Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Yanqui U.X.O.
CST024 2x180gLP • CD • DL
Release date: 11 November 2002
Duration: 1:15:00
"The set's five cryptically titled compositions alternately bristle with rage and fear, even as they refuse to abandon hope in a world poised on the brink of careering down a wobbly track to Armageddon." – The Wire
"The music is taut, suffused with a ragged but determined power that has few equals among their contemporaries… Superb." – BBC
"Godspeed You! Black Emperor continue to make music of immense power and beauty, no matter where they put the exclamation point." – Dusted
"Simply devastating: horns, strings, two drummers, several guitarists, all combining to create a labyrinthine music of anger, sadness, compassion, and -- towards the end -- defiant hope." – Observer Review
"Yanqui is more restrained, foregoing some of the crashing crescendos and silent interludes of Lift Your Skinny Fists… for a more organic, flowing approach… It's beautiful, intense, and a little frightening." – Delusions of Adequacy
"It's the perfect distillation of their work to this point; capturing the Montreal collective at their most haunting, resigned and often at their most explosive." – Leeds Guide
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 raw, angry, dissonant, epic instrumental rock. Recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago and mixed by Howard Bilerman and Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the original Hotel2Tango in Montreal.
Stubborn tiny lights vs. clustering darkness forever ok?
PACKAGING NOTES
2xLP is pressed on 180g audiophile vinyl and comes in a thick printed gatefold jacket with credits and artwork insert.
CD comes in a custom paperboard mini-gatefold jacket with a printed CD dust sleeve.
CREDITS
Aidan, Bruce, David, Efrim, Mauro, Norsola, Roger, Sophie, Thierry
FEATURED GUESTS
Josh Abrams: contrabass on Tracks 4/5
Matana Roberts: clarinet on Track 4/5
Geof Bradfield: bass clarinet on Track 4/5
Rob Mazurek: trumpet on Track 4/5
Recorded at Electrical Audio in Chicago IL by Steve Albini.
Mixed by Howard Bilerman and GY!BE at thee mighty Hotel2Tango.
Mastered at Abbey Road in London UK by John Loder and Steve Rooke.