THE PRETTY LITTLE LIGHTNING PAW E.P.

This time appearing as THEE SILVER REVERIES which no trace of Zion to be found, the Canadian Godspeed You! Black Emperor side project of guitarist / pianist / vocalist Efrim Menuck dropped this tiny four track EP between its two regularly album releases. The result was the 30 minute THE PRETTY LITTLE LIGHTNING PAW E.P. which slinked into the year 2004 and has remained one of those tag ons to the band's greater discography going noticed by many but highly appreciated by those who happen to find it bliss them with the aural essence that is THEE SILVER MOUNTAIN ORCHESTRA.

Another curveball in the zigzagging trajectory of uniformity, PRETTY LITTLE LIGHTNING PAW finds a somewhat streamlined lineup with only five musicians on board however the biggest surprise is that key members such as violinist Sophie Trudeau switches to the bass guitar and the increase of guitars, basses and percussion makes this what feels like a bonafide post-rock release rather than some sort of post-modern classical chamber folk hybrid. If that wasn't enough to set the SILVER MOUNTAIN clan in a firm creative footing, the band then played the recorded finished product on a boombox and then rerecorded it all again from that which gives it an unusually rougher than usual sound. Holy moly!

This EP is more on the surreal and ethereal side of the equation with the usual post-rock cyclical loops wending and winding in some cases such as the title track up to 10 minutes in playing time only fortified with everything from toy box music, and varying percussive click and clacks. Also feedback plays a major role in echoey chamber resonance and although Efrim Menuck's vocals are a hard pill for me to swallow, his performances here somehow melt right into the pulsating processions of the heavily orchestrated chamber folk atmospheres finding all the other members offering their own voice to the atmospheric majesty of the tracks. Menuck's vocals are made tolerable to me in most part though the modulating effect of an echo box and drowned out by the incessant manic swarm of sound effects provided by the instrumentation.

In a way the EP prognosticates the style of the next album with every track featuring Menuck's paranoid lyrical delivery accompanied by a purposeful out of tune backing singalong choir evoking the innocence of childhood only with the horror of awareness that the world is not what we were led to believe in our sheltered early years of grade school giddiness. The singalong sessions that feature a call and response methodology may be on repetitive mode but the swirling swarm of musicality that back it and often drowns it out altogether are what make this little EP a sweet little gem in the band's overall canon. All the weakness of the band (particularly Efrim's vocal style) is suavely pacified with all the right doctoring up and majestic ethereal percolating of the post-rock accompaniments is actually quite magical.

While i'm a fan of the first three releases, the following "Horses In The Sky" takes the approach laid down here and strips it down until only the annoying features dominate. In all honesty this EP should've been the next album with an extended track list of course because even though the overall direction is the same, this one features enough elements to guarantee that the focal point doesn't gravitate to the weakest link of the equation. I actually discovered this one quite by accident as i bought another album by the group but when i ripped it onto the my external hard drive it turned out to be the wrong CD but to my delight i loved it and discovered a hidden gem in the greater MT SILVER ZION musical reality. Now it's actually one of my favorite releases of all. A triumphant little musical expression that shouldn't be ignored.