Friday, 28 September 2007

All Angels Gone, Antennas to Heaven, CanyonsofStatic & Moya interview

(Originally posted at www.thesilentballet.com)

Interviews with All Angels Gone, Moya & Antennas to Heaven in commemoration of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's masterpiece F#A#

Ten years ago last month, F# A# ∞ was first set upon the record buying public, originally limited to 500 copies through Constellation and then a year later through Kranky. F# A# ∞ signaled the first release by Godspeed You Black Emperor! that wasn’t a tape, wasn’t one of thirty-three and amongst other things, made 28 Days Later the movie it is. As Danny Boyle suggested in 2002, “the whole film was cut to Godspeed in my head”.

However, enough transgression. It would be pleasant enough, although rather trite, to ramble on about how many really quite like F# A# ∞. It would be far more interesting to discuss the way Godspeed first created a part of what’s now known as “post-rock” and how ten years later, a new crop of musicians are interpreting it all over all again. Godspeed summoned inspiration from a documentary by Mitsuo Yanagimachi, so, in turn, let’s look at bands who have, at least aesthetically, borrowed from Godspeed. One decade on from F# A# ∞ there’s now the likes of All Angels Gone, Moya, CanyonsofStatic, and, Antennas To Heaven who, if judged simply by their band name, appear to be keeping the Godspeed torch alight. However, all of the aforementioned have brought their own vision to the table, often completely transcending the listener's ability to pigeon-hole them.

The first band we'll talk to is All Angels Gone, who take their name from “side b” of the elusive All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling. All Angels Gone’s first EP, Quietly scored an impressive 8/10 with The Silent Ballet last year, with a mostly live EP now available and a DVD in the works, I spoke to Vincent (vocals/guitar/piano), Franck (guitar), Olivier (bass/cello) and Julien (guitar) about their progress as a band and their influences.

After reading through your bands biography, I noticed that you view film projection during shows as an “essential element of the live performances”. What are the sort of films you like to show during songs? Does each song have its own film?

Film projections are, for us, an important part of our concerts. It contributes to the atmosphere that we desire to communicate to the public. We work with a director, Alexis Taillant, with whom we discuss and decide upon the meaning and conception of the piece. He proposes ideas to us in written or image form. Depending on the piece, Alexis can work with difference video camera types, from high definition to the Super-8, and does visuals from landscapes, projections onto bodies, Chinese shadow work, animated images etc. The projection during the concerts isn’t linear. Alexis mixes the sequences so that they correspond to the music, allowing our group to not be “prisoners” to the images. It’s the video that follows our music and not our music that follows the video, so we can concentrate on our playing. Each song has its own, distinctive video; individual in style. We see these projections as another instrument of the group, to underline the emotion of the song, but they stay vague enough to leave the audience up to his own interpretation. Take a look at our web site for some extracts of videos we’ve projected in concert. www.allangelsgone.com, this is the best way to get an idea of what we use live.

You formed in 2001, yet released your first EP in 2004, with a three-year gap between writing and recording, did you find you had too much material for one EP? Or was it a case of writing songs later on that sounded completely different to your earlier efforts?


There were several factors behind the gap. The first is that our group took a lot of time to stabilise itself; we had difficulties in finding members wishing to become part of a long-term experience. The second reason is that our songs needed a lot of time to be set up... Every time we were replaying the pieces we were persuaded to return to such or such a part which would be more to our taste, then realising a few months later that the first idea was the best. In short, it was necessary to say stop and the most efficient method to freeze songs is to put them on CD, which was not so easy to do, as certain parts of songs still moved during the recording in studio under the exasperated glance of our studio-engineer who did never see the end. We also put high importance on the first impression we would make with the public, especially as our musical style takes its sense more in live representations as opposed to CD. We don’t want to have to play on scene pieces which weary us, to be in a “What a difference! The next song is better…” situation.

How did you choose the songs you wanted to “freeze”? Did you take into account which compositions worked best live when choosing?

It took us a long time to be satisfied with certain songs, like "Others as a Mirror" took several months before being finalised. Others have ended up never being played, because we found that the song didn’t make sense. Other songs have been abandoned and others pushed back, because we didn’t have the taste to play them and even less to record them Today our setlist does not exceed an hour and a half, but at least every song we play is a real joy. Thus for the CD many songs that we’d previously composed never made it onto "Quietly", which is, the quintessence of previously All Angels Gone.

Was choosing where to record the EP an important part of your learning process as well? Where about did you finally record Quietly?


