Sometimes we take music for granted. Even I am guilty; I listen to a lot, and things tend to blur together when you listen to as much music as I do. Every now and again though, there comes a piece that stops you in your tracks, challenges your perception of what matters in music, and edifies your soul. Though it just misses out on my top 100 records list, "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward" is one such album.
The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward || Post-Rock || Released 2001
A band that has undergone many variations on its name, most know them as simply "A Silver Mt. Zion" (the name they started with). ASMZ are an offshoot of the best and most influential post-rock outfit of all time, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, featuring many members of the band. While the stylings of GSY!BE bleed through in this band's work (how could they not?), there is something entirely new and fresh in the vision of ASMZ that one cannot get from their parent band.
BITATSFU is the band's second record, and honestly I sometimes have a hard time picking which is my favorite between the first album and this one. Both are brilliant, featuring flavors of classical mixed with anthemic and immensely intense post-rock. I have a slight preference for the first record, mostly due to familiarity. Their second is the band at their most dark and apocalyptic; however, there are rays of light that shine through the cracks between the pitch-black tendrils that fold over and swath the album.
The band takes its work very seriously here; sometimes this is to an album's detriment, but you can't argue with results. There's a sense of urgency, despair and deep melancholy to many of these tracks. Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire Are Falling From the Sky! is a fantastic opener. Starting as ambient flickers of movement, it evolves into a string-led and instrumentally rich soundscape. The piano part that begins at around 3 minutes in is desolate and forlorn, giving a distinctly melancholy tone to the track. This song, (and, indeed, much of the album) reminds me very much of the intro to Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed You, in a good way.
One of the things that really keeps this album intriguing is the odd and unorthodox way guitars are used. We can hear this distinctly on tracks like the opener and C'mon Come On (Loose an Endless Longing). On others, especially This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Bird's Fallen, they're used sparingly to provide a backbone against the swelling, mournful strings, but there's enough experimentation to provide interesting textures regardless of context. The drum-work is also strange and propulsive, while never being especially virtuosic.
The centerpiece of and my favorite track on the album is Could've Moved Mountains. It starts innocuously, but as it gathers together and evolves, it becomes one of my favorite pieces of music ever recorded. The quiet guitar plucking that starts, low and simple, eases us into the track. There are vocals that begin, quietly, to build tension. Unless you're wearing headphones, the lyrics are too low to make out initially, but are excellent. At around 2:45 the guitar becomes more distinct and insistent, before dropping again, only to be built back up. This track is a masterclass in building up from meager beginnings to genuinely throat-closing, glorious resolution; the strings that enter and never leave, the simple but powerful guitar chords, the sparingly used vocals...I absolutely love everything about this track. If you listen to only one song from this record, this is the one.
There are a couple of tracks I'm not overly fond of. Built Then Burnt (Hurrah! Hurrah!) is one of them; I find the child's spoken word vocal delivery mildly obnoxious, though the backing instrumentation is pretty great, and the lyrics are interesting. My least favorite track on the album is probably Tho You Are Gone I Still Often Walk w/ You. I find it boring and simple, an odd choice to follow up the intense and undeniable beauty of Could've Moved Mountains.
Overall, I'd consider this among the best records ever put out by Efrim and the crew; it's dark, strange at points, but oddly uplifting at the same time. Over time, I could see this creeping into my top 100, but I'll always be thinking how much more cohesive the previous record was, and of course, how most of its highs can't live up to those of the best of GSY!BE. This is highly recommended to anyone looking for an experimental rock album, and willing to dabble in the dark (but beautiful) side of post-rock.
Rating: 93/100
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