The Year: 2000The Album: Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Who It Influenced: Explosions in the Sky, Mono, 65daysofstatic, From Monument to Masses, Do Make Say Think, The Arcade Fire
Now that it's been over seven years since Godspeed You! Black Emperor released a record, it's easy to forget how fast and furious things came back in their early days. The shadowy Canadian co-op's apocalyptic orchestral music is so grandiose, in both form and sentiment, that it feels like every single piece --each tiniest worried symphony-- should have taken years to pen.
Yet, made up of members who cut their teeth in the mid-'80s hardcore era, when bands were defined by the seriousness and diligence of their work ethic, Godspeed! were punk-rockers playing post-rock with a righteous fury. With the end of the world looming (well, at least in their music), they needed to make discographical hay whilst the sun shined; to turn out records whilst the world still turned. The band issued four of them in five years, and every work never felt hurried.
Coming fresh off the back of 1999's brutal and blustering 28-minute suite Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada, Godspeed! spread their bloody wings and stretched out long and languorous on 2000's epic Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven.
At 87 minutes in length, the second GYBE! LP fit on neither one compact disc nor two slabs of wax. Its running-time has less in common with albums, and more with motion-pictures. Which is fitting, given that post-rock is so often defined as a movement of musicians making soundtracks to imaginary movies. With this, their magnum opus, Godspeed! proved themselves to be post-rock's ultimate auteurs; utterly in command of every element of their pseudo-cinematic craft.
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