We took the opportunity to record in a beautiful concert hall. It was important for us to mark this stage as a part of our evolution. This enabled us today to take new directions. We always like to listen to vein songs such as " Empty car on the road " or "Unrelated", which are no more part of our concert. Thanks to the CD we can continue our way, because we keep trace of the past. We recently worked again on our very first song, and it became " Prayer for an endless living comedy ", something very far away from the original composition!

Both of your EPs are available for free download at Last.Fm, have you noticed an increase in your fanbase since allowing users to download and stream your songs for free?

This is an easy question: Yes! Generally, the listeners appreciate the gesture and thank us for putting the songs free for download on Last.fm. That doesn't hold us back at all from selling albums, because often those who listen first on the site buy the album just after. We have sold a few CDs in Europe, in the US, even in Mexico, Japan and Australia… Anyway, CD sales are not our focus at all; we just want to share our music as much as possible. Using Last.fm for free listening allows us to reach more people.

How are things moving along with the album? Have you found a producer? What are the tracks like that you’ve created thus far?

The album is in a composition state. We're pretty satisfied with what we have so far, but there is work left to be done, a few songs to compose. We're always pretty slow at the writing stage! Some would like us to start recording this winter, but it's not so easy. We have to find the time and the studio to do it right... and we still need a label and producer. It's tough, but we aren't going to give up any time soon! Among the tracks we are recording, there are the following titles: "Amalgame," "Prayer for an endless living comedy," and probably "Witchitz" and "Lost+Gone" (we haven't decided on their names yet for sure). In the mean time, we'll be putting out our Paris concert DVD filmed last Fall. Extracts are available on Last.fm.

You take your band name from a song on side b of Godspeed’s all lights fucked on the hairy amp drooling, What made you pick that particular title as a name, as opposed to say “perfumed pink corpses from the lips of ms. celine dion”?


What a shame that we did not think about it before; That band name would have been great,maybe a bit too long, though! Haha! “All Angels Gone” is a name that was proposed by Pierre-François, one of the founding members of the band who has since, unfortunately left. Those words convinced everyone, because they refer directly to Godspeed, a band we all admire. Also, we liked the way it sounded and the meaning of those few words. We feel it corresponds to the atmosphere our music generates. It is, however, quite hard to pronounce in French, even for us and we’re often obliged to repeat twice when answering to the question “What’s your band name?”

You mention both Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt. Zion as active influences within your music, how have Godspeed influenced your overall sound, is it purely a case of combining traditionally classical instruments with, well, rock? Please explain!


Brian Eno used to say that even though the Velvet Underground never sold that many records, every person who bought one started a band. Godspeed has sold relatively few records, but they have influenced a lot of bands, and us in particular! Along with the influence of Sigur Rós and Radiohead, Godspeed inspired us to make music and to form a band. We found the connection between classical instruments and electrical ones so strong that we couldn't help being drawn that way. Godspeed also gave us the taste for songs over three minutes and not formatted "verses-chorus" songs. They make us want to play music that is about emotion and energy and not just structure and technique. As with Godspeed, we play without hierarchy; each instrument is on the same level, without one front man or soloists. Godspeed paved the way for thinking music. For sure, we will still follow that direction and we’ll try to provide our own touch while integrating our other influences.

Was playing with HRSTA and Polmo Polpo at the Electric Lands Festival a particularly nerve-wracking experience for you, or was it something you simply took in your stride?

It was as much scary as it was exciting playing with HRSTA and Polmo Polpo. We helped a lot in the preparation of that festival and we gave it our best in order to make all go well. We were really looking forward to meeting these artists whose records we've been playing for years at home. When we met their sincerity and their kindness reassured us. Meeting them was very enriching. After the concerts, we spent the evening with the bands and organisers of the festival. It was a blast- an unforgettable evening! Talking with Mike Moya was an unbelievable experience. The next morning's hangover was also an unforgettable moment, haha!

Ten years ago last month F# A# ∞ was first released, can you remember when you first heard the record, or, first heard Godspeed?

I have accurate souvenirs of the first time I heard that record. It was around the year 2000. I was lying on the floor. It was nearly a religious experience. I was affected by that singular atmosphere spread by F# A# ∞, by that unreal darkness mixed up with a feeling of hope. It was the first time I'd heard that kind of music, it was just wonderful.


Next I was lucky enough to speak to the man behind Moya, who suggests the following equation is what makes his music so special; “Mozart + Mono, Chopin + Clann Zu, Dvorak + Do Make Say Think, Grieg + Godspeed You! Black Emperor = Moya. I spoke to Vasil Maronau about Moya and his new project, Tok Rukoo.

You have a new project named Tok Rukoo, does that mean that there will be no more Moya recordings, or is Moya simply on a break for a while?

