SINGS REIGN REBUILDER

Well like the other constellation label groups Set fire to flames have members from Godspeed, Silver mount Zion and others, but in this case they get reunited to record in a house in Montreal, and they spent days just recording and mixing the sounds and noises with a very large and vast line up of Musical instruments, The result was a mix between strange sounds, noises, voices, blows, Crackles, urban noises and musical ideas melted perfectly. You can hear from footsteps and bizarre percussive sounds to some very strange chair noises, also like in every Godspeed album they put street noises and people talking, laughing and digressing.

In Sings Reign Rebuilder we can hear a more consistent and coherent work than in their second release, could we labeled as depressing heart rendering In some moments but its more than that, its hopeful and fascinating , and we have some really interesting pieces like "Steal Compass", "Omaha", "Vienna Arcweld", "Shit-Heap-Gloria Of The New Town Planning" and others (all instrumental); I could say that there's no filler or disappointing parts here. Because this is a experimental work could be difficult in the first listens to get the idea about what they were are trying to say with this record. So be patient because its something like you probably never heard before. It's a free will work of art, because they don't have any intension to be commercially successful, its just about music.

Comparing their sound with Godspeed and others its comprehensible, but this is new and refreshing for the post rock/experimental genre, because many of the "new" post rock bands just repeat the same formula and don't contribute whit anything new.

Son if you are really open minded and want to try something really new, try Sings Reign Rebuilder, It will make you think about some serious #@*4 . Totally recommended. 4.5 stars.

BAMBA. Landaus Gomez

I’m not sure this is technically a band; it’s more like a project. Set Fire to Flames first appeared as a live act in 1999, which apparently is the only time they appeared live. Shortly afterward the thirteen musicians holed themselves up in an old apartment in Montreal for five days and, deprived of sleep and sometimes food, proceeded to get all f**ked up and record hours upon hours of loosely scripted (and highly improvised) music. Mixed in with the arrangements (if you can call them that) are street sounds much like those Godspeed You! Black Emperor were famous for around the same time.

And that shouldn’t be surprising since about half the group was made up of Godspeed members, including mixmaster/guitarists Michael Moya and Roger Tellier-Craig; percussionists Bruce Cawdron and Fluffy Erskine; and the string section from the first two Godspeed albums as well as inaugural A Silver Mt. Zion members Beck Foon and Sophie Trudeau.

In addition to the street sounds, the recordings included a number of other environmental noises from the apartment surroundings including creaking doors and steps; voices of people coming in and out of the building; and cars moving about nearby.

The overall sound is not totally unlike that of Godspeed’s 1999 EP ‘Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada’, but in the case of Set Fire to Flames there aren’t really any slowly building crescendos or long cacophonic explosions of instrumental sound to speak of. Instead the musicians recorded about a dozen hours of noise, music, and improvisational noodling and patched it together in a collection of fifteen titled tracks, some of which sort of resemble songs. They’re really more like little mood pieces meant to evoke emotions or simply to invite thoughtful reflection. Or maybe they’re simply a form of head candy to accompany listeners during their own physical/mental deprivation experiences. Who knows.

The more interesting tracks include the eerie and almost ambient “Omaha”; “Cote d'Abrahms Roomtone / 'What's Going On?...' (From Lips of Lying Dying Wonder Body #3)” with its “Several Species of Small Furry Animals…” like electronic noises and rambling recorded voices; and the heavily acoustic and hopeful-sounding “Injur: Gutted Two-Track...”.

But the real gem in this collection is the ten-minute slowly-building “Jesus/Pop...”, which is not only the most cohesive track on the album, but also the closest thing to a Godspeed work as you’re likely to hear anywhere outside of that band’s own four albums. And speaking of Godspeed, there are many snippets of strings, guitar, and percussion sprinkled throughout the album that can be traced back to the first two Godspeed albums if one felt the urge to pick through and identify them. Again, not surprising considering that except for Efrim Menuck, most of the key players from that band appear here as well.

The thing I like best about this album is that it incorporates the best of the eclectic and disturbing instrumental experimentation found with Godspeed, but at the same time avoids the rather predictable slow-intro/street-sounds/crescendo/explosion/fade pattern that Godspeed slipped into on all three of their full-length albums. In that respect this is a lot more experimental and adventurous, much like several of the A Silver Mt. Zion albums of the last few years.

This music isn’t for everyone, not even for all fans of experimental or post-rock music. If you are a bit of a stoner, you’ll undoubtedly find this album to be a stimulating sensory experience. Likewise if you’re just bored with predictable progressive music and are looking for something new that stretches the boundaries. For adventurous souls like these, this is a highly recommended work, and a four star experience.

peace

Yet another Post Rock group that calqued their sound on the famous GYBE!, which is easily understood since this is an Aidan-led project, therefore a GYBE! spin-off. One of the most disturbing things with this project is that it doesn't really offer much more than GYBE! (unlike Fly Pan Am or Silver Mountain Zion), but stays even more atmospheric and ambient than the chief project. Another surprise is the project's presence on a different label than Constellation (although there might be a link between them and P-Vine),

Still loaded with doom and gloom and clearly alluding to heavy drugs descend into hell (through prostitution and slow body deperishment and the whole shebang) and unlike GYBE!'s usual albums, the message is loud and clear. However, this doesn't stop Aidan and the gang from relying on the old and tried recipes, which means that this sounds like the same old soup being reheated. They even fall into the pit of these long monologues (which plague GYBE!'s works) and make this album relatively difficult for repeated listens, not that you'd really want to spin this album regularly.

Set Fire to Flames is a Godspeed You Black Emperor side project based heavily around improvisation and taking the "found audio" aspect of Godspeed's sound to the absolute limit. The entire album was recorded not in the Hotel2Tango, the usual haunt of Godspeed and its related bands, but in a creaky, abandoned, soon to be demolished old house, and the band made a deliberate decision not to edit out any incidental noises (to the extent where a passing police car ends up getting a performer credit on one song). The end result is intriguing: whereas on Godspeed's albums there's a disjunction between the impeccably produced instrumental playing and the scratchy found audio clips, here the instrumentals are the found audio. It's far more successful an experiment than I expected it to be, that's for sure.