Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

3...according to our Ant on Thu 06 Mar, 2008.

Both Phil and I tried to get into the latest Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-LaBand. This is way too clever for me as I just got confused at it starting on track 13 but it now makes sense as it is called '13 Blues For Thirteen Moons'. There are elements of this that are interesting but they're completely overshadowed by the greater part of the album that I realy do not like. The strings and vocals are reminiscent of P.I.L who I love but there is somthing about this that gets on my nerves. I think it's the same kind of sounds that I hear in Kiss Thee Anus Of A Black Cat and Current 93 that put me off. Lovely packaging though as you'd expect from Constellation.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band have been making a big raw angry tender racket since the 2005 release of their last album, Horses In The Sky. With a focus on live performance and special projects over the past three years, the group proper has logged well over 100 shows in Europe and North America, in between sessions that yielded Thee Silver Mountain Reveries EP and Thee Silver Mountain Elegies Play War Radio tour (featuring four members of Mt. Zion and both members of labelmates Hangedup), as well as collaborations with Carla Bozulich, Vic Chesnutt and Patti Smith in the studio and in concert.

The music of the full band (two guitars, two violins, cello, contrebasse and drums) has grown louder, looser, full of spittle and tears. On 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons, riffs are the backbone more than ever. Anchored by new drummer Eric Craven (ex-Hangedup), the band works its slow build and burn with newfound patience, sinuousness and ferocity. Whether methodically framing walls of sound over the four-on-the-floor punk dirge of "1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound" or exploding in sheets of free noise and melody on "Black Waters Blowed", the band has never rocked harder and has never sounded more determined, desperate and driven. A stuttered blues riff is the foundation for the album's title track, making its appearance after a blisteringly minimalist intro. "Engine Broke Blues" features a gorgeous set of chords that build inexorably from multiple guitar, string and organ lines.

Fans of the group will be familiar with much of this material from the band's live shows over the past couple of years. The recording, undertaken at the newly renovated Hotel2Tango facility in Montreal and co-engineered by Howard Bilerman and Radwan Moumneh (who is also the band's live sound person), ups the ante considerably, with crackling guitar crescendos setting the pace for dive-bombing swirls of strings, while Efrim's voice rasps and wails words of worry, hope and fury throughout. The band's hallmark group vocal passages are positively spine-tingling.

Constellation is thrilled to be releasing this mighty slab on CD and 2x180gLP. Both formats come in our custom cardstock packaging, printed on 100% recycled fine paper, and include lyrics as part of the insert booklet.

5...according to Darren Brown.

A silver Mt. Zion is an absolutely beautiful music ensemble. I find every album as moving as the one before it, and 13 Blues for Thirteen moons is no exception.

What absolutely pisses me of however is everyone talking negative about Efrim's vocals. His vocals bring so much sincerity and meaning to the music and without him upfront wailing away would be a loss. He sings more in this album than in Horses In the Sky, and I have no problems with that. What i also love about this new album is how each song differs. Each of the 4 beautiful songs is unique in their own way yet they still establish that amazing ASMZ sound.

If you see the beauty in this band as i do, then i would highly suggest picking up a copy of 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, i promise you will not be disappointed.

Rating: 5 out of 5

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!