Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Yanqui U.X.O.
(Constellation)
Since the mid 1990s Montreal's Constellation Records has released a steady stream of edgy, fiