Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Do Make Say Think

Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead

Label: Constellation Release Date: 13/03/2000

8262
since-last-summer by Sam Lewis May 3rd, 2005

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.

  • 9
    Sam Lewis's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing



Left-arrow

Mean Creek

Mobback
8259
8271

Sleater-Kinney at Camden Barfly, Camden Town, Tue 26 Apr

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025

  • 106149
  • news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141

    news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139
  • Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138

    Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137
  • Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
MORE


    news


    Can You Help?

  • 105927
  • review


    Kate Nash - Made Of Bricks

  • 26283

    feature


    DiS is 6: Our 66, the top six

  • 95297
  • DiSband


    DiSband #7: Viva Brother

  • 77972

    Playlist


    15 Years of DiS in 15 Videos (Vevo Playlist)

  • 101593
  • Column


    Drowned In Sound's 40 Favourite Songs of 2014

  • 98608

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • Column


    Lost Albums 2000-2015

  • 101481
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND