Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven [2000]

Genre: Post-Rock, Instrumental, Neo-Classical

MySpace: godspeed

My opinion & thought: Another Post-Rock masterpiece from Canada. With the longest, heavy & loud noise produced on every tracks, made it unforgetable. This is one of the Top 10 records in my life.

Stands out track(s): All tracks

Part 1, Part 2

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (also known as Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven and Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Antennas to Heaven) is a double album released by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was released on both Kranky and Constellation Records in 2000. The album was recorded at Chemical Sound Studios in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven is unusual in being structurally and conceptually closer to a symphony than a conventional pop or rock album. The four tracks are composed of internal movements, with different sub-titles, that fade into each other. The whole album is instrumental, except for sampled voice inserts, and starts with an almost orchestral crescendo somewhat reminiscent of Ravel's Bolero.

The inner panels of vinyl edition released by Constellation contain an interesting diagram used to illustrate the song names and lengths; each movement is drawn, byEfrim Menuck, as a square block and the length of the block is governed by how much of the song it takes up. Some of the blocks slowly move upwards to show a raise. The movement title and the numerical length are either above or below the square.

The interior covers of the CD feature art by the Rhode Island-based William Schaff. The double vinyl edition presents the same art, but on the sleeves instead. The flip side contains various images taken by the band.

Receptions:

Q magazine named it as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time.

Magnet (1-2/01, p.45) - Included it in Magnet's "20 Best Albums of 2000."

NME (12/30/00, p.78) - Ranked #16 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year".

Tracklisting:

The album consists of four continuous tracks on the Compact Disc release. Time lengths of individual movements are taken from the official discography. Times for each movement appear in the album's cover art, but those times are very inaccurate. While the movements of the tracks are listed, the names of the four tracks that make up the album are unlisted on the CD.

Disc one

1.1: Storm
#	Title	Length
1.	"Lift Yr. Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven..."	6:15
2.	"Gathering Storm/Il Pleut à Mourir [+Clatters Like Worry]"	11:10
3.	"'Welcome to Barco [sic] AM/PM...' [L.A.X.; 5/14/00]"	1:15
4.	"Cancer Towers on Holy Road Hi-Way"	3:52
22:32

1.2: Static
#	Title	Length
1.	"Terrible Canyons of Static"	3:34
2.	"Atomic Clock"	1:09
3.	"Chart #3"	2:39
4.	"World Police and Friendly Fire"	9:48
5.	"[...+The Buildings They Are Sleeping Now]"	5:25
22:35

Disc two

2.1: Sleep
#	Title	Length
1.	"Murray Ostril: '...They Don't Sleep Anymore on the Beach...'"	1:10
2.	"Monheim"	12:14
3.	"Broken Windows, Locks of Love Pt. III."	9:53
23:17

2.2: Antennas to Heaven
#	Title	Length
1.	"Moya Sings 'Baby-O'..."	1:00
2.	"Edgyswingsetacid"	0:58
3.	"[Glockenspiel Duet Recorded on a Campsite In Rhinebeck, N.Y.]"	0:47
4.	"'Attention...Mon Ami...Fa-Lala-Lala-La-La...' [55-St. Laurent]"	1:18
5.	"She Dreamt She Was a Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone in an Empty Field"	9:43
6.	"Deathkamp Drone"	3:09
7.	"[Antennas to Heaven...]"	2:02
18:57

Credits:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

• Roger Tellier-Craig – guitar
• Norsola Johnson – cello
• Efrim Menuck – guitar
• Mauro Pezzente – bass
• David Bryant – guitar
• Thierry Amar – bass
• Sophie Trudeau – violin
• Aidan Girt – percussion
• Bruce Cawdron – percussion

Other musicians

• Brian and Alfons – horns

Technical

• Daryl Smith – producer
• John Golden – mastering