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| Track List: 1. Mladic 2. Their Helicopters’ Sing 3. We Drift Like Worried Fire 4. Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable Running Time: 53 minutes Released: 2012 |
OK so apparently apostrophes count as "other" but not enough for this album to have been listed with the punctuation and numbers in WMP. Instead there is an insert in the middle of A just for this album. Computers, eh? Got to love them.
I had been aware of GY!BE (and the correct punctuation in their name) for a long time without ever buying anything. Hearing stuff friends played was the extent of it until something prompted me to buy this 2012 release. I think I regretted it immediately and LastFM suggests I have not managed to listen to the whole thing in the 2 years I have had it (3 scrobbles before this listen). I will admit I am not looking forward to this one, and expect it to be disappearing from my library once it is complete. "Its only 4 tracks, how bad can it be?" - after one 15 minute 4-tracker comes one almost making the hour. Well, no time like the present...
The 4 tracks break down as 2 super-tracks of ~20 minutes each, and 2 tracks that are in the ballpark of the regular song (albeit the longer end of that scale) at 6 1/2 minutes. Mladic, presumably named for this dirtbag, is of the former. It opens with a long sequence with an insistent guitar riff repeating whilst all kinds of layers form, play out and dissipate over the top of it. Actually this is pretty darn good. The relative volumes are right, so that repetition is very audible but at the same time it plays second fiddle to what else is going on. Rather than becoming a drone to get bored of, it becomes a touchstone of familiarity whilst the sound around it shrieks, wails, thumps and breaks into your skull with its insistence. The impressive part is the sustained intensity of the piece. The soundscape takes on elements from eastern musical traditions as the tune progresses and I find these just that little bit harsher. They are sharper edged sounds and tones which does not sit so well. I am about half way through the song's length when I realise that constant guitar repeat has gone. I wonder when it disappeared. It is no coincidence that this realisation accompanies a lightening of the load - an expansion of the sound into airier space, less constrained, more open, and slowed... to the point of almost petering out at one stage. The lull is not appreciated here other than for drawing closed those eastern twangs and heralding a return to more rounded sounds that, whilst still noisy, cut less of a hole in my eardrums. The last third of this piece has been rather dull in comparison with what came before. It keeps threatening to build to something again, but then chickens out and maintains a status quo which just fails to excite, before finally kicking any interest out the door with improvised percussion left alone to finish up. I found the first half pretty great, the third quarter alright and the last simply forgettable. Not sure what that leaves me wanting to do with the track really...
Their Helicopters' Sing takes over and is just flat for the first 2 1/2 minutes. A simple drone. I keep waiting for something to kick in, and whilst there is a gradual build in volume and assorted other sounds being layered on top of the drone it singularly fails to engage with me, the drone getting on my nerves and a few of the layered sounds being like nails down a chalkboard in terms of the response they generate. The whole 6 1/2 minutes are like this, alas, and as good an indication as any as to why I did not get into GY!BE earlier.
The opening to We Drift Like Worried Fire, the second mega-track, is interesting. A plucked string hook, and crafted sounds around that produce an eerie tone. This takes up the first three minutes, before a guitar comes in to pick up the hook and it promises for a growth in the sound, something that is sorely needed by this point. Alas it is some time coming - another minute before anything further is built on. The base remains pleasant enough, but the song is flattering to deceive a little until the stings return as a melody. There is then some progression, construction, and embellishment. The problem I find myself with is that I have just got bored in the meantime and the new, richer sound is nice, but is it nice enough to excuse the overlong build up? On balance, probably, just. Of course as I say that there are still 12 minutes to go!
The clocks went back last night. It is now 17.30 and pitch dark outside, which does nothing for my mood. The next 4 months are bleak, black and devoid of fun as I rise in the dark, leave for work in the dark, and come home again in the dark. Bleh.
I was going to compare that to what was happening in the tune around the 10 minute mark but then it got interesting on me again. This piece is really frustrating with its ups and downs. One of the problems is that the interesting bits are either too short or last long enough to become uninteresting by virtue of repetition. Unlike Mladic, it appears that the last third of this tune will be the most energetic, highest tempo, and more impressive section. I suspect there may yet be a bait-and-switch ending, but the build feels like we could be in for a crescendo and that is a positive development. Definitely an interesting end, and overall it leaves me with a positive impression on the song despite moments of disengagement or frustration with earlier sections.
