Godspeed You! Black Emperor: F# A# ∞ [CONSTELLATION]

Why you'll love it

F# A# ∞ is the record that launched Montreal post-rock and one of Constellation's founding records. Its centrepiece "East Hastings" soundtracked 28 Days Later, and the opening monologue of "The Dead Flag Blues" has been haunting listeners ever since.

This edition

• Single LP
• Constellation pressing
• Original Montreal recording

About the album

Montreal, mid-'90s: a loose collective of musicians decides to make music that sounds like the end of the world, and the beginning of the next one. F# A# ∞ was Godspeed You! Black Emperor's first proper album and one of the first records on the city's Constellation label, and it remains one of the most quietly influential records ever made in this country.

It opens with a spoken-word monologue ("The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel") over a slow, mournful drone and builds from there into vast, cinematic movements of strings, guitars, field recordings and crashing drums. Danny Boyle borrowed "East Hastings" for 28 Days Later. Plenty of bands have tried to make this kind of record since. Hardly anyone has done it better.

Also at Kops: more Godspeed You! Black Emperor on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Constellation, first out in 1997.