Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upwards

A collapsing new world order, urban decay, mournful orchestrations weighed down with doom, fear and rage, symphonies to a failed world; the Godspeed You Black Emperor/Silver Mt Zion axis has never before sounded so chillingly apt and downright disturbing. And that’s just the uneasy feeling you get after reading the sleevenotes.

The second Zion album easily makes for one of the heaviest yet compelling listens around. ‘Sisters! Brother! Small Boats of Fire Are Falling from the Sky!’ and the achingly beautiful ‘This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Bird’s Fallen’ open eight stark pieces with bubbling loops and sloping strings that teeter on the point of dislocated distortion. ‘Built Then Burnt (Hurrah! Hurrah!)’ introduces a human voice that initially sounds so alien you’d assume vocalised music never even existed. ‘Take These Hands And Throw Them In The River’ is even more disorientating – underpinned with a strident howl as the music jars into a swirling storm of violins, cellos and chaos. The expansion from a trio to a six-piece aids the performance of more developed, vast sounding pieces that still retain all the fire and fury of an impassioned live ensemble performance.

Sure, this ain’t no pop picking treat. What the SMZ orchestra conceived and recorded earlier this year makes for hard, tragic listening. But such brutal honesty and directly engaging sadness is necessary in a far too dysfunctional world.