02 Ritz, Manchester
A light drizzle paints the darkened Lancashire skies as a storm is imminent. A city of commuters, students, tourists, and locals litter the streets, flocking from shelter to shelter in preparation for what is to come. Autumn has finally arrived as Godspeed You! Black Emperor fittingly grace the Manchester O2 Ritz on the 1st of October to hang the stagnant mist of the bleak months to come.
The Canadian post-rock outfit have recently announced their 8th studio album, “No Title As of 13 February 2024 38,340 Dead” set to be released on Constellation on October 4th. The title of the album “No Title As of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead” presents the death toll of Palestinians, reported by Gaza’s Health Ministry (more than 40,000 Palestinians have now been killed in the war, according to the ministry). In a statement announcing their latest album, GSY!BE added, “NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody? and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.”
Throughout their discography, the instrumental multimedia Godspeed You! Black Emperor have mastered orchestral drones and cinematic escapades that create minimal and patient crescendo building of the band’s compositions results in a meditative and hypnotic listen that becomes narrative-like when combined with found-sound splices and the films of their visual collaborators.
“redefining what protest music can be, where long form instrumental chamber rock compositions of immense feeling and power serve as soundtracks to late capitalist alienation and resistance.” Constellation
It’s something that has always fascinated me about GSY!BE. The imaginative film your mind presents during the immersion. An authentic projection, individual to everyone. It bears resemblance to when Paul McCartney rejected John Lennon’s idea of a music video, saying that he didn’t want to show the listeners what they were experiencing to make it a singular experience; rather, it should be up to the listener to imagine and allow the mysticism of the individual to shine through the music. An idea Paul eventually gave into. GSY!BE have fulfilled this concept. No music video or visual can be found online for their music, only the live film projections that coat the stage and allow you to become the protagonist. Stripping the orthodoxies clean of the traditional rock band outfits, egos, and press shots. Godspeed You! Black Emperor aren’t focussing on themselves; they want you to be the protagonist in your own story, and they’ll guide you there.
Each track, Godspeed You! Black Emperor track holds the foundations; dynamics, audio samples, and atmospheres—to concoct a visual landscape. A soundtrack that leads you through the essence of human emotions and experience. Weaves of experience become part of the projection, but the emotions from the soundtrack will guide the path where you may lead. No other band has ever done this for me. Swans took me on a ritualistic, transcending experience. But GSY!BE have crafted a discography of imageless films to be channelled into your consciousness, allowing you to transcend into wherever your mind decides to take you. A perspective of thought and philosophy is introduced. Where the film is being projected is your life; happening all right before your eyes.
I have always sensed that Godspeed are trying to communicate something, now proven from the title of their latest album. Almost otherworldly through the sonic dynamics and cinematic atmospheres. Whether it be undertones of politically charged messages, or inviting you to stand within the glorious bleak atmospheres, away from what you know and may call reality, for you to look back upon your so called reality and yourself. They talk about outer body experiences, but what about outer mind experiences?
At 9 p.m. sharp, the house lights dim and a bottomless drone is projected from the darkness as the audience eagerly anticipates their passage into their consciousness. Double bassist Thierry Amar and violinist Sophie Trudeau walk onto the stage, pick up their instruments, and apply waving layers upon the already drone that derives from nothing. Fleeting lights pass by from live projections among the darkness on the backdrop. A passage into the other side. The violin weaves in and around the drone like a bird taking flight. Like a steady breeze sounding the imminent storm of the espionage into light and space beginning to commence. The rest of the band filter onto the stage, taking their positions and gently contributing to the rolling avalanche that is being assembled. The array of instruments increases the dynamic and intensity of the drone. Etchings of the word ‘hope’ shimmer from the light projections of the backdrop. It is impossible not to become fixated. They have your utmost attention. As the drone reaches the crescendo, the bird is released, taking flight into the wild as the drone instantaneously drops into a singular guitar ambience that drifts into the next unreleased track ‘BABYS IN A THUNDERCLOUD’ from their latest record, No Title As of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead”.
A meditative hum from the reverberating guitar lays the foundations for the next chapter, ‘Fire at Static Valley’ from their 2021 release, ‘G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!’. All eight members effortlessly flow their own drifting sounds into the cauldron that you know, and you can feel will bubble and spill over. Projections of light and space have now drifted into moving images of absent misty landscapes that make you nothing more than introspective. Noticeable moving images of landscapes and nature are projected, but it is only with the soundtrack that you begin to see them in a different way. In the same way an art exhibition is intended. Once the photographer sees their subject, takes the photograph, and then presents it in a gallery amongst other photographs, it is removed from its original context and perceived solely for what it is. Accompanied by an array of photographs that all amount to an overarching context that the artist is communicating. This is exactly what GSYBE have executed.
The percussionist uses a violin bow on a cymbal from his drum kit to create wailing drones intertwined with the avant-garde wonk-driven double bass. The dark vacant landscape scenes projected onto the backdrop slowly begin to magnify to scenes introducing animals, birds, sun soaked parks, foggy valleys, and the moon. As the moment the sonics begin to pick up, the subjects of the projections are captured from moving vehicles—the first implications of humans into the films. Monolithic sounds amplified from the stage focus your attention on nature, and elements within nature, reminding you that the small things all around us can provide the most beauty when looked at correctly. As a matter of fact, when this perspective lies within, it will lay all around you.
As the euphoric climax of ‘Fire at Static Valley’ comes to an end, the audience fervently applauds until the chiming anthemic guitars of ‘GREY RUBBLE — GREEN SHOOTS’ the first single from their latest album ‘No Title As of 13 February 2024 38,340 Dead’ silence the crowd. It is at this point that subtle implications of human presence upon the vacant landscapes projected are visible, from churches, fair grounds, fireworks—a gradual introduction into the man-made fossils. The epitome of human presence. It is only when these man-made structures are juxtaposed with the natural that we can see them in a different light. We can remove ourselves from the everyday and see them for what they actually are. You are invited to become a spectator of the Earth to see what we humans have stained upon this land we call home.
As the subjects of the projections start to increase time lapses of oil plants in the dark deserts become the focal point. This is where GSY!BE have captivated you and are really trying to communicate their message through the projections. From the journey of natural beauty, to the implications of human elements, to human marks, and then to the utilisation of the earth by the humans, GSY!BE are communicating on the natural disaster and demise of human behaviour. GSBYE aren’t telling you what to think or believe; they’re showing you the problem and allowing you to make up your own mind. The HOPE projections from the beginning are now aligned within context. As the guitar chime intensifies, smashing drums crash into a sludge-like rhythm that captivates the crowd into a synchronised head nod. The violin not only escalates the drone, but wanders around it, forming sublime melodic runs that weave through the projections and apply the textural harnesses that allow the listener to carefully stay above the drone.
I can not do GSB!YE concert justice with my words. It is an experience you must immerse to understand.
Shook soldiers descend back into the streets of Manchester in an attempt to return to the normality of life and routines of the mundanity ingrained in society. But it is only by witnessing the spectacle of GSY!BE live that you can begin to question or merely see life like this from another perspective. Quietly flooding out of the exits, still trying to remove themselves from cinematic visions and philosophical perspectives, few words are uttered but most remain silent, cherishing the delight from the transcendental voyage.