I still work as Moya alongside Tok Rukoo, but in what way Moya will change, is a good question. I'm afraid after listening to a few of the new tracks, you wouldn't want to write about them on a post-rock page!

With Moya you tended to work solo, is working with others in Tok Rukoo particularly different for you?

With Moya it was a one man project, so I had to find musicians to play on my first demo record. I just wrote the notes for violin player, then the second demo was recorded by myself and two friends who helped me with the drums.

Tok Rukoo is quite different to your work with Moya, what signaled the change within your music?

There is no real creative difference between Tok Rukoo and Moya, aslong as you play both well. I'm not saying Tok Rukoo is good, I just hope it is. There is no real point to try putting on a show with Moya in Belarus - you'll get twenty people on the concert, ten will be your friends, and they will probably forget your performance in a moment. The situation with Tok Rukoo is much better, as it doesn't prevent me from working as Moya. For example, now I am planning to play modest concert as Moya, which will be more for my own enjoyment

There's a lot of classical influences within your music, you mention Mozart and Chopin along with Do Make Say Think and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, would you be able to say if which, if any influences you more, or is it a fair mix of both?

I'm afraid, classical keeps me very hard –in the last few years my playlist has mainly consisted of symphonies, operas and so on by all composers and from various eras. I think that a clash between each style doesn't exist – there’s a personal problem of critics, especially because of the fact, that they have the power to form public opinions. Their decisions, of what they consider "modern" or "old" don’t have any understanding from me. I take influence from music that was composed one hundred, two hundred, even three hundred years ago, and I think, that it's so fresh that it was live in the moment of birth. Every talented musical idea is new initially - its explanation by the public, musical form, style and so on isn’t a matter of large importance, which is what critics usually think. For example, Godspeed - sure, it's very interesting - their long structures, sound walls etc, but it's not musical interest - without their genius melodies all this stuff is very small.

I'm guessing the name "Moya" came from the Godspeed song "Moya"? What were the deciding factors in this? Did you want to show others where your influences came from, or was it simply because you liked the sound of the name "Moya"?


Yes, your second idea is right - I like how “Moya” sounds, "Moya" is not my favourite song of Godspeed, But of course, I enjoy Godspeed You! Black Emperor - they have titanic amounts of talent.

With Tok Rukoo you cover Muse, with Moya you covered Mogwai, will we ever hear you covering Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada's "Moya"?


Wow, that’s good question. As far as I remember, I have made something from the minute string melody in Moya.

You have been incredibly busy with both Moya and Tok Rukoo this year, however, will we see anymore of your demos emerging soon?

Hopefully yes. I plan on releasing with Moya and Tok Rukoo in the next few months.

Ten years ago last month F# A# ∞ was first released, can you remember when you first heard the record, or, first heard Godspeed?


It was Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, which is such a great album name. F# A# ∞ was last, even though it was released in 2002. I first listened to Godspeed four years ago, I must have been about seventeen or eighteen at the time.


CanyonsofStatic are next in the order of band name etymology, taking their title from a section of “Static”, which can be heard on the 2000 release, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven! Like All Angels Gone, the group have also been reviewed by The Silent Ballet. In fact, my current editor Mac Nguyen gave them 7/10 for their self-titled EP and put forward the following about their band name; “a referential name is apt for this outfit from Wisconsin. Their music feels very much like its all about grasping the fundamentals, highlighting the strengths of the genre and compiling them in their music.” Although Mr. Nguyen’s views served mainly as an introductory section to the review, his eloquent words do lead us towards the following predicament, as witnessed earlier with Moya; does naming your band after an one of the most easily recognisable song titles in instrumental history do you any favours? Titles such as CanyonsofStatic seem to signal that the band become instantly bound with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, pressure that most musicians could easily crumble under. I spoke to Ross, the guitarist behind CanyonsofStatic about, amongst other things, their band name and their views on Phil Spector’s wig collection.

CanyonsofStatic first started as “an experiment between friends”, it seems that your music has already progressed beyond this, what with having already having played quite a few live shows and having released a slick sounding EP last year, is CanyonsofStatic becoming a serious project, or is it something that will always remain as fun between friends?…That isn’t a euphemism by the way.

Yes, the band is getting very serious. However we all work full-time so without label support and promotion we are staying close to home as far as shows go. Someday we will tour but it looks a bit far off as of right now. The EP was fun and only cost us $180 to do surprisingly... But we have bigger plans for the next release.

It seems you’re already planning your next record then, could you perhaps share a few more details on the subject? How have you found writing and recording a second time around?

