In March 2000, I was in Glasgow for a few days doing some work for learndirect scotland, and noticed a fly-poster advertising a gig by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, playing at the Garage on the last night I was due to be there. I'd heard Godspeed on John Peel's programme, and they were one of those bands that just sounded like nothing else on the radio, and nothing quite like you'd ever heard before. So I was excited at the chance to see them (our work actually finished a day early, but I stayed on, hotel expenses paid, for the gig). There were two support bands — Fly Pan Am and Sigur Rós — neither of whom I knew anything about.
I can't remember very much about that Sigur Rós performance, except for the guy playing his guitar with a bow and a fair bit of singing without words. I must have liked it quite a lot as I bought this CD a couple of months later. However, I haven't played it much since, and, to be honest I've got a bit fed up with this kind of quiet-loud, floaty-floaty-boom-bash music.
One of the things I realised that night in Glasgow, which hadn't been obvious from hearing individual tracks on the radio, was that every Godspeed piece (they're not songs) started in the same place (quiet and moody) and ended in the same place (quiet, moody and sombre) having built gradually towards an apocalyptic rage in the mean time. Mogwai have a reputation for being the same.
I saw Jason Pierce playing the other night (at a Daniel Johnston tribute gig), and I reckon his bands have quite a lot to answer for in kick-starting that genre.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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