HORSES IN THE SKY

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and tra-la-la Band plays "Horses in the Sky" is the accurate title of this 2005 release. A Silver Mt. Zion is a sideproject of the canadian 9 piece Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Formerly the band was formed to explore music with a smaller ensemble, to release some own ideas. Meanwhile the former trio is made up of 7 musicians, maybe the reason why the appendix Tra-la-la Band was added.

The boys and girls play their very own version of so called post rock. Sometimes quite electric, wild and agitated but most of the time very acoustic, almost chamber rock like. Unlike GY!BE this release features vocals. Sometimes weird, sometimes doleful and with a touch of Peter Gabriel and Comus here and there. The first song, called God Bless Our Dead Marines, features everything the following songs will reveal. Off-key sounding vocals, melancolic vocals, chamber rock, the post rock typical rising and falling structures and some beautiful melodies. The middle section of the song is just fantastic I've to say. Mountains Made of Steam and Teddy Roosevelt's Guns feature parts reminding me of GY!BE whereas the title song Horses in the Sky is a lugubrious ballad accompanied by acoustic guitar, one of my favorite sons on this album. Parallels to Godspeed basically appear when the electric guitar goes wild to create walls of sound. Hang on to Each Other is a sparely orchestrated piece for several voices, maybe a bit too long for my tastes because the same lyrics are repeated over and over. Another favorite of mine is the last track, Ring Them Bells (Freedom Has Come and Gone), very dark and melancholic. Definitely the one with the strongest parallels to Godspeed.

Horses in the Sky is a good post rock album and definitely worth buying, even though there are definitely better post rock releases. The vocals are not easy to get into, just like the rest of the music but exceptionally the very vocals. If you like post rock, chamber rock or any of the following bands there's no argument against purchasing this album: Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, Sigur Rós, Die anarchistische Abendunterhaltung, Comus (!).

Share this A SILVER MT. ZION review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to diddy
• Report this review (#41836)
• Buy A SILVER MT. ZION music online with PA partners
• Show all A SILVER MT. ZION MP3/Stream
• Go to A SILVER MT. ZION page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Horses In The Sky page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for A SILVER MT. ZION related discussions