Okay so if you thought Portishead's THIRD was miserable this will top it.
F#A#∞ is the most maudlin record i've ever heard but musically it is beautiful. I guess you'd categorise the Quebec based band as Post-Rock, vaguely similar to the likes of Tortoise, Mogwai or even Sigur Ros but in comparison with GYBE! they all sound very commercial.
The album F#A#∞ ('F sharp, A sharp, infinity') takes its name from the opening keys of each side and the runout groove on the vinyl version of the album that doesn't lock out but runs endlessly in a loop - allowing the music to play out infinitely.
This album is largely instrumental save for some narration at the beginning of the first track, the 17 minute long 'Dead Flag Blues'. There are also fragments of voices - sound recordings, distress signals. The words seem to tell of an apocalypse similar to that alluded to in Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'. The combination of the deep voiced narration and haunting music has a cinematic feel. I've included them below as they're so evocative. You can see why the band and this album in particular was such an inspiration to Danny Boyle while he directed 28 Days Later.
The three tracks, 'Dead Flag Blues', 'East Hastings' and 'Providence' take you on an incredibly journey through a physical imagined landscape of ruined cities and an emotional landscape of horror, danger, loss.
It's bleak but beautiful.
'DEAD FLAG BLUES'
'EASY HASTINGS'
DEAD FLAG BLUES:
The car is on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel,
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows.
The government is corrupt,
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn.
We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine,
And the machine is bleeding to death.
The sun has fallen down,
And the billboards are all leering,
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles.
It went like this:
The buildings tumbled in on themselves.
Mothers clutching babies
Picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair.
The skyline was beautiful on fire.
All twisted metal stretching upwards
Everything washed in a thin orange haze.
I said, "Kiss me, you're beautiful -
These are truly the last days"
You grabbed my hand
And we fell into it.
Like a daydream.
Or a fever.
(later)
We woke up one morning and fell a little further down.
For sure it's the valley of death.
I open up my wallet,
And it's full of blood.
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