GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR
No Title As Of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead (Constellation)
“What gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall?” asks the characteristically gnomic statement published by Godspeed You! Black Emperor to accompany their eighth album. They’re not the first to ponder the futility of art but are doing so at a particularly dark moment – in the face of the Palestinian genocide and against a backdrop of fascist revivalism and climate collapse.
In a sense, the post-rock titans’ music was made for times like these: the howl of decaying guitars on Babys In A Thundercloud, the oppressive and ominous violin and bass drones of Broken Spires At Dead Kapital, the spiralling patterns of Raindrops Cast In Lead escalating to the point where you fear your speakers might explode.
But, as its title suggests, closer Grey Rubble – Green Shoots offers the faintest glimmer of hope, and overall the album is an emphatic answer to that troubling question: art is invaluable as an expression of fury and beauty, as both a release and a salve, as a commitment to creation rather than destruction.
words BEN WOOLHEAD