A Silver Mt. Zion - beginnings

Godspeed You Black Emperor! (now Godspeed You! Black Emperor) has been one of the most influential post-rocks bands in the history of the movement. Although I should pause here to mention that that label is one of controversy. GY!BE would not describe themselves as 'post-rock' just as most bands labelled 'post-rock' would not describe themselves as such. It's a troublesome point as while you can call Mogwai, Sigur Ros, GY!BE and Slint post-rock, there is not much similarity to these bands' sounds.

Regardless, there has been a movement, call it what you will, of bands that have taken rock instruments and rock aesthetics and created something decidedly un-rock, while still revelling in its roots. At the forefront of this movement was Godspeed You Black Emperor! A revolving collection of musicians, they usually had at least 3 guitars, 2 basses, 2 drummers, a violinist, electronic manipulators, and an assortment of other players. The didn't create songs, so much as songscapes. Somewhere between hard rock and ambient, if Brian Eno decided to put together a rock band, they might sound something like GYBE!

A more detailed post about GYBE! (or GY!BE) itself will come later, put the important setup here is that after just one official album, an EP and an aMAZEine split, GYBE! had made a huge name for itself within the indierock community. These guys had a sound that no one had heard before, and while there were greatly justified accounts that they were about the most pretentious musical act on the planet, there was also the consensus that their work was one of unparalleled brilliance, and that they were carving a path that no one had ever tread before.


Sometime in 1999, Efrim Menuck (one of the guitarists and founders of GYBE!) grew frustrated with what they were producing. Not that he was disappointed with the results, but he found process to be somewhat lacking. Efrim was an essentially self-taught guitarist and was not learned in the often highly confusing and convoluted world of music theory. Many of his bandmates, classically trained, would refer to "diminished fifths" or "augmented sevenths". It was a language that he did not speak, and felt frustrated that he could not communicate his ideas in a way that many of his peers easily could.

At the same time, he had new ideas for music, ones that he felt would not necessarily fit within the vast framework of GYBE! For one, his ideas were a great deal more minimalist, at least as far as instrumentation was concerned. He decided he would learn how to read and write music, and spent some many months to that effect and then took to the task of writing an entire album longhand with proper musical notation. It was an unmitigated failure. Efrim hated the process and wasn't terribly pleased with the results. He felt it robbed him of his particular realationship with music, one that was etherial to be sure, but that yielded results that were certainly emotionally substantial.

However, in trying to put together a scripted piece of work, although that was a failure Efrim found himself with a new band of players and an interest in creating something different. Sophie (violin) and Therry (double bass) were both recruited out of GYBE! and now they joined with Efrim to create something similiar but distinct.

The result was A Silver Mt. Zion (which was also to change its name at least 4 times in the following years) and their first effort was the equally challengingly named "He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Still Grace The Corners Of Our Rooms..."

It is unfair to say that people dismissed the band and the album right off the bat. They did not. However, at the time of its release He Has Left Us was certainly overshadowed by GYBE!'s most recent output "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven". The latter was a juggernaught of sound and fury and arguably the band's most impressive effort. The former by contrast, was a much more sedate affair by a side-project consisting of 1/3 of GYBE! Comparisions between the two were inevitable.

Many reviews were largely positive, but the feeling was that the album was a 'lighter' version of GYBE! Certainly many sections did feel like the quieter moments of GYBE!, and the pieces that were strikingly different, like the vocal/piano piece Movie (Never Made) [another song whose name and arrangement would change over time], were so different as to be a bit baffling. Efrim couldn't really 'sing'. His voice warbled and cracked in places. It was strange, and it had been anyone else, it might have been written off as crap. But because this had been produced by part of the team of GYBE! there was willingness to allow for some experimentation. At worst, it was labelled an attempt that was interesting, but didn't quite reach the heights of relevance.

It would take further efforts by the band, a change in members and even name of the band and the inevitable hiatus of GYBE! before A Silver Mt. Zion was fully understood and appreciated. Once this happened people would go back and hear the foundation for what was to come. Only then would He Has Left Us be discovered for the truly great album that it is.