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Old 09.21.2017, 09:33 AM   #411
Severian
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Originally Posted by guest
listening to godspeed in order to be surprised is pretty absurd though, right? like every piece of music they've ever made subscribes to a pretty clear formula, and irrespective of whether or not I like it people listen to them because they like that aesthetic, even if it is a complete artistic straitjacket

Ok, I do agree that expecting something surprising from this band is a bit silly at this point. BUT... that’s not really what I was getting at when I said I had high hopes for the new album. I wasn’t saying I thought it was going to, or should, sound surprising or different from their “classic” material. Rather, I meant that there is a lot happening in the world’s current geo-political and social-economic climate for this particular band to draw from to potentially make music that is on a par with their unsettling early work. Those albums (“F#A#∞,” “Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada,” “Lift yr Skinny Fists...,” “Yanqui U.X.O.”) used a multimedia-based approach to instill the music with a sense of dread and urgency. Samples of unsettling conversations, loops of advertisements, and so on, were a huge part of what made that music sound special. I think the band members were inspired to make some truly epic and lasting music by things that were happening in the world, in the periphery of cultural consciousness.

What I meant was that, Jesus, right now, there is some truly bone-chilling, terrifying shit happening right out in the open, threatening political systems and ways of life on the global level, just RIPE for the picking, and I thought GY!BE might be well-suited to tackle some of this stuff in a way that would inspire some really memorable — if not new or surprising — music.

“Lift Yr Skinny Fists...” is a double album filled with these massive track lengths, but the songs are truly unforgettable as individual pieces of music. I don’t really feel like that’s been the case with either of their 2010s records. The songs just sound like Godspeed, and don’t leave much of a lasting impact. I was, perhaps naively, hoping that the absolute apocalyptic fucked-upendness of the Trump era might inspire some GY!BE songs that hit hard and stayed fresh in one’s mind, like “The Dead Flag Blues,” or “Blaise Bailey Finnegan III,” or “Storm,” or “Attention Mon Ami Fa-Lala-Lala-La-La” (really ALL of the movements on Skinny Fists.) Those tracks get stuck in my head like pop songs, and pack a punch even 18 years later.

I just thought... maybe there was enough material out there to inspire another “peak” Godspeed record. Not something surprising... just something really fucking good.
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