The new album is written almost completely. So far there is a projected six songs all between 6-10 minutes a piece...We have had a lot of fun writing this album and it is tentatively going to be named The Disappearance. Right now on our Myspace you can listen to two live tracks 1:17 & the disappearance. Studio versions of these songs will be on the album. We hope to be in the studio within the next two months and the finished project probably won't be out until next year…We’re a bit behind schedule.

How about some more exclusive details regarding the new record? A new songtitle will suffice!

An exclusive! I can tell you one of the other songs will be called 'Are We Still the Good Guys’?

That’ll do! You say that for now, you’ve decided to remain instrumental, has there ever been a point with your music that you have felt vocals would have added to your music?

We struggle with the idea of adding vocals a lot but it always comes down to the music for us, words just get in the way. We’re trying to explore the music and shape it in ways we have never done before. Vocals would just steal from the music and make it secondary.

For your live shows you tend to use film projection, where did the inspiration for this come from? Do you all create the images shown?

Our projector is dead unfortunately…We have been getting by with a groove wheel, it’s weird but it works. The projections were done myself and it was a mixture of my own footage and stuff I took from movies. I try to distort the images as best as possible just to get a light show.. Without a singer as a focal point it is nice to have flashing lights and it can be very emotive, which is something we are going for in our music.

Out of interest, you list Phil Spector as an influence on your myspace page, any comments on his recent blows with the legal system? Guilty, or not guilty? More importantly, what do you think of those strange wigs of his?

I am a Phil Spector fanatic but if he were to call and say he wanted to produce the next canyonsofstatic record I think I might have to pass. But I would pay good money to get my picture taken with him in one of those crazy wigs.

With a name like “CanyonsofStatic” do you feel that Godspeed You! Black Emperor are alluded to more when you’re reviewed and interviewed, as opposed to other bands that lack a Godspeed lyric in their bandname?


Definitely, we thought that we had picked an obscure enough reference that it wouldn't be an issue, it was chosen in haste and we have taken a lot of heat for it. We have talked about changing it a million times...But, we’re gonna stick with it for the long haul. We have tried our best to move away from Godspeed's sound with our new material. In truth, half the band didn't even know who Godspeed were when we choose the name and none of us knew really what post-rock was until we recorded our EP and were thrust into the category. Strange but true!

Is it an issue to being often compared to the likes of Godspeed, or is it something that you try to disregard?


We don't have the sheer numbers of a Godspeed project to ever pull off there sound, those are heavy shoes to fill and we don't try it...we do are own thing and hope people enjoy it.

Ten years ago last month F# A# ∞ was first released, can you remember when you first heard the record, or, first heard Godspeed?

I have to admit I heard it for the first time after we named the band...Our bass player loved the record though and he turned us all on to Godspeed, and in the end we are all better people for it! Their music is deeply inspiring to us.


Antennas To Heaven are the last on our list of Godspeed name borrowers and are the second band to have borrowed their title from Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven! (See.) The Newcastle duo seem to be the only group that have reached album territory, having released their first album The Line Between Myth And Reality Has Always Been In Finland, a single and now more recently Hermeneutics. The release date of the latter LP is spookily a day before F# A# ∞ was officially released on vinyl, coincidence? Possibly, I spoke to David Smith, vocalist guitarist and co-songwriter about it.

Your debut album, album The Line Between Myth And Reality Has Always Been In Finland was only released in 2006 and you’re already back with a new album. Without meaning to sounding too blunt, how on earth do you knock them out so quickly?

Since we got together we have pretty much been constantly coming up with and recording new material. The first album was probably a little bit too rushed in response to people wanting to buy our music on the back of what they had heard on Myspace. The second album just really developed by itself as we had more and more material available and got to the point where we had enough tracks we were happy with to choose from to form Hermeneutics. I think we are taking a little bit of a break from recording now so the third album might not be as quick!

What can you tell us about the new album? Do you feel your confidence as a duo has risen, now that you’re already on your second release?


The new album really is a development of the style of the first album; however we feel that there is a greater variety and depth to our sound this time around in particular the introduction of bits of singing and a couple of piano led tracks. I think our confidence has risen, which has come with the experience of becoming better at recording and producing things ourselves as we go along. We are certainly happier with Hermeneutics than we were with The Line… and I think we are confident that we can continue to develop further.

Your music, to me, is incredibly reminiscent of analogue radios, specifically when you’re caught in that marvellous dream world where the frequency is leaning towards BBC radio three, yet you can hear snatches of the afternoon play on radio four. What’s interesting is that you’ve managed to capture that moment for two albums and a single, is it tricky to find the perfect balance between the music and prose you use in your work?

