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Godspeed You! Black Emperor

THIS is the band that had the whole world turning it's eyes towards Montreal. THIS is the band that proved that this city had much to offer musically and that Quebec is not only the place where Celine Dion comes from. This music was dark and thick like tar, esoteric and weird... It's influences were hard to discern at first, but the spaghetti western melodies of Ennio Morricone and the freak-out/jams/build ups of german krautrockers Ash Ra Tempel are often cited as having infiltrated the collective's sound. Not interested in publicity, the group spent several years in obscurity, building up a Jandek-like cult following who wanted to know more about the mysterious entity that was Godspeed (for the intimate). The interviews were rare and culminated with the legendary article in NME. Since then, the group has split up into countless side-projects and slowly the mystery started to unravel, names were given, but the interest in the band has never died out... Ten years and still going strong regardless of the fact that they haven't released anything in ages.

I was surprised to find the collective on the Kranky label at the time. This felt huge, too good to be true: local boys and gals on a respected indie label from the states. When I first listened to their freshman effort, I didn't quite know what to make of it. Slow moving, incredibly dark chamber rock music with bizarre field recordings. There was supposed to be some cryptic political agendas being tackled, but honestly, besides the whole paranoia, anti-government, anarchistic aspect of the liner notes, the seriousness of the issues eluded me. What was left was the music and although I don't believe one can get hooked with just a quick listen; actually sitting down and letting the sounds seep in is guaranteed to win over even the most difficult music fans. They are still huge here in Montreal and even around the world, it's interesting to hear how many artists have been influenced by the group's sound, from japanese post-doom rockers Mono to post-post rockers Explosions In The Sky. I for one am keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't the last we've heard from these guys.

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