SOUNDTRACK: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR!-Yanqui U.X.O. [CST024] (2002).
Yanqui UXO is a single CD/double vinyl release coming in at about 80 minutes. The lineup stayed the same, but there were a few changes. First the band’s exclamation point moved from the end to after the “You.” And second, this album was produced by Steve Albini. Albini seems like an odd choice given his stripped down style and often brutal recording sound. The album still sounds a lot like GYBE, but they have stripped out all of the field recordings and interstitial parts making a much smoother album.
The recording was described by the band as “just raw, angry, dissonant, epic instrumental rock.” It’s hard to argue with that.
There are four or five songs on the record depending on if you have the LP or CD. The first two songs “09-15-00, Part 1” and “09-15-00, Part 2” are merged into one on the LP. “Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls.” And then “Motherfucker=Redeemer, Part 1” and “Motherfucker=Redeemer, Part 2” (the LP removes the “parts” from the title, and just has the song “continued” on side 4—it’s also 5 minutes longer on the LP, primarily from ambient sounds that begin the song. The LP also contains a hidden track called “George Bush Cut Up While Talking.”
“09-15-00, Part 1” is 16 minutes long. It opens slowly with what sounds like a harpsichord playing a rhythm while an echoed guitar plays a slow melody. More instruments are slowly added as the song grows more intense. At around 4 and half minutes a new melody enters from the bass. It is complex but doesn’t alter the general tone of the song. The song goes almost entirely silent at 6 and a half minutes, but a new melody starts—soft one note strings start as guitars creep into the sound. Then a violin begins a melody that the guitar soon echoes. The full band plays along with this melody at around 9 minutes and it gets more intense as the drums pick up speed. This all drops away once more except for a martial beat and a bass line. A guitar plays a melody over this simple section and then it builds and builds until the last few violin notes squeak out.
“09-15-00, Part 2” is six minutes long and is probably the simplest and most beautiful piece they have recorded. There’s no build up, no drama, it’s just a pretty song full of strings and guitars.
“Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls” opens with a simple three note guitar melody and violins playing over the top. The strings get bigger and more prominent and the rest of the band starts filling in. Around three and half minutes in, the song gets really raucous…until it settles down again. The song builds again, with the violins taking prominence. At about seven-minutes, the song changes drastically with a lengthy descending series of notes (on horns) leading to a spare drum beat which lasts over a minute before the horns come back in. After a minute or so of solitary horn notes, some guitars start playing in the background. By around 13 minutes ominous chords have developed, overshadowing nearly everything else—and that steady drumbeat certainly causes some tension. By 16:30 the tension has been released and the chords are welcoming and bright. The song seems like it ends around nineteen minutes in, but there’s a gentle string section coda tacked on at the end.
“Motherfucker=Redeemer, Part 1” opens with gentle ringing sounds like a child’s toy. After about 2 minutes, guitars start coming in—one playing staccato notes another playing chords and a bass playing as simple pattern. At 3 and a half minutes the main riff comes it. It is played on the violin and has vaguely Jewish feel to it. There aren’t a ton of changes in this song, which more or less just builds around the same riff. By 7 minutes there’s a soaring violin solo which screams over the top of the song. There are moments when the song gets louder and quieter but it definitely feels like all one song until about 10 minutes when it more or less slows to a halt. There’s some slow violin sounds an a simple guitar. This second part of the song is similar to the first in that it is a regular guitar riff playing as the rest of the band fills in around it. At around 13 minutes, a bigger fuzzier guitar takes over the riff. The song continues in various forms until the end, when it is just a bass line.
“Part 2” is only ten minutes long (15 on vinyl). It opens with the strings providing washes of music. A new, fairly complex bassline opens the song. The band builds the track with fast drumming and louder and louder strings. It shifts tone at around 4 minutes. And for the next 3 minutes it gets more intense until it seems to fade out, introducing a new guitar riff that works almost like a coda to the whole thing. The drums are insane for this ending part and the band seems like they are just going nuts as the song comes crashing to an end. The extra five minutes on vinyl come at the beginning of the song. It starts with voices singing some basic “ahhhs” and then a guitar playing a ringing note. It does add to the tension that builds up before the music begins properly and really should be checked out if you’ve only heard the CD version.
“George Bush Cut Up While Talking” is 3 minutes of a George Bush address cut up (it sounds like it is a skipping CD) interspersed with clapping that sounds like static and a voice saying “it is the predominant question, why am I here and what can I do to make it better how can I do what is right.” (There’s a disconcerting video of this here.)
I think this album is really fantastic. And while I enjoy their found sounds, I prefer that they’re just playing music.
After making this album the band would go on hiatus for…ten years. Here’s the line up for Yanqui.
- Thierry Amar – bass guitar
- David Bryant – electric guitar
- Bruce Cawdron – drums
- Aidan Girt – drums
- Norsola Johnson – cello
- Efrim Menuck – guitar
- Mauro Pezzente – bass guitar
- Roger Tellier-Craig – guitar [replaced Mike Moya]
- Sophie Trudeau – violin
[READ: April 11, 2016] “”Where the Yazoo Cross the Yellow Dog””
This is an except from a story about Jimbo and Rob. The opening details Jimbo’s (James) parents, which I rather enjoyed. Particularly the details about his father–his daily “three and three-quarter minute boiled egg served in a brightly coloured egg cup” and this statement:
‘I view hot toast,’ he said in one of his rare communications, pointing to the solitary Hovie slice lodged cold in the silver toast rack, ‘as offensively American.’
I also loved the dogmatic qualities of his father
‘What?’ said the Major. ‘What?”
Which was his usual response top any reply short of complete agreement or grovelling.
And
“Don’t say ‘haven’t got,'” said the Major. “It is both redundant and ill-bred. ‘Haven’t’ will suffice.”
But the story is really about Jimbo and his friend Rob Forde (that cannot be a coincidence). Jimbo was a teenager affecting sophistication (he wanted a smoking jacket) and he and Rob looked through junk shops for cigarette cases and art books. (more…)
Like this:
Like Loading...
Read Full Post »
Rapeman was a project by Steve Albini named after a Japanese graphic novel character. They put out one LP and one EP and were protested everywhere they went.
I did listen to the whole thing and again was reminded of how great the album is. The bonus material is, well, a little disappointing. You get three more early versions of “Nosferatu Man,” one of which is an instrumental. Two demo versions of “Washer” and “Good Morning, Captain” (one is an instrumental kind of goof). There’s three versions of a song called “Pam” which didn’t make Spiderland, so that’s interesting. Then there’s another outtake called “Glenn” and two post Spiderland songs called “Todd’s Song” and “Brian’s Song.” They’re all good, but are in various stages of construction.