Godspeed You Black Emperor, Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.
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CD Details
Artist: Godspeed You Black Emperor, Godspeed You! Black EmperorEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2002-11-19
Music Label: Constellation
Soundtracks:
- 09-15-00
- 09-15-00
- rockets fall on Rocket Falls
- motherfucker=redeemer
- motherfucker=redeemer
Music reviews of Yanqui U.X.O.
Music Review: My favorite GY!BE (GYBE!) album
Rating: 5 Stars
GY!BE are unlike anything else I listen to, yet they've never fallen out of my rotation for very long. This is a pretty impressive thing, as the way I listen to music tends to be sorta streaming or cyclical, so things I listen to bring to mind something else I like so I go listen to that and so forth. This tends to mean the bands I like that are a bit different or don't fall into the typical genres I listen to tend to fall out of rotation without my really intending them to. GY!BE is probably the most different or incongrous band that I listen to, but they somehow manage never to be forgotten for very long. 'Yanqui U.X.O' is my favorite album of their's, and it's probably one of my 10 favorite albums of all time. It's good.
As many have noted, this album is a bit different from their earlier stuff as it lacks the samples and found sounds, and tends to build slower, and is generally calmer overall. This makes it take a bit longer to get into, or it did for me anyway, but once you've really listened to it thoroughly I think you'll find it to be their most consistently intriguing album. Certainly, GY!BE hardly ever got boring before, but their sound wasn't as tight, with lotsa outros and intermediary passages which may be somewhat interesting in and of themselves, but that didn't necessarily add to the whole composition all that much. Everything here seems to tie together a bit more cleanly. The sound, overall, is more desolate then before, but still with plenty of emotional power. (Moreso then any other band I've heard, as a matter of fact.) Still, the basic sounds are still their: roaring, wind-like guitars, some slowly chiming, repeating guitar lines, simple cyclical string sections, pulsing bass and inexplicably yet undeniabkt moving drums.
With 5 tracks, this album has 3 main compositions. The opening one, '09-15-00' is the weakest of them, but it's still fantastic. The opening movement is slow, dreamlike with simple melodies chiming one over another. The real power of the song, comes about 8 minutes in with the prominent strings combining with their electronic howling to create their patented GY!BE waves of sound, this time of a particularly dark and hypnotic variety. Sadly, the closing quarter of the track is the least interesting bit of the album, with some more minimalistic stuff that doesn't really add up to much melody or atmosphere. It's decent stuff, but not up to their standards. The first half of 'Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls' is more classicist GY!BE, building and crumbling again and again. The second half is more reflective of their newer style, incredibly slow building with the perpetual bass/percussive thudding and tremolo guitars/strings. I'll admit it, I find this portion to be a bit dull initially, but I've really gotten into it since. It's got some very nice woodwinds in it, and the extended prelude makes it all the more moving when it really kicks up the volume. 'Motherf---er = Reedeemer' is the best composition on the album, and the best thing I've ever heard from them. The first track of it, 21 minutes long, is some of the most low-key stuff they've done, but it's got the melody and textural variety to make it all work. The first 10 minutes, though low-key by their standards, still pulse with energy with some nice string lines and a driving, bass and cymbal drum patterns The next ten or so minutes, some of their absolutely most minimalistic stuff, minutes are what really shine, however. It's mostly just slowly cycling, 3-6 note guitar lines, with some windy atmospherics behind it and some beautiful, sorrowful bass lines. Eventually it allows for a bit of volume with a string and howling guitar combination punctuation the desolation periodically, allowing for some of the most powerful, moving moments I've ever heard from any band. I've listened to this so damn many times, but it always gets me. The volume finally kick in again on the final track, with some of the most sad yet triumphant music that GY!BE has ever made. It is the perfect punctuation mark to the album as a whole, and provides a nice bit of hope to the overall dreariness.
Writing a review for this is tough, cause I don't like to get all pseudo-poetic on everyone, but that's really all you can do if you wanna talk about GY!BE. The individual parts of their compositions tend to be simplicity themselves, but no one else can dream of understanding texture and tone and emotion the way they do. It all comes together to make some of the most beautiful and ethereal music you're ever gonna hear. Get it.
Description of Yanqui U.X.O.
'U.X.O. is unexploded ordnance is landmines is cluster bombs. Yanqui is post-colonial imperialism is international police state is multinational corporate oligarchy. Godspeed You! Black Emperor is complicit is guilty is resisting. The new album is just music.' Recorded by Steve Albini at electrical audio in Chicago. Mixed by Howard Bilerman and Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the Hotel2tango in Montreal. Stubborn tiny lights vs. clustering darkness forever ok? Gatefold sleeve. Constellation Records. 2002.Alternative Rock CDs
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