If you tell me that Efrim Menuck – founding member of one of my personal favourite bands Godspeed You! Black Emperor – has a new project, I’m already on board. We Are Winter’s Blue and Radiant Children have more prestige than just that alone, though. Joining Menuck are Mat Ball, guitarist in drone doom outfit BIG|BRAVE, plus Jonathan Downs and Patch One of post-rock band Ada. It’s a pretty formidable lineup, one that has come together to deliver the six austere dirges that constitute No More Apocalypse Father.
Opening track ‘Rats And Roses’ drifts in on a radio signal, like a snowstorm blowing into view over the horizon. Menuck’s fragile voice emerges amidst a flurry of whirring drone that rises from subtle gusts to an ever-present, all-consuming hum. It makes the opening of No More Apocalypse Father a descent into the ice age that is to come.
‘Tremble Pour Light’ follows, a pulsating tone announcing its onset. Waning whines cry out from the constant rumble like pipes straining in the bitter chill, guitars roar into dissonant feedback and there is an oscillating undercurrent that forces its way to the surface periodically. There’s a stillness about these opening tracks. Frozen where they stand they are trance-like, observing the cataclysmic snowfall that has just opened up overhead.
The title track is where shit really hits the fan, then. A violent, distorted clanging moves closer and closer and closer with every beat until it is almost uncomfortably close. Its angry stomp in unison with just how crushingly it’s distorted make it sound like unstoppable winds bashing in your doors, threatening the safe haven you’ve been observing the storm from. With two gentle notes – almost calming among the maelstrom, the gorgeous dance of snow – the song comes crashing in. Monolithic chords ring out, drenched in fuzzy distortion, Menuck’s voice obscured. “We are abandoned” he sings. There’s a grandeur to the whole thing, awe-inspiring both in spite and because of its destructive nature. As the track nears its end, it collapses in on itself. The percussion has lost its bite and rattles in the background as the track fades out.
‘Uncloudy Days’ has a soothing melody sitting at its heart that feels welcome after ‘No More Apocalypse Father.’ The lyrics detail the destruction and aftermath of natural disasters, so it has this air of walking around the wasteland created by the last track. It’s a melancholy lull that forces you to sit with the monstrous effects of nature’s desperate lashing out. It’s hard not to think of the imagery of global warming and climate change, especially with Menuck singing “we’ll drown the four horsemen in the boiling sea.”
‘Dangling Blanket From A Balcony (White Phosphorous)’ recalls the memory of Michael Jackson hoisting his baby, Blanket Jackson, over the balcony of his Berlin hotel back in 2002. Menuck remembers his anger at the visual before the track is set ablaze by blazing guitar tones. White Phosphorous, used by militaries, designed for illumination and smokescreen, is highly incendiary and sticks itself to skin and clothing, so it seems like a fitting title. Like the dropping of a Phosphorus munition, the track is lit up, blanketed in smoke and set alight in an instant, and the rest of the song’s 13-minute runtime is a simmering chemical light show that no gentle melody could survive.
Closing track ‘(Goodnight) White Phosphorous) follows. A drone glides in alone, one that rises to sound like a heavenly choir and dips its toes into hellish feedback. It’s a final hymn to close the record, Menuck singing “Here comes the sea, twenty stories tall.” It’s a solen, wavering track that ends No More Apocalypse Father on an ominous note as feedback and radio interference emerge to bring the album to a halt.
This album isn’t for everyone. Even fans of the members’ respective other projects might not dig everything here. There is a lot less dynamic movement on some tracks here than lots of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s most popular tracks, Menuck’s voice is distinct and I could see it being divisive and it’s not the kind of album you listen to casually. That being said, if you put this record on whilst you go on a walk, or on a snow day (this bizarre September Summertime we’re having in the UK really isn’t fitting for this one) or you just immerse yourself in it on a record player or a speaker or in headphones as you meditate or do some art then it’s a really brilliant collection of music.
No More Apocalypse Father paints an image of a deadly winter, one where you realise the coming snow is a falling cloud of chemical munitions that there is no escaping. It uses that image to reflect the doom of the effects of climate change in a way I found really, really compelling.
We Are Winter’s Blue and Radiant Children: No More Apocalypse Father – Out 13th September 2024 (Constellation)
More Apocalypse Father (youtube.com)
