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Yanqui U.X.O.

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Untitled

Yanqui U.X.O. is the third studio album by the Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was produced and recorded by musician Steve Albini at the Electrical Audio in Chicago, Illinois in late 2001. The recording was published by the Montreal-based label Constellation on November 11, 2002 on both compact disc and vinyl record.

This album marks the first release by the group after slightly altering their name (moving the exclamation mark from the "emperor" to the "you"), as well as their first that was recorded outside of their native Canada. Lacking both the group's characteristic interwoven field recordings and specifically named movements, the recording was instead described by the band as "just raw, angry, dissonant, epic instrumental rock."[1]

Yanqui U.X.O is the band's most divided record critically. Well some, such as Allmusic,[2] praised the release as the group's finest album yet, others, like Pitchfork, derided it for its "sluggishness and a lack of invention."[3] Nonetheless, shortly after the records publication in 2002, the group announced an indefinite hiatus so band members could pursue differing musical interests.[4]

Background

"Yanqui" is the Spanish word for "Yankee".[5] The liner notes also refer to "Yanqui" as a "multinational corporate oligarchy", while "U.X.O." stands for "unexploded ordnance".[6][7] The packaging of the album contains an arrow diagram purporting to represent the links between four major record labels (AOL Time-Warner, BMG, Sony, Vivendi Universal) and various arms manufacturers.[8] This chart accompanied a photograph of falling bombs. The band later apologized for some extensions of the chart, conceding that some of their research had been inaccurate.[9]

The album was released as a CD and a double vinyl LP, the latter having three noticeable differences. One is the compounding of the two-part composition "09-15-00" (named after the date on which the second Palestinian intifada began) into one.[10] Another is the addition of an untitled "hidden" track after some silence (it is masked in a similar manner with the short song "J.L.H. Outro" on the CD release of F♯A♯∞); this ulterior track consists of a sampled and cut-up George W. Bush speech with applause added (it also appears on bandmember Aidan Girt's related project 1-Speed Bike's debut album Droopy Butt Begone! (2000) in the track "The Day That Mauro Ran Over Elwy Yost", as well as on Museum Fire Records' compilation Azadi! (2003, a benefit for the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) where it is titled "George Bush Cut Up While Talking").[11] Finally, the second section of the two-part track "Motherfucker=Redeemer" is about nine minutes longer on the LP due to an extended ambient opening.

Common alternate titles for certain pieces used by the band on setlists include "12-28-99" (which became "09-15-00"), "Tazer Floyd" (became "Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls"), and "Tiny Silver Hammers" (became "Motherfucker=Redeemer").[12]

Recording

The album was recorded at Electrical Audio by Steve Albini. The record was mixed by the band and Howard Bilerman (who also did some additional recording) at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal, and mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, UK. When asked about the recording sessions, Albini had this to say:

The Godspeed! sessions were done in two chunks, totalling about three weeks, and were taxing, but inspiring in a couple of weird ways.

The collective aspect of the band is something I'm familiar with and comfortable with, so that wasn't a problem, other than occasionally having to get everybody together and discuss different options at a little more length than usual. It intruded more when trying to decide where the smokers were going to smoke than any recording consideration.

Anybody who has been in even a three-piece band knows how difficult it can be to keep the peace, and I was impressed at the lengths these guys went to make sure everyone in the band was heard.

The formal elements of the band and the music have their own inherent problems. The band had nine members: two drummers, three electric guitarists, two bassists, a 'cello, violin, various mallet percussion instruments, a music box and a penny whistle. Their music often has crescendos that begin very quiet (ppp) and are eventually hard rock loud (ffff). This mix of loud and quiet sounds, acoustic and electric instruments and a lot of people makes even the physical setup in the studio difficult. We had to try several arrangements of chairs and rooms, often moving everything involved in the session before everyone was comfortable.

The next problem was recording both the very quiet and very loud sounds accurately. Ordinarily, small adjustments can be made in mixing to compensate for louder and quieter parts, but this was an extreme case, with an active dynamic range of better than 28dB. The conventional or hack approach to a problem of wide dynamic range is to use compressors to restrict the top-end of the dynamic range, but I have never liked the artificial sound quality imparted by this method.

