{"title":"Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"kollaps-tradixionales","title":"Kollaps Tradixionales","description":"\u003cp\u003egatefold cd with lyric booklet. thee silver mt zion memorial orchestra (smz) returns with its sixth full-length recording and first since the band's line-up change of summer 2008. having shed three members and recruited one (drummer david payant), the group officially dropped the 'tra-la-la band' from its name and embarked on an extensive european tour in 2008. as 'kollaps tradixionales'ably demonstrates, the band has lost none of its raw and frazzled anthemic power and continues to forge bold new ground in its search for a unique hybrid of punk, blues, psych, folk and modern orchestral idioms. anchored by the fried electric guitar and voice of band leader efrim menuck (godspeed you! black emperor) smz continues to slide comfortably towards an expansive, loose and blues-inflected balladry. needless to say, the slow burn with smz, bears little reference to typical notions of musical seduction, relaxation, or hip-swinging satisfaction. what smoulders here is much more precarious and anxious, driven by some of this decade's more devastating lyrical conjurings of the universal outsider and the thematics of 21st century western psychic oppression. as the lyrics to 'there is a light' attest, these are no simple paeans to the human spirit, but songs of complex, desperate and thorny hope.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"10\" | x2","offer_id":50383560245579,"sku":"322188","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50383560474955,"sku":"322186","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/8e5bc858-6eb6-4678-b159-9aa2ad7bad9f_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726272697"},{"product_id":"born-into-trouble-as-the-sparks-fly-upward","title":"Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe second Silver Mt Zion album featured an expanded band, with a similarly expanded band name. The addition of cello, second violin and second guitar allowed SMZ to develop richer, denser arrangements while preserving live ensemble playing. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe opening instrumental pieces picked up where the debut left off, with found-sound loops and treatments introducing repeated melodic themes that move slowly through various counter-melodies the greater breadth of instrumentation brought extra subtlety, complexity and harmonic range to bear on these neo-classical dirges. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGuitars and vocals moved to the fore on the album’s centrepiece tracks. “Take These Hands And Throw Them In The River” is an astounding juxtaposition of rhythmic thrust and ricocheting vocals, driven by a battered lyrical paranoia that conjures equal parts fear and rage. The calm after this storming piece comes by way of another vocal tune, this time fragile and near-whispered, with dual lines that alternately mask and reinforce each other. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA piano and cello interlude prefaces the last side of the record, which features two guitar-driven songs, the first a blazing rock piece that builds to an exuberant distorted climax, the second as close to a pop masterpiece as this band is likely to craft, highlighted by a lovely arpeggio guitar riff and the defiant refrain “musicians are cowards”. While remaining anchored in an underlying sadness and mourning over this failed world, this album reveals an angrier, more urgent face as this unique ensemble charted ever-widening sonic and emotional terrain.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Constellation","offers":[{"title":"Black 10\"x2","offer_id":50389188346187,"sku":"1162113","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/73072efc-76e8-44d9-9585-b6ca2458b190_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726354935"},{"product_id":"fuck-off-get-free-we-pour-light-on-everything","title":"Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything","description":"\u003cp\u003eFormed by Godspeed You! Black Emperor member Efrim Menuck 15 years ago, Thee Silver Mt Zion have carved a singular path in the aftermath of the heavy, instrumental musics that was their surroundings at their inception. Their current sound is more honed, laser-guided and bone-rattling than ever, melding hardcore, blues, garage and dark metal influences that have nothing to do with anything so quaint as \"post-rock\" (a tag the group has always and rightly rejected). 'Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything' is the first definitive document of the band's new found sound and style as a quintet. It's also their first single LP-length work since the band's debut record as a trio almost 15 years ago, and features road tested pummeling rock-outs 'Fuck Off Get Free (For The Island Of Montreal)', 'Take Away These Early Grave Blues' and 'What We Loved Was Not Enough' alongside the previously unheard lullabyes \/ minuets 'Little Ones Run' and 'Rains Thru The Roof At Thee Grande Ballroom (For Capital Steeze)' and the album centerpiece 'Austerity Blues' with its closing lyric \"Lord let my son live long enough to see that mountain torn down\" sung in varying incarnations throughout the second half of this 14-minute epic. 180 Gram LP with art poster, download and CD in gatefold paperboard jacket.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Constellation","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50406095946059,"sku":"370969","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50406095126859,"sku":"370968","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/93264022-79d2-4749-b81f-4992497f08c6_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726583467"},{"product_id":"13-blues-for-thirteen-moons","title":"13 Blues For Thirteen Moons","description":"\u003cp\u003ethee silver mt. zion memorial orchestra and tra-la-la band have been making a big raw angry tender racket since the 2005 release of their last album, 'horses in the sky'. with a focus on live performance and special projects over the past three years, the group proper has logged well over 100 shows in europe and north america, in between sessions that yielded 'thee silver mountain reveries' ep and 'thee silver mountain elegies play war radio' tour (featuring four members of mt. zion and both members of labelmates hangedup), as well as collaborations with carla bozulich, vic chesnutt and patti smith in the studio and in concert. the music of the full band (two guitars, two violins, cello, contrebasse and drums) has grown louder, looser, full of spittle and tears. on '13 blues for thirteen moons', riffs are the backbone more than ever. anchored by new drummer eric craven (ex-hangedup), the band works its slow build and burn with newfound patience, sinuousness and ferocity. whether methodically framing walls of sound over the four-on-the-floor punk dirge of '1,000,000 died to make this sound' or exploding in sheets of free noise and melody on 'black waters blowed', the band has never rocked harder and has never sounded more determined, desperate and driven. a stuttered blues riff is the foundation for the album's title track, making its appearance after a blisteringly minimalist intro. 'engine broke blues' features a gorgeous set of chords that build inexorably from multiple guitar, string and organ lines. fans of the group will be familiar with much of this material from the band's live shows over the past couple of years. the recording, undertaken at the newly renovated hotel2tango facility in montreal and co-engineered by howard bilerman and radwan moumneh (who is also the band's live sound person), ups the ante considerably, with crackling guitar crescendos setting the pace for dive-bombing swirls of strings, while efrim's voice rasps and wails words of worry, hope and fury throughout. the band's hallmark group vocal passages are positively spine-tingling. double 180 gram vinyl in constellation's custom cardstock packaging, printed on 100% recycled fine paper, and include lyrics as part of the insert booklet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"Black LPx2.","offer_id":50406102761803,"sku":"297035","price":12.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/8f6203fa-4c79-40e7-bd2f-b61d58567cd3_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726583524"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/thee-silver-mt-zion-memorial-orchestra.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}