The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band -- Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward

7/10

I got into some weird music in 2005. Wait, don't run, I promise I won't go on another 2005 ramble! Not for another few reviews at least! All I mean to say is, I had just graduated from college with a Creative Writing degree the year before, was unemployed, and lived at home with my parents. My political opinions were extreme, along with my supreme feelings of alienation, depression, and loneliness.
Hence, I listened to a lot of music surrounding the Canadian collective, Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Their anarchist, "everything is horrible now, so be a bunch of little sparks together to fight the darkness" perspective struck a very exposed nerve, and I fell in line with whatever vibe they were pushing. Amusingly enough, when I saw Godspeed You! Black Emperor almost a decade later, I wasn't as impressed with their schtick, being a hard-working, capitalist adult and all.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor spin-off, Silver Mt. Zion, has a different, but similar band name for just about every album they release, and I'll put those names, i.e., Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, in the titles, but for the purpose of brevity and sanity, I'll just call them Silver Mt. Zion in the body of these reviews. Silver Mt. Zion's music is mainly composed of a hybrid of chamber music string section, effect-heavy electric guitar, experimental tape loops, found sounds, spoken word and Efrim Menuck's warbling, desperate singing. How desperate? Think about the wild-eyed bad guy from an old movie--he's chasing you up a cliffside in a pitch dark midnight thunderstorm, and you think he's far down below, when the lightning strikes to reveal his eyes bulging, and his inches-away hand reaching toward you, mud and rain crumbling off his fingertips.
Menuck's vocals don't make an appearance until track four, "Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River," an avalanche of urgent strings backing Menuck's pleading insanity. In contrast, the next track, "Could've Moved Mountains" features far softer, quieter vocals from Menuck, and beautiful, building strings, guitar arpeggios, and organ lines that never quite resolve. (*Also, how could you have moved them before, and why can't you move them now, you dirty hippies?*) It's a gorgeous track. This is followed by the brooding, nervous piano and strings of "Tho You Are Gone I Still Often Walk W/You," which sounds like the soundtrack to a suspenseful silent movie scene.
"C'monCOMEON (Loose An Endless Longing)" introduces some percussion into the mix, with some crashing cymbals, toms, and weird tape experiments, while bringing all previous elements sans Menuck's voice into play. Like "Could've Moved Mountains," all of the building tension seems it will never be released, kind of like a movie that promises its hero with give all the bad guys knuckle sandwiches, but fades out on a POV shot of him approaching them. Then the music fades back in, a swarm of welcome horns promises mayhem, and the whole thing cuts loose in loud, glorious chaos, and a killer bass line. This album needs a catharsis to work, and "C'MonCOMEON (Loose An Endless Longing)" provides it. Menuck's vocals return on the hopeful, yet downtrodden "The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes," closing out the album with strings, guitar, and vocals. The lyrics are a call to revolution. He repeats the words "musicians are cowards" over and over again, which brings a smile to my face, as the rest of the lyrics make me think, "Sure buddy, words are one thing...action is another." Yes, a bunch of grimy hippy musicians, seemingly living and recording music in a condemned, abandoned building, aren't going to save the world, but as an album of anarchistic, experimental music, Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward will do.

2001 Constellation
1. Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire Are Falling From the Sky! 9:07
2. This Gentle Hearts Like Shot Bird's Fallen 5:47
3. Built Then Burnt [Hurrah! Hurrah!] 5:41
4. Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River 7:01
5. Could've Moved Mountains... 11:02
6. Tho You Are Gone I Still Often Walk W/You 4:48
7. C'monCOMEON (Loose An Endless Longing) 8:06
8. The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes 6:54