On September 22, Godspeed You! Black Emperor will release a new album, their third since reuniting in 2011 and seventh overall. Co-produced and engineered once again by Greg Norman at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango, Luciferian Towers was created during GY!BE’s collaboration with the Holy Body Tattoo dance company and “spurred by the commissioning of new compositions memorializing the 100th anniversary of the WWI Battle of Messines,” according to the press release. It follows 2015’s Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress.
Included with the press release was a statement from the band, who say the album was informed by the following:
+ an end to foreign invasions
+ an end to borders
+ the total dismantling of the prison-industrial complex
+ healthcare, housing, food and water acknowledged as an inalienable human right
+ the expert fuckers who broke this world never get to speak again
To get a taste of what to expect, GY!BE have released a one-minute “unpacking” video. Watch it below, followed by the tracklist for the new album, the dates of a newly-announced European tour, and the full statement from GY!BE about the album. Look for Luciferian Towers September 22 on the ever-reliable Constellation.
Luciferian Towers tracklist:
01. Undoing A Luciferian Towers
02. Bosses Hang
03. Fam / Famine
04. Anthem For No State
Tour dates:
09.03.17 - Montreal, QC, Mile Ex End Musique Montréal Festival
09.22.17 - Guadalajara, MX, C3 Stage
09.23.17 - Mexico, MX, Sala Corona, Festival Aural
10.13.17 - Rome, IT, Romaeuropa Festival
10.14.17 - Rome, IT, Romaeuropa Festival
10.15.17 - Fribourg, CH, Frison
10.16.17 - Toulouse, FR, Le Bikini
10.17.17 - Bordeaux, FR, Krakatoa
10.18.17 - Rennes, FR, Théâtre National de Bretagne
10.19.17 - Rouen, FR, Le 106
10.20.17 - Lyon, FR, Le Tobogan
10.21.17 - Strassbourg, FR, La Laiterie
10.22.17 - Lille, FR, La Condition publique
10.23.17 - Brighton, UK, Brighton Dome
10.27.17 - Glasgow, UK, O2 ABC
10.28.17 - Manchester, UK, Victoria Warehouse
10.30.17 - Bristol, UK, Motion
10.31.17 - London, UK, Troxy
11.01.17 - Brussels, BE, Vorst Nationaal
11.02.17 - Amsterdam, NL, Paradiso
11.03.17 - Berlin, DE, Festsaal Kreuzberg
11.05.17 - Hanover, DE, Indiego
11.07.17 - Paris, FR, Elysée Montmartre
Statement from Godspeed You! Black Emperor:
this, this long-playing record, a thing we made in the midst of communal mess, raising dogs and children. eyes up and filled with dreadful joy – we aimed for wrong notes that explode, a quiet muttering amplified heavenward. we recorded it all in a burning motorboat.
(context as follows:)
1. UNDOING A LUCIFERIAN TOWERS – look at that fucking skyline! big lazy money writ in dull marble obelisks! imagine all those buildings much later on, hollowed out and stripped bare of wires and glass, listen- the wind is whistling through all 3,000 of its burning window-holes!
2. BOSSES HANG – labor, alienated from the wealth it creates, so that holy cow, most of us live precariously! kicking at it, but barely hanging on! also – the proud illuminations of our shortened lives! also – more of us than them! also – what we need now is shovels, wells, and barricades!
3. FAM / FAMINE – how they kill us = absentee landlord, burning high-rise. the loud panics of child-policemen and their exploding trigger-hands. with the dull edge of an arbitrary meritocracy. neglect, cancer maps, drone strike, famine. the forest is burning and soon they’ll hunt us like wolves.
4. ANTHEM FOR NO STATE – kanada, emptied of its minerals and dirty oil. emptied of its trees and water. a crippled thing, drowning in a puddle, covered in ants. the ocean doesn’t give a shit because it knows it’s dying too.
finally and in conclusion;
the “luciferian towers” L.P. was informed by the following grand demands:
+ an end to foreign invasions
+ an end to borders
+ the total dismantling of the prison-industrial complex
+ healthcare, housing, food and water acknowledged as an inalienable human right
+ the expert fuckers who broke this world never get to speak again