Quote of the day

"For all the contents and discontents for all the content of our present cultural moment, the idea of circumventing the glare of exposure or side-stepping the careful plotting of media cycles and identity management seems profoundly illadvised, if not futile. But Godspeed is looking to try all the same. The band wants people to encounter and care about this new album, without telling people they should. They seek to preserve the thrill of anonymous and uncalculated transmission, knowing full well that these days, anti-strategy risks being tagged as a strategy, non-marketing framed as its opposite, and deeply held principles they consider fundamental to health as likely to be interpreted as just another form of stealth."

From the widely regurgitated blurb accompanying the release of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's surprise new album Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! It's ten years since Yanqui UXO, so you have to wonder (as I did at the ATP they curated) whether their time may have passed. I don't have Allelujah! yet but, as this extraordinary email interview with the Guardian suggests, the fire still burns bright and their message and modus operandi are more urgent and necessary than ever.