f#a#00

text

This is the second time the rather lovely and helpfully-titled f#a#00 has emerged. The original vinyl only release on Constellation Records has been remixed and resequenced and is now available on a Kranky CD. This is bleak. But beautiful. Another demonstration of just how evocative and enticing North American (in the broadest sense - GSYBE are from Montreal) instrumental music can be, despite this version resolutely residing in a very dark place indeed. Godspeed's sound is based around languorous circular lines drawn out on string instruments - principally violins and two or three electric guitars - immersed in subtle washes of feedback, gradually building to percussion-driven crescendi. In fact, for such a coherent record and strong identity, there's real range to f#a#00, both in the varied instrumentation used (including samples of found sounds and taped conversations, banjos, bagpipes and glockenspiels, etc.) and in the sounds they produce, veering between shimmering ambient music, the evocative Americana of Cooder's or Morricone's soundtracks, or Bill Frisell's country blues, then landing up in a lo-fi instrumental rock not unlike a slightly less-shambolic Dark Starry Grateful Dead or Interstellar Overdrive-era Pink Floyd. Oh and there's a hidden track. Godspeed are working on new material and touring soon. Well worth checking out.