We woke up one morning and fell a little further down - a Godspeed You! Black Emperor retrospective - Pt. 2: Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
Technically this is an EP, but it ranks among Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s best and is the place where I recommend you start. The two tracks on this EP are a wonderful demonstration of the power of the band and the themes that carry throughout their discography. If you don’t like this, you won’t like anything else.
The first track, “Moya”, is a testament to what Godspeed can do with a crescendo. This track is a reworking of Goreki’s third symphony, known as the symphony of sad songs, and relates the band’s ability to select a good melody and make it their own while also showing off their classical music heritage. The track first plinks along with little fanfare, but the drums come in around half way through and the track begins to rocket up into the stratosphere. The track escalates, more and more layers being added, screwdriver guitar, electric guitar, bass, pounding drums, glockenspiel, raising a cacophony. And just when you think they can’t go any higher, they drop down, the snare rolls, cymbals crash, and the track launches. The tempo doubles, the drums swing themselves, and guitars pluck harmonies. Then, just as quickly as it reached those dizzying heights, it fades away. Leaving nothing but bowed cello and drums, and those too retreat as the track fades out.
The Second Track, BBF3, has far more in common with f#a#. The samples have returned, the same interview present at the introduction to the third track of the CD version. The music mostly acts in the capacity of a soundtrack in this case, underscoring important moments in the interview. The interview itself is with an unknown man on the streets of Providence, Rhode Island, presumably a poorer man, and takes the form of a rant against the American government and the judicial system. The politics of the band reveal themselves in this moment. At the time the band resisted the label of anarchists, but later self identified as anarchists themselves. One of the core tenets of Anarchism is to listen to the people. The people know what is best and need no government to lead them around by the nose. It is important to listen to these people no matter what they say, for there you will find the truth. As Howard Zinn put it, “The cry of the poor may not always be just, but if you don't listen to it, you will never know what justice is.” I personally can’t think of any more apt cry than this unknown man’s, “I don't like the judicial system, I don't like the government system, I don't like the police, I don't like anything to do with this country's government. I just don't like it, because... they're sneaky, like I said - they're deceitful, they're lying, they're cheats, they rip the people off. That's the American government for you. America is a third world country, and people don't recognise it... and I think that that's pretty god damn sad, that they don't recognise their own country as a third world, third rate, third class slum.”
There are two crescendoes in this track, and both are very in tune with the formula we have seen so far, if a bit more like a chamber orchestra. Cellos, violins, and piano take a front seat during the quiet parts. I particularly like the militaristic drum beat that underscores the interviewer’s question of, “Are you ready for what’s coming?” Considering the fact that the back cover is instructions in Italian for how to make a Molotov cocktail, the thesis of this EP becomes clear.
Slow Riot is an EP for revolution. It calls for the upheaval of the systems that keep us down, that force us to work for our own right to exist. It cries out to an unfair world in the hope that someone might join in and force the world to change.
