOLSPTCOOR, which was purely instrumental). Though it is dissonant, most often flat, and thin- I think it is perfect for its thematic role. There needs to beauty in the song itself, only in that the message gets through. It is sung by a man tired from the long and losing fight, yet still hopeful through his tears. I love it.

This is probably my favorite Silver Mt Zion album, the other two registered within my brain being their debut "God Has Left Us Alone..." and their recent, more vocalized "Horses in the Sky". Though I 'might' dare say the other two albums have more climatic moments individually (re: 'might'), "Sparks" is all around the most enjoyable listening experience to be had, and is probably the first album I'd give to someone introducing the band, for multiple reasons.

Simply put, it's gorgeous. The first track is stunningly beautiful. Amazing. Romantically charged and haunting. Silver Mt. Zion simply compose beautiful melodies -- more beautiful than virtually every other band around -- and 'Sisters! Brothers!..." is one of their prettiest. Thereafter, the album follows with another beautiful piece, the angelic and mystical, somber and devestating 'This Gentle's Hearts'... Wonderful, haunting stuff. The third track, likewise.

After the album's initial twenty minutes, however, things change a bit. "Take These Hands..." is a ferociously charged vocal piece filled with various dissonant layers and echoed voices. If anything, it comes as a great change of pace, if not impressing as much musically (though it's still a great piece). 'Could've Moved Mountains', the next piece, might be the slowest on the album, and one definitely need a decent pair of headphones to hear the intricies here; harmonized vocals in different channels makes it a far more interesting listen on repeated, closer listens.

Unfortunately, however, tracks 6 and 7, while admirable, don't do much for me. They recall more of the mood of Silver Mt Zion's initial album, and are a bit too abrasive for me. Furthermore, they simply clash with the generally timid nature of the first half of the album. The latter of the two has some wonder within the chaos, but it's just not enough.

The album ends with a soft, high note, and recalls the beauty of the strongest points of the album. The thing with this album is that there are highs and lows, but the highs are truly high -- near heavenly -- and that's why I award such an album five stars. You've got at least 30 minutes of amazing music, and probably 45 minutes of great music.

If you're a fan of Godspeed you Black Emperor!, get it.

the opening of this cd is perhaps the best i've ever heard. certainly there are some weaker moments in the middle tracks but from beginning to end this is an album of extreme power, and emotional turmoil...the use of human voice on this record is incredible (and much different than gybe!) though the words seem scripted, the voices are delicate/fragile and full of honesty...wonderfully heavy with strings, as good as anything gybe! has produced...

By the time you get to track three, you're already aware of what the band has been building with their music. On tracks one and two, the band uses orchestral loops to build up the tracks layer by layer. "Built Then Burnt" starts with a child preaching about a better world and the hypocrisy that we have in our current one. The drones and violins come in... sounding very Eno-ish, and it keeps building and building until the violent burst that is "Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River." By this time... you know you have found one of the best albums of the year.