GOD SPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR!

Many years ago, when working at Dazed & Confused magazine, I created a new monthly column and called it Mixtape (I believe they still run it today). When I started this music review page I actually designed the sleeve and physically made the mixtape I was writing about and gave copies to everyone in the office. On the very first edition of Mixtape I put a track from a new band I had come across called God Speed You Black Emperor!, an 8 piece post-rock band from Montreal. I then took a friend to their first ever live show in London in a small room underneath Highbury tube station. Last month (April ’11), I witnessed the same band play what I can only describe as a career defining, once in a lifetime performance at the Music Box in Los Angeles. On something of a blind date with the artist Axel Boman we stepped into an inferno of sound and watched silently for 3 hours one of the most challenging, awe inspiring and pitch perfect live show we had ever witnessed. If you don’t know this band, I cannot recommend their music highly enough.

Here is 20 minutes of a recent show in Paris, enjoy.