Elders of Zion - Dawn Refuses To Rise 2002

The title track on Dawn Refuses to Rise immediately places San Francisco's Elders of Zion among a new order of prog rock sentimentalists. Alongside Trans Am and the Fucking Champs, Elders of Zion string together heavy drum patterns, whistling and screeching guitars, and poignant spoken sound sources to create quite a strong record. More importantly, though, Elders attempt to provide a voice of the people with a politically stirring, dramatic collage of field recordings and instrumentation. Punk Planet magazine editor Joel Schalit does most of the arrangements and processing, while Vance Galloway provides the seethingly raw guitar and basslines on Dawn Refuses to Rise. Like a rock-conscious Negativland, Elders' politics are never far away either. Tracks like "Future Avant-Garde Society" and "What's Your Badge Number" suggest a certain leftist leaning of the band's unwritten manifesto. Globalization is at the center of what Elders of Zion, along with many others in the post-everything music world, vehemently rail against. In particular, "What's Your Badge Number" is built around field recordings of IMF demonstrators clashing with police in Washington, D.C. The gradual build of guitar and drum rhythms beneath a frighteningly real dialogue between a protestor and an officer create an atmospheric tension that is almost unheard of outside of punk music. Thematically, Elders may be a bit more obvious with their social justice sample/instrumental pastiche than Godspeed You Black Emperor! but are similar to them in many ways. Elders prove that you don't have to scream to be heard and while they aren't quite a political beacon of hope in this foreboding worldview, they certainly process the day's events in a moving and intense manner. AMG.

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