Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada
Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada is the first EP released by Godspeed You! Black Emperor on the Montreal-based record label Constellation records in 1999.
The front of the album contains Hebrew characters, in transliterated form, "tohu va vohu". This phrase is used in both Genesis 1:2 and Jeremiah 4:23, and means loosely "without form, and void." It refers to the shape of the universe before it was given form and order. The dots and dashes above the letters are called trope. They dictate the tune and intonation and are found in the Torah as well as the rest of the Hebrew bible. The back of the album contains a diagram with instructions in Italian on how to make a molotov cocktail.
"BBF3" refers to the vox pop interviewee, Blaise Bailey Finnegan III, whose eccentric ramblings form the core of the EP's second track. Finnegan recites a poem which he claims to have written himself. The poem is, in fact, mostly composed of lyrics from the song "Virus" by Iron Maiden that were written by their then-vocalist, Blaze Bayley. Godspeed You! Black Emperor were apparently unaware of this until after the release of the EP. Blaise Bailey Finnegan III is apparently the same person being interviewed at the beginning of f#a#∞'s "Providence," and indeed some concert performances of "BBF3" also incorporate that sample. Additionally, the "Providence" sample was used by the band to end their performance of "Steve Reich" during their live session for VPRO Radio in 1998.
This album is currently the overall #1 EP at the Rateyourmusic.com website.
Track listing
- "Moya" – 10:51
- "BBF3" – 17:45