The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la Band With Choir
"This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing,

BABYLON WAS BUILT ON FIRE
AND THE BONES ARE USELESS MACHINE...

11th Sept 2001
I will never forget that date... moreover, I was celebrating 6 months with my girlfriend at the time - I'd never seen 6 months with a girl before... what a party!
Well, it's since that fateful date that many bands, obviously deeply affected by the events, have been competing to denounce in their records the lack of seriousness of the Bush administration, which has led the entire world adrift, to a war, almost a new crusade, and above all, has exposed the real difficulties for all humanity to live in tolerance and peace... blablabla... we've seen Green Day, with "American Idiot"... Radiohead, and their "Hail To The Thief"... even Alice Cooper, siding with Kerry and denouncing the Republican nonsense at his concerts... blablabla... but which one of them, meanwhile, has given up the glories of rock, huh?!
Who's given up the fancy cars, the hookers, the $3000-a-night suites, showing they've truly understood the lesson??
No, because, you know, I rightfully smell marketing in this situation too, albeit so delicate... Bush here, Bush there... yet no one gives up their Rolex, nor the 156th model of Les Paul for their personal collection... the hypocrisy borders on the grotesque, especially when we think of certain examples from home.

In this chaos of multiple and irreconcilable positions, in this cold ocean of increasingly pressing demands and absolutely irreconcilable contradictions, up there, on the tip of a monolithic ice ridge detached from general indifference, there they are, the SILVER MT ZION, hermits of sound.
So young and yet already experienced and disillusioned enough to infuse any melody emerging from their instruments with an unforgettable vein of cynicism and passion, and why not, even a pinch of arrogance towards the aforementioned musical community, which led their guitarist Efrim (already with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Set Fire To Flames, etc.) to a fierce verbal exchange with Radiohead themselves, regarding the usual disputes... which in the end is fitting... but let's not digress too much.

In the ranks of SMZMOATLLB are members and non-members of the better-known Canadian ensemble Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and indeed the project doesn't differ much from what we had experienced in the past, this translates to:
- the anti-capitalist aspect of the proposal: anti-plastic packaging, glorious, made of folded cardboard, heavy allusions to the media overpower of the USA, both in the artwork - note the back: in a box of American cigars depicting a mountain, the product title has been erased except for the two words "our" and "land" - and in the vocal parts!!! Yes, because unlike GY!BE, here Efrim sings too, in fact, they all sing... and with what intensity!
- long suites dense with sound solutions; the album consists of 4 tracks with an average length of 12-15 minutes.
- guitars that are at times softly folk, at times incredibly launched into the deepest cosmos, with that typical attitude to sadness that only they manage to create; violins, strings, various percussions, and drones follow one another, tearing, and wrap the listener in a dreamlike atmosphere saturated with strong sensations...
- the aura of mystery, of privacy, of actual disinterest, that the group maintains from the start... few interviews, few concerts, little nonsense...

And for those who ask what kind of music this is, just tell them to reread the album title... after which nothing remains but to question the fate of us all.

IT WILL NOT BE A TENDER FIRE UPON YOUR POSTCARD MOUNTAINS
NO GOLDEN CHILDREN WILL WRITE HYMNS ABOUT
THE SLOW DEFEAT OF YOUR RECKLESS DESTINY...