The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band With Choir - "This is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing
(Constellation)
A Silver Mt. Zion began as a side project of Godspeed You Black Emperor, with which GYBE's principal player, Efrim, could explore avenues that weren't available to him with the monstrous ensemble that is GYBE. Over the years, the group has enlarged and while it isn't the size of its older sibling, it is now 6 core members strong (plus various people playing drums). Oh, and a couple dozen people singing in a chorus. But musically they do still inhabit a different space than GYBE. Granted, it's probably just down the street, or maybe even just down the stairs, but it's still different. The crescendos of GYBE aren't as evident in Mt. Zion, and when they do show up, they tend to slowly burn rather than igniting into a raging storm.
Mt Zion's third album (also the third variation of their name) was recorded in conditions similar to that of their debut, which was carefully composed and arranged in the studio whereas the second album was largely recorded straight to tape, with few embellishments. The vocals mark the biggest change in the band.
Efrim's surprisingly stark and clear vocals on "Babylon Was Built on Fire/StarsNoStars" push the music into a whole different light. In his sometimes-a-little-too-anguished-for-my-taste voice sings "Babylon was built on fire/On the bones of useless machines/It hurts to breathe" and later on, he frantically repeats "Citizens in their homes/And missiles in their holes." The themes common to several Constellation Records' liner notes are given voice, and the prevalent mood is explicitly stated.
The album opens with a "fasola" sing-along as provided by the aforementioned chorus. The result is chaotic and strangely moving. The last two tracks "American Motor Over Smoldered Field" and "Goodbye Desolate Railyard" further the focus on Efrim's vocals, skirting very close to balladry. But the heavy sense of doom and fairly intense vocal delivery Efrim favors assures the proper amount of weight to these surprisingly straight ahead folk-tinged songs. On "American Motor Over Smoldered Field " this doom is followed through with a simmering violin and guitar part that overtakes the song, slowly pushing the song closer and closer to the edge. Whereas on "Goodbye Desolate Railyard " the violins and cello weave a shimmering drone, accenting and eventually overtaking the beautiful piano and guitar based song. Distorted field recordings of trains enter the mix, which lead into a the last song. A lone acoustic guitar accompanies Efrim while he sings "Everybody gets a little lost sometimes." When the chorus joins in, it of course has the stigma of being a sing-a-long (picture everyone holding hands and swaying). But, by the time it fades out and the album ends, the feeling that remains is less like they've just committed the indie rock equivalent of "We are the World" and more like they've successfully gotten their sense of community across in the simplest possible way.
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