I like the description! It certainly can be tricky to find the balance between the music and prose and it can be hit and miss sometimes as to whether something we start to work on actually gets proceeded with. The tracks that have worked best have tended to be ones that have just happened rather than thinking we need some lyrics for this music or we need some music for these lyrics. It is often the case that Phil (Hodgson, co-songwriter) will have a few lyrics that he has been working on and likewise I have a few pieces of music and that some things just fit with each other.

What influenced your name? Was it simply a brief ode to Godspeed, or did you just like the idea of “Antennas To Heaven”?

A bit of both really, there is the Godspeed reference obviously but also at the time I thought it sounded good. We have taken a fair bit of criticism for the choice of the name and really at the time of coming up with it we had no idea that things would go as well as they would. It was certainly not some sort of cynical attempt to try to gain some promotion off the back of Godspeed. It was really just a case of needing a name to put a couple of tracks on Myspace, we never really expected then that people would be interested in our music and suddenly before we knew it we had got to a stage where we couldn’t really change the name.

Can we expect to see you touring soon? How does your live show work?

At the moment there is no live show unfortunately. The strange way that our band is set up means that there is only me that actually plays the instruments, as Phil is purely involved with writing lyrics. We are looking into getting together more people either just to play live shows or to join on a permanent basis. The last couple of years we have basically just been recording but now with having had a little break we hopefully will be able to get into a position to do some live shows.

Ten years ago last month F# A# ∞ was first released, can you remember when you first heard the record, or, first heard Godspeed? Interestingly, Hermeneutics was also released this month, sheer coincidence?


I first heard Godspeed on a free CD from the NME in early 1998 amazingly enough. The track was the “Dead Flag Blues” although it had been massively edited to about six minutes or something. Even still it was enough to make me want to go out straight away and buy the album. I had been into Mogwai for a year or so at the time and so was just getting into post rock and I was captivated by the sound, which to me sounded unique and exciting. It is a coincidence about Hermeneutics being released in the same month, I did not even realise!

Finally, any hints towards when we can expect album number three?

I have a few ideas about the third album already, and I think that we need to move our sound forward now so that it is not just another Hermeneutics or The Line. I think a lot of the key elements will still be there but we will be trying some new ideas out as well. As a result we are anticipating that this one will take longer than the previous two as we experiment with different things. Exactly what direction it takes I’m not even sure yet myself but its probably more exciting that way

So there we have it, ten years and one month on from F# A# ∞ and there’s already an etymological legacy. Each of the four bands interviewed have, in their own way re-sculpted, reshaped but never rehashed the Godspeed sound. With the sheer amount of post-rock appearing in places from Belarus to Newcastle, it’s promising to see that the hiatus of Godspeed has in some ways allowed a new set of musicians to push the boundaries first put in place (accidentally, may I add,) by a certain Montreal nine piece. Oh and if you’re in a band wanting to use a Godspeed reference but worried the best ones have been taken, why not take a leaf out of destroyalldreamers, Could’ve Moved Mountains, and even For Wanda’s books and have a look at what A Silver Mt. Zion have to offer.


Sunday, 9 September 2007

Her Name is Calla review

Her Name is Calla - A Moment of Clarity (Originally posted at www.thesilentballet.com)

Score: 7.5/10

I must admit, I do have a biased attitude towards this latest offering from Her Name is Calla. Having already been wined, dined and thoroughly swooned by their previous release Condor & River, my approach to their new single A Moment of Clarity/Lincoln, was unsurprisingly one of high levels of excitement and heavy breathing (well the latter is a slight exaggeration). I wasn’t hoping for Condor & River mark two, but I did wonder whether Her Name is Calla could recreate the same sense of urgency and to be frank, brilliance that C&R excelled at. That was until of course, I heard the record. Although clocking in at a mere ten minutes, the Leicester based quartet have already improved on their previous sound by creating quite possibly the ultimate British post-rock single of this year.

Describing a piece of work that is of this magnitude is near impossible. I could dissect them excessively, discussing each chord, each beat, each note, although that would only half-describe HNiC’s sound. However, for those skim reading, wondering whether this set of musicians is worth listening to, I will divulge the following; opening track: "A Moment of Clarity" is a culmination of Port-Royal synth, The Pirate Ship Quintet horns and beautiful, harrowing, howling vocals. If that doesn’t attract your attention then I honestly worry for you.

To describe A Moment of Clarity/Lincoln in one sentence, for me, would lead to various hyperbole and excessive exclamation mark use. Instead, I’ll allow you to fill in those blanks, the most pleasing critical perspective I can take on this release without using any of the former language devices would be "listen for yourself and enjoy".