I’ve never understood the connection between GY!BE’s politics and their music; their latest album leaves me more ambivalent than ever. The title, rendered in all caps with minimal punctuation, is surely meant to come off as confrontational and urgent, conveying essential information as simply and loudly as possible for maximum agitprop effect. If the point weren’t clear enough, the liner notes erase all ambiguity: “NO TITLE=what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody? / and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.”
The music operates on a parallel track to those despairing laments. It ranges in the album’s first half from a cosmic Americana vibe in the opener, “SUN IS A HOLE SUN IS VAPORS”—echoey guitar, clouds of violins—to exultant chamber-rock riffage redolent of classic Arcade Fire in “BABYS IN A THUNDERCLOUD.” The second half takes a detour through a droney minor-key landscape that remains palatable enough never to get truly haunting or harrowing on “BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL” before landing on a note of melancholic (perhaps post-apocalyptic) determination in the finale, “GREY RUBBLE – GREEN SHOOTS.”
Thirty years into their existence, GY!BE are making some of their most dramatic and well-crafted music. The heavy, Arabic-flavoured 7/4 prog of “PALE SPECTATOR TAKES PHOTOGRAPHS” is especially satisfying.
Yet one wonders whether their sureties (which veer into sanctimony) are commensurate with the times. “What broken melody?” they ask; “THIS ONE!” they respond. It may be compelling, but it’s not convincing.