The fourth and final track is another drone-based piece and I have to say I am immediately turned off by this approach. There is nothing here for me to latch on to, nothing to enjoy, just a wall of sameness pushing at my eardrums and making me want the listen to end. Even when that wall breaks there is no element introduced to liven it up, just another different drone taking over. I will be keeping 50% of this album and to my surprise it is the longer pieces that make the cut. They both have their moments of frustration or disinterest but they also have some astounding sections that really gripped my ears. As the album closes, I am left with a physical sensation of the sound having been removed. This speaks to the effect of the drones - powerful in terms of generating a response, but not necessarily a favourable one.
The 4 tracks break down as 2 super-tracks of ~20 minutes each, and 2 tracks that are in the ballpark of the regular song (albeit the longer end of that scale) at 6 1/2 minutes. Mladic, presumably named for this dirtbag, is of the former. It opens with a long sequence with an insistent guitar riff repeating whilst all kinds of layers form, play out and dissipate over the top of it. Actually this is pretty darn good. The relative volumes are right, so that repetition is very audible but at the same time it plays second fiddle to what else is going on. Rather than becoming a drone to get bored of, it becomes a touchstone of familiarity whilst the sound around it shrieks, wails, thumps and breaks into your skull with its insistence. The impressive part is the sustained intensity of the piece. The soundscape takes on elements from eastern musical traditions as the tune progresses and I find these just that little bit harsher. They are sharper edged sounds and tones which does not sit so well. I am about half way through the song's length when I realise that constant guitar repeat has gone. I wonder when it disappeared. It is no coincidence that this realisation accompanies a lightening of the load - an expansion of the sound into airier space, less constrained, more open, and slowed... to the point of almost petering out at one stage. The lull is not appreciated here other than for drawing closed those eastern twangs and heralding a return to more rounded sounds that, whilst still noisy, cut less of a hole in my eardrums. The last third of this piece has been rather dull in comparison with what came before. It keeps threatening to build to something again, but then chickens out and maintains a status quo which just fails to excite, before finally kicking any interest out the door with improvised percussion left alone to finish up. I found the first half pretty great, the third quarter alright and the last simply forgettable. Not sure what that leaves me wanting to do with the track really...
Their Helicopters' Sing takes over and is just flat for the first 2 1/2 minutes. A simple drone. I keep waiting for something to kick in, and whilst there is a gradual build in volume and assorted other sounds being layered on top of the drone it singularly fails to engage with me, the drone getting on my nerves and a few of the layered sounds being like nails down a chalkboard in terms of the response they generate. The whole 6 1/2 minutes are like this, alas, and as good an indication as any as to why I did not get into GY!BE earlier.
The opening to We Drift Like Worried Fire, the second mega-track, is interesting. A plucked string hook, and crafted sounds around that produce an eerie tone. This takes up the first three minutes, before a guitar comes in to pick up the hook and it promises for a growth in the sound, something that is sorely needed by this point. Alas it is some time coming - another minute before anything further is built on. The base remains pleasant enough, but the song is flattering to deceive a little until the stings return as a melody. There is then some progression, construction, and embellishment. The problem I find myself with is that I have just got bored in the meantime and the new, richer sound is nice, but is it nice enough to excuse the overlong build up? On balance, probably, just. Of course as I say that there are still 12 minutes to go!
The clocks went back last night. It is now 17.30 and pitch dark outside, which does nothing for my mood. The next 4 months are bleak, black and devoid of fun as I rise in the dark, leave for work in the dark, and come home again in the dark. Bleh.
I was going to compare that to what was happening in the tune around the 10 minute mark but then it got interesting on me again. This piece is really frustrating with its ups and downs. One of the problems is that the interesting bits are either too short or last long enough to become uninteresting by virtue of repetition. Unlike Mladic, it appears that the last third of this tune will be the most energetic, highest tempo, and more impressive section. I suspect there may yet be a bait-and-switch ending, but the build feels like we could be in for a crescendo and that is a positive development. Definitely an interesting end, and overall it leaves me with a positive impression on the song despite moments of disengagement or frustration with earlier sections.
The fourth and final track is another drone-based piece and I have to say I am immediately turned off by this approach. There is nothing here for me to latch on to, nothing to enjoy, just a wall of sameness pushing at my eardrums and making me want the listen to end. Even when that wall breaks there is no element introduced to liven it up, just another different drone taking over. I will be keeping 50% of this album and to my surprise it is the longer pieces that make the cut. They both have their moments of frustration or disinterest but they also have some astounding sections that really gripped my ears. As the album closes, I am left with a physical sensation of the sound having been removed. This speaks to the effect of the drones - powerful in terms of generating a response, but not necessarily a favourable one.
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