2LP - 180g Black Vinyl Repress.
This second studio album, two-disc Godspeed You! Black Emperor! tour-de-force is considered something of a milestone of the post-rock age. Its influence was proven by the amount of echo-ing-their-style-bands that grew in the wake of its original release in 2000.
Four tacks (or movements) opening with slowly drifting ambient droning, which gradually begets mournful strings and a distant, pitch-shifted evangelical sermon before an increasingly ominous thudding rock beat, guitars, glockenspiel, distortion, and bass come spiralling in to break things up for an ever-tightening crescendo.
The following piece, Static, is marked by the early arrival of a hauntingly sad melody (yes, an actual melody), followed by slowly accelerating beats and the ghost of a dying bagpipe - one of Emperor's truly majestic moments - which later segues into shopping announcements and more treated distortion.
The second disc starts off with a sample of an old man reminiscing about the long-lost glory days of Coney Island. The music coasts on through the ashes of time from there, drifting with swooping guitars that sound like Yma Sumac vocals, building into crescendo after crescendo, with drums increasing, pounding, and expiring.
The last track kicks off with some bluesy folk crooning that then dissolves into an evaporating haze of strings and guitars. By turns operatic, rocked-out, and mournfully apocalyptic, antennas conjures deep emotions, landscapes, and even socio-political commentary, and some might sincerely argue that it also makes wonderful house cleaning music.
Tracklist:
Storm (21:59)
A1. Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas To Heaven...
A2. Gathering Storm / Il Pleut À Mourir [+Clatters Like Worry]
A3. "Welcome To Barco AM/PM..." [L.A.X.; 5/14/00]
A4. Cancer Towers On Holy Road Hi-Way
Static (21:07)
B1. Terrible Canyons Of Static
B2. Atomic Clock.
B3. Chart #3
B4. World Police And Friendly Fire
B5. [...+The Buildings They Are Sleeping Now]
Sleep (21:12)
C1. Murray Ostril: "...They Don't Sleep Anymore On The Beach..."
C2. Monheim
C3. Broken Windows, Locks Of Love Pt. III. / 3rd Part
Antennas To Heaven...
D1. Moya Sings "Baby-O"...
D2. Edgyswingsetacid
D3. [Glockenspiel Duet Recorded On A Campsite In Rhinebeck, N.Y.]
D4. "Attention...Mon Ami...Fa-Lala-Lala-La-La..." [55-St.Laurent]
D5. She Dreamt She Was A Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone In An Empty Field
D6. Deathkamp Drone
D7. [Antennas To Heaven...]