FFWD Weekly
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CD Reviews by Mark Hamilton FLY PAN AM sedatif en frequences et sillons Constellation MOLASSES Trilogie: Toil & Peaceful Life Fancy Within weeks of the release of the double album Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven, two additional Godspeed You Black Emperor! side-project EPs hit the shelves. For the better part of a year, the Godspeed camp out of Montreal seemed to lay dormant and silent. In those 12 months, however, a flurry of activity has been keeping all those involved busy. The opening of Casa Del Popolo, their own performance space with nightly lineups ranging from acoustic balladry to electric performance art, and the improvement of the collective’s home studio have led to a slew of new recordings and audio experiments. Serving as the focal point of one of the more inventive and invigorating musical scenes going today, Constellation Records – the label on which the majority of these records are released — and its satellites are coming out in full force with a chain of autumn releases that continue to impress and astound. Fly Pan Am, the product of GYBE’s guitar team, returned to the studio in spring 2000 to experiment with the results of last year’s debut and record some new material. The reconfiguring, remixing and in some cases re-recording of several passages hearkens back to the best in ’70s krautrock, in particular the lengthier guitar workouts of Can. The opening track very nearly recreates the experience of flight with a hypnotic velocity. Challenging yet mesmerizing, sedatif en frequences et sillons refuses to compromise. Molasses songwriter and vocalist Scott Chernoff is backed by members of both Godspeed and The Shalabi Effect on Trilogie: Toil & Peaceful Life, a deeply affecting and rich morsel so fragile it would break in less skilled hands. Plowing the same soil as fellow-Montreal act Sackville, Molasses’s songs flow gently on billows of upright bass, sentimental guitar and fluttering saw. "Well it’s here in the rabble you find your true kin," sings Chernoff on "Lisa’s Waltz (Running Away From Home)" creating a welcoming aural environment soundtracked by church bells and the chirping of crickets. The closing rendition of "Amazing Grace" is carried off with such charm and ease that the song sounds altogether new. Trilogie: Toil & Peaceful Life is a folded photograph of moonlit golden fields, creased and browning at the edges. BOTH RECORDS 4/5

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