Elegant packaging and artwork adorn Constellation's label compilation, Song of the Silent Land,an album sold originally as a tour CD produced for and sold on a 2004European tour featuring a few of Constellation's lineup. Now, though,it is widely available to us colonials in the New World. Inside thecarefully wrought artwork, the CD features fourteen rare and unreleasedsongs by the roster of the label and then some. I am uncertain what theSilent Land in the title is, but if you take in the big picture, hereis what you get geopolitically: a defiantly Canadian label creating acompilation for a European audience. All of this amounts in America toa not quite palatable offering from a country whom we consider our slowcousin to the north intended for a continent whose countries are quitea bit more worldly and refined than America these days (if you canjudge a country by its current administration, that is). Perhaps it isthe reactionary and reckless American brashness in me, but I wouldstill not hesitate to dump this album off the side of the nearest tallship into the murky depths of Boston harbor. I would even throw sometea overboard along with the CD, just for old time's sake. The songs onthis compilation sound largely like throw-away material, dredged fromthe dregs of each artist's sound bank. Consumers will not doubt betempted to purchase the album on the basis of Constellation all-starslike Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Exhaust, A Silver Mt. Zion, and DoMake Say Think. Unfortunately, these bands provide some of the biggestdisappointments. Godspeed's uninspired live recording of "Outro" mightbe hampered by the imprecision of the, well, live recording of it, orit might just be a substandard composition. The sound is warbly,ill-mixed, and not up to the angelic and anthemic standards of theband's studio persona. Nor does it approximate the live experience ofseeing the band perform. A Silver Mt. Zion offer a wall of noise withsome strings operating underneath it all, though at an almostindiscernible level. Le Fly Pan Am in collaboration with Tim Hecker andChristof Migone execute one of the more pleasing songs for thecompilation: the perhaps haughtily titled "Tres Tres 'Avant'" is abouncy and nearly danceable number with about three of four differentaural levels of interesting sounds going on simultaneously. Some of themore obscure artists here might catch the ear of the more attentivelistener. 1-Speed Bike, Frankie Sparo, and HangedUp all seem tothreaten songs of quality, but punctuated by the flotsam around them,it can be a little deceptive and hard to tell.- A Silver Mt. Zion - Iron Bridge to Thunder Bay
- HangedUp - Review from the Ground
- Le Fly Pan Am - Tres Tres 'Avant'
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