The "clamping" action of the compressor is noticeable, and it sacrifices detail at the highest point of the dynamic, when the music is reaching its biggest moments. This would be a particularly inappropriate choice for a band like Godspeed! Still, I needed to be able to ride the gain on as many as a dozen microphones in a smooth, repeatable fashion, so I used the channel grouping feature of our console to create sub-masters for each of the instruments, and I rode the gain on the individual instruments, keeping them at a reasonable level throughout the course of songs as long as ten minutes.

Several of the pieces were meant to flow seamlessly from one to the next, but could not be performed this way because of instrument changes or other reasons, so I needed to be able to knit together several chunks recorded separately while maintaining the illusion that they were performed at once. In most cases there was a transitional moment, where piece "A" ended and piece "B" started, so these transitional moments were scripted into each piece, so there would be a range of editing options. In once case, there was a gradual guitar crescendo, so the edit needed to observe that dynamic and avoid creating a jarring change. This part of the session organization took more thought and preparation than I was expecting, but eventually it all worked out.

There were some additional musicians recorded for a couple of parts, in particular a string section comprising several double-basses, but the original session was still set-up and couldn't be disturbed, so during this period the band were occupying both studios.

As the session progressed, individual players needed to add overdubs, and we would concentrate on one person until finished, and then move on to the next player. This part of the session involved some very long days for me, and it seemed like the band were eating and sleeping in shifts while I worked every minute.

Eventually, the record was finished and mixed, and the band went on their way. I wasn't party to the discussions after they left, but with such a complex project, it isn't surprising that there were things the band were dissatisfied with over time, and they decided to mix the album themselves (there was some additional recording done as well) at the studio they normally used in Montreal, with an engineer (Howard Bilerman) who is a friend and an important part of their extended family. That they were eventually happy enough to release the record is good enough for me.

Any other complications involved boiled down to me not speaking French very well, the US border crossings being a bastard, and Canadians being weird in general.[13]

Track listing

Vinyl edition

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."09-15-00"22:40
Side two
No.TitleLength
2."Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls"20:43
Side three
No.TitleLength
3."Motherfucker=Redeemer"21:30
Side four
No.TitleLength
3."Motherfucker=Redeemer (cont.) 15:25
  • 3:40

    • CD edition

    No.TitleLength
    1."09-15-00"16:27
    2."09-15-00 (cont.)"6:17
    3."Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls"20:42
    4."Motherfucker=Redeemer"21:22
    5."Motherfucker=Redeemer (cont.)"10:10

    Personnel

    Godspeed You! Black Emperor

    Other musicians

    Production

    References

    1. ^ "Godspeed You Black Emperor: Yanqui U.X.O. (description page)". Constellation Records. 2002. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
    2. ^ Jurek, Thom (2002). "Yanqui U.X.O. review". Allmusic. All Media Guide, LLC. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
    3. ^ Schreiber, Ryan (2002). "Yanqui U.X.O. review". Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
    4. ^ Constellation Records. "Godspeed You! Black Emperor". Bands. Constellation Records. Retrieved 2009-07-21.
    5. ^ "Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Yanqui U.X.O." Artnoise. 2005-05-04. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
    6. ^ "Godspeed You Black Emperor: Yanqui U.X.O." Southern Records. 2006-12-31. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
    7. ^ "Israel-Lebanon: UN envoy asks for records of cluster bomb strikes". Reuters. 2007-04-22. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
    8. ^ Marsh, Peter (2002-11-20). "...If Stravinsky was still around, he'd be a fan..." BBC. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
    9. ^ "A Note On the Artwork for Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Yanqui U.X.O." Archived from the original on 2003-04-09. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
    10. ^ Petridis, Alexis (2002-12-20). "Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Yanqui UXO". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
    11. ^ GYBE's discography at Brainwashed.com
    12. ^ "Godspeed You Black Emperor: Concert Chronology". etrembla. 2002. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
    13. ^ http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/printthread.php?Board=Laughs&main=11267205&type=post, 2007-07-18. Retrieved on 2009-03-02.
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