0018 - A Silver Mt. Zion

Ever since I bought Spiritualized's Medication EP some time in the early 90s, I've been, if not quite obsessed, then certainly very enthusiastic about big build-ups in songs. I didn't realise at the time I first heard Angel Sigh and Feel So Sad that I was discovering post-rock (even if Spiritualized aren't really a post-rock band, what are genres for if not bending?), but they were songs that changed my tastes in music.

Angel Sigh is by far the better song - Feel So Sad is, in fairness, four minutes of dull, two-chord drone with really terrible sub-blues lyrical dreck on top. But it's the remaining three-and-a-half minutes that matter. On my first listen, played very loud on a summer's day in a flat overlooking Greyfriars churchyard in Edinburgh, I was stunned. I actually stood a bit slack-jawed, overwhelmed by the mounting layers of sound. It seemed impossible that the stereo could contain the building tsunami of brass and drums and flute and guitar, before its abrupt ending left me a bit breathless and wanting more, more, more!

Twenty years on and it still has the same effect on me and I've not found many other pieces of music that can affect me quite so profoundly and bring on that breathless, visceral thrill. Here's one though - the 6'15" of transcendent genius that is Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven... 

The reason I bring all this up is that despite my enthusiasm for the form - grandiose soundscapes and the like - I don't really have all that much post-rock around. There's a bit of Mogwai here, some Sigur Ros there, that sort of thing, but for reasons I can't really explain, I've never quite got into the post-rock in a big way.

A Silver Mt. Zion are a perfect example of this. I thought I had just one track by them (turns out I have two, but I'll get to that), More Action! Less Tears!, downloaded from Epitonic back in the day, and given that I really, really like it (so much, in fact, that I'm willing to overlook the fact that it should be called More Action! Fewer Tears!), I can't explain why I've never actually bought anything by the band.

Like 100 Flowers, A Silver Mt. Zion are serial name changers - A Silver Mt. Zion became The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, then Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band with Choir, then Thee Silver Mountain Reveries before most recently becoming Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. It's all a bit silly, but I approve, they'll be delighted to learn, I'm sure.

They're also the answer to the question I'm sure you've asked of what Godspeed You! Black Emperor would sound like with singing, being a Godspeed... side-project, and while More Action! Less Tears! doesn't answer that question particularly well (sounding, really, like Godspeed... without the singing, on the whole), the other track I have does answer that question better.

I've had The Triumph Of Our Tired Eyes on a mix CD a friend made for me for at least twelve years, but he only put the song titles on the disc, so it was only when I googled the title that I discovered who the song was by.

Again, I'm a fan. Again, no real explanation as to why I haven't got more by them.

I'm starting to build up a bit of a to-buy list through the blog, which is a great thing, I suppose. A Silver Mt. Zion are now on that list.