Do Make Say Think
Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead

My friend introduced me to Do Make Say Think. Already a great big fat Godspeed You! Black Emperor fan, he had been scouring the Constellation back-catalogue and subsequently lent me Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead, their second full length. I was sitting on a bench in Greece when I first listened to it; expecting the cinematic scope and grandeur of Efrim and co, the melodic jazz space-rock took me aback. I like that in a band: music that forces you to take a step back, to look out as well as in. Do Make Say Think are a group to watch the world spin by to; to travel with; who provoke nothing more than the desire to reminisce but who never sink into melancholy without at least leaving you an afterthought. They’re a group who excel in documenting moments in time, and who provide those moments with a beautifully honest soundtrack brimming with hope.

Album opener ‘When Day Chokes The Night? starts with a simple, contemplative riff set over static, built upon layer by layer. Suddenly everything stops and we’re greeted by a frantic scramble of drums, glitches and horns: sounds like high post-rock melodrama, but the mix keeps it simple and the album never passes into the self-indulgence or pretension often levelled at their label mates. Indeed, as their name suggests, DMST are all about simplicity: following track ‘Minmin' is set over just a couple of notes as a second guitar gently creeps in and slowly takes over, becoming the centrepiece halfway through in a soaring crescendo of psych glitches and echoes, gradually passing the baton onto an acoustic ending Four Tet would be proud of. It’s a formula that works to eek out contrasting sounds and emotions: confusion and sadness give way to barnstorming joy. Album ender, the 12-minute ‘Goodbye Enemy Airship', rises and falls, mixing up rock, jazz and folktronica to give the album a truly epic finale.

Standout track _‘All Of This Is True' perhaps best sums up why I love GEATLID and this band so much, combining a Kid A-esque electronic setting with lone horns that send shivers down your spine. The album cuts like a dream: a giddy whirl of different genres and instruments with the occasional distant word or noise chiming in the background. The song ends with the sound of a party; a man shouts, “Merry Christmas everybody. Like I said: moments in time.