F/2.8 Aperture ∞: Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Cinema
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
Canadian post-rock titans Godspeed You! Black Emperor recently announced the upcoming release of their seventh full length album G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!, which is hardly a peculiar album name if you’re familiar with the group. I sure am, and would proudly label them one of my all time favourite bands (my favourite Canadian musical artists too, which is saying a lot given the amount of talent our country has produced). If you’re unaware of them, Godspeed You! Black Emperor release instrumental music that can only be described as gargantuan noise symphonies, linked movements and all. Their fusion of experimental tape loops and sampling, ambient droning, and wall-of-sound rock (and string section) cacophony usually extends to songs that are almost always hovering around the fifteen or twenty minute mark (outside of the occasional shorter song, usually used to bridge tracks together). In many ways, their music is largely cinematic.
That isn’t a stretch to claim, either. The most obvious correlation is the message that each Godspeed release carries. Their political stances are blatant, from album titles and song names, to the expansive album artwork of each release. Much is being said at every turn. For instance, the inner artwork for Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven features cut outs of presidential faces from dollar bills — clad in human skulls as masks — slicing off hands (likely the very ones on the front of the album) and forcing their beliefs onto others. There’s hardly any sugar coating, here. To match these images is the music itself. Again, this is all instrumental, but the use of field recordings and samples is how Godspeed usually get the occasional viewpoint or message in. One such instance is the featuring of the repeated question “With his arms out stretched?” from the song “Mladic” (off of the Polaris winning ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!), which is presumably taken from reports surrounding the Quebec student protests of 2012. These passages are always easy to hear, even if they are shrouded with noise or melodies; they play out like miniature films in your head.
The inside artwork for Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven.
Their first full length album F# A# ∞ begins with a portion of a screenplay that founding member Efrim Menuck wrote, which describes a desolate world. It could be post apocalypse. It could be the way he saw our world now; as a fan for many years, I’ll insist it’s the latter. Nonetheless, the screenplay is read, with feedback rumbling underneath, which swells into a breathtaking string section melody. The words finish, and the song keeps going. Other mini-narratives are less scripted and are life captured on tape, including the ramblings of a man who went by “Blaise Bailey Finnegan III,” who details his fight with a judge in court on “BBF3” (as well as some Iron Maiden lyrics he interpolated) and provides his thoughts on the earlier track “Providence”. “Sleep” begins with the recollection of how Coney Island used to be once upon a time (the proclaimed “playground of the world”), in comparison with how it is now (“They don’t sleep anymore on the beach”). Either way, wether there are given words or not, every single song tells a poignant, politically charged message, and the music is the score for all of these statements.
This is especially true given the detailed texture of some songs, as to amplify their backgrounds; all of ‘Allelujah! contains geographically appropriate melodies and use of instrumentation, including Mladic’s use of Eastern European sounds to match the song’s namesake Ratko Mladić, who was a colonel-general tried as a war criminal guilty of genocide. Their song structures are also formatted in the ways that films usually are. F# A# ∞ has three songs that all tie together with repeating motifs and sounds; each song themselves have movements that steady themselves almost like three act structures. Skinny Fists would continue this idea of three-act structures within songs, but Yanqui U.X.O. is an album that feels like it’s built in this way; there are five songs, but two are continuations of previous songs, thus filling out each “act”. Future release Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress also has a start, middle, and a triumphant end, with the song “Piss Crowns are Trebled” acting as a climax after all of the previous escalation. Their last release (until now) Luciferian Towers has songs that are split into threes, particularly “Bosses Hang” and “Anthem for No State”.
The band uses film projections extensively throughout their show.
Again, all of this isn’t a stretch, not in my mind. Let’s get into the hard hitting facts. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, firstly, are named after a documentary by Mitsuo Yanagimachi titled God Speed You! Black Emperor (about the Japanese Black Emperors: a gang). A number of songs, particularly early ones, even have film samples, the most notable example is a musical passage from the 1973 film Godspell, pitched down to turn a lovely melody into a haunting question (“Where are you going?”); this is featured in the last third of “Providence”. The last piece of major evidence is how Godspeed You! Black Emperor perform live: with the extensive use of film projections. Unlike a lot of other live acts, Godspeed specifically curate what gets projected during their show, with images and statements that tie directly with what their music is all about. If anything, these artists are actually listed as members of the band, despite their exclusive usage as a part of their performances. Presently, Philippe Leonard and Karl Lemieux are the handlers of the film projections for the band.
Even though their albums are divided in such a way, I don’t believe Godspeed You! Black Emperor believe in music as being a song based structure. They go on for as long as they feel is necessary, and don’t deal with the confinements of what popular music has dictated needs to be done. Their music grows and grows, like character or plot development in films. This is all to create inspired emotions within you, about particular social issues, and political climates, or just as music fans that want to feel something profound. They don’t work with verses and hooks, but with progression and payoff. You can claim many musicians have cinematic qualities, but Godspeed You! Black Emperor truly are one of the most filmic bands of our time (and possibly ever).
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.