FLY PAN AM

I can’t decide if the various off-shoots of Godspeed You(!) Black Emperor(!) are simply not as talented without their guru Efrim Menuck, or if my expectations are too high, or if I’m simply tiring of this type of music. Maybe a little bit of all three. In any case I found the debut from Fly Pan Am a bit disappointing, and not all that interesting even after repeated listens.

The most immediately apparent difference here is the instrumentation, which is similar to Explosions in the Sky – guitar, bass, drums, and a bit of edited-tape trickery. No strings, which seems like almost a prerequisite for this type of music. The guitars remind me quite a bit of Explosions at times, although the arrangements are more monotonous, and Pan Am spend quite a bit of time just playing unvaried (or only slightly varied) passages during their interminably long compositions. The shortest work here is almost ten minutes, and the completely insufferable “Dans ses Cheveux Soixante Circuits” drags on for almost eighteen minutes, almost all of which consists solely of a two-note sequence repeated over and over and over and over…. You get the idea. I think this may have been done via tape mixes, not sure, but I totally failed to get the point and had to check my player several times during the first few listens just to make sure it was operating correctly.

The opening track “L'espace Au Sol Est Redessiné Par D'immenses Panneaux Bleus” is a bit more interesting, and shows a fair amount of Godspeed influence in the simple few bars that slowly build and morph slightly into what sounds exactly like so many of Menuck’s early compositions. The track runs a bit long at thirteen minutes, with not much point to the last several minutes, but this is pretty decent moody experimental rock, which is of course what it’s supposed to be.

“Et Aussi L'éclairage De Plastique Au Centre De Tout Ces Compartiments Latéraux” has some interesting and oddly-formed guitar notes that I’m not quite sure how they were formed, but the taped special effects lose their impact after several minutes of seemingly pointless repetition.

The first half of “Bibi à Nice, 1921” is almost indiscernible unless you crank your speakers all the way up. I’m not sure if this was intentional but if it was, the effect falls pretty flat. The second half has some decent guitar work/feedback, but not that much different than that on the opening track.

The final track “Nice Est En Feu!” has a decent brooding tempo and some slightly creepy female backing voices that alternate between wordless crooning and humming, plus a little piano. But just as this one finally seems to be going somewhere, it abruptly ends.

I probably did expect too much from these guys considering their pedigree and the Constellation label they were released on. But I suspect others would expect as much as me if they pick this up based on their previous experiences with Godspeed and Silver Mt Zion. They will probably be a bit disappointed just like I was.

Good for completionists or for people who like to wear black and mope around coffee shops bemoaning their presence in the human race, but not worth the money for anyone else. Two stars.

peace

When you are in a band that totally disregarded the paradigm of music as we knew it and practically invented a totally new sound that inspired listeners and players alike, your future is boundless, regardless of whether this music is done under the original band's name or not. Plenty of fans have already determined that they are infallible, so they can be a little bold without losing too much of their following. Of course, the fans aren't stupid; so if the band goes too far, they'll crash and burn. Godspeed You! Black Emperor was one of those bands.

Of course, the members of Godspeed never made any seriously audacious moves since their initial audacious move of starting the band in the first place. All of their albums were significantly different without comprimising their identity. It was the band's offshoots that really pushed the limits.

A Silver Mt. Zion started off with a similar sound to Godspeed, they quickly evolved into a highly innovated group that constantly tries new things out without getting too indulgent. It seems that there was a finite supply of indulgence, and Fly Pan Am wanted all of it.

This is a bold project. It's bold because they wrote a two-note line and repeated it for 18 minutes! I'm fine with minimalism, but this is approaching the limit of minimalism. And as that limit is approached, the result is either boring or intolerable. This is both. I like the material, but it is way too repetitive, and even with some sound in the background, not enough is changing. So it starts out with enjoyment but then it hits either boredom or annoyance and then it just oscillates between the two.

The ideas are solid, but they are self-sustaining for as long as they are being used. However, you will notice an avant-garde mindset about this record, and eventually they will almost succeed in mixing avant-garde stylings with post-rock.

What puts me off in some Post-Rock releases is that some of them were created for the sake of the experiment alone. A good idea, but whom do you guys tried to make wonder with 18-min long track bulit around two-notes groove? C'mon, give it up. Play music with experimental feeling or just stop being experimental posers. I even dare to think that was just a project to made some extra money from while GYBE's star was shining brighter than ever. I hope I'm wrong. Anyway, nothing truly special here, some mindless meanderings with few worthy musical ideas being thrown here and there. The same I feel about SET FIRE TO FLAMES, another poor GYBE offshot, which failed to succeed as good as A SILVER MT ZION did. Not recommended, even if you're GYBE fan. There are far more worthy releases from Constellation/Kranky/GYBE family, so don't waste your time and nerve here

All of the Clichés, None of the Beauty

Post Rock has never been my favorite genre of music, even though I do enjoy an occasional album from the genre every now and again. While I am certainly no expert of the genre, it seems to me that far too many of the bands that play post rock are very clichéd and lacking in innovation. Fly Pan Am's 1999 self-titled debut album proves just that, through a monotonous, uninspired, and repetitive experience.

If you're a fan of post rock, you may find more enjoyment from this album then I do, so I will day that from the start. This album has Roger Tellier-Craig of Godspeed You! Black Emperor on guitar, so if you consider yourself to be a fan of his you might want to check this out. For the casual post rock listener, such as myself, I really can't recommend this album to you at all. I have a really hard time sitting through all 60 minutes of this album. Especially when you put into consideration that you could easily cut off 25 minutes of useless repetition from this album. All in all, I get really frustrated when I listen to this album! There are some good ideas, but muddy production qualities and painfully boring compositions really destroy my overall listening experience.

This one hour album consists of only five songs, which range from a comfortable nine and a half minutes, all the way to almost eighteen minutes! Almost all of these songs could have easily been trimmed down in terms of length, and that is my biggest complaint with Fly Pan Am. Especially the near 18-minute track. The entire song is essentially based on two notes, which can obviously get repetitive after a short amount of time. And then when you add annoying, headache-inducing sound effects on top of that, it makes for a really bad way to spend such a vast amount of time. Unfortunately, none of the other four tracks are any more interesting.

As if the boring compositions weren't bad enough, the production qualities are really poor as well. It sounds very low budget, and the lead electric guitar sounds can occasionally get very annoying. The production is a minor complaint in the big picture, however. This album has far larger flaws than some mixing issues.

The musicianship is pretty poor as well. A lot of the playing comes across as sloppy and uninspired. The bass playing of J.S. Truchy is nearly inaudible, so I can't comment on him too much. The guitar playing is especially sloppy, and could have been much better. The drumming from Felix Morel is pretty boring, to be completely honest. He does absolutely nothing notable through the entire coarse of this album.

Conclusion:

Fly Pan Am is a really poor debut from this band, and I'm afraid I can't even recommend this to any post rock fans unless you're a die-hard Godspeed You! Black Emperor collector. I don't give out 1 star ratings often, but I'm afraid that is what I must give this album. I've only listened to this album from beginning to end a handful of times, and I'm afraid I won't ever hear it again.

1 star.