Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead

SAME LABEL, same country of origin, same release date, different acts, same effect. On the evidence of the treasures currently being produced by the Constellation label, Canada looks like becoming the post post-rock capital of the globe.

Firstly, Do Make Say Think: cosmic concerto for guitar, horn and double drums anyone? At its most dynamic, the combo's second album (born in a barn, like Jesus) erases decades of fusion horror, making the assimilation of free jazz ethics into rock 'n' roll seem like child's play. Which it isn't, by a long shot.

Initially swelling from a warm nest of sludge-rock chords, the opening 'When Day Chokes The Night' is a stirring surge of holy modalities, attritional rhythmic currents and abstract electronica.

Call it experimental, call it space music, but Goodbye Enemy . . . is noise for the body as well as the brain, as illustrated by the closing suites 'Bruce E Kinesis' and 'Goodbye Enemy Airship' - spastic funk interpreted by Joy Division. Elsewhere, 'The Landlord Is Dead' and 'Minmin' could be Sketches Of Spain via Pere Ubu, while the twangy 'Apartment Song' seems to mistake snowblindness for heat haze - South Park directed by Sergio Leone.

A Silver Mt. Zion meanwhile, are none other than Efrim and Thierry (with a little help from violinist Sophie) from Godspeed You Black Emperor. This record was hatched at the Hotel2tango headquarters last November, and the CD version is divided into two sections - 'Lonely As The Sound Of Lying On The Ground Of An Airplane Going Down' and 'The World Is SickSICK (So Kiss Me Quick)', each consisting of four distinct - and exquisite - movements.

This is minor key, but a major work nonetheless. The usual array of end-of-days ephemera proliferate; ominous drones, weeping piano chords, sluggish tempos, tragic violin and what sound like religious broadcasts issuing from a remote controlled van patrolling a deserted city. 'He Has Left Us Alone' for instance, is a Pandora's music box of Glass-y arpeggios, minimalist, constantly evolving structures; Casals meets Cage on a lonely night in CBGB, circa 1976.

That this record is dedicated to Efrim's dog Wanda, who is dying of cancer, should supply the emotional touchstone - likewise titles such as 'Stumble Then Rise On Some Awkward Morning' and '13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round The Side Of Your Bed'. Of course, it's easy to be flip in the face of such serious-mindedness, but ASMZ do conjure a truly beautiful magicholia - there's even a couple of honest-to- god vocal tracks in the form of 'Movie (Never Made)' and 'Blown-Out Joy From Heaven's Mercied Hole'.

In a time when much of what passes for counterculture is merely counter culture, the message from cities like Montreal and Toronto is loud and clear - if the centre gets congested, head for pop's peripheries. This fresh air will make your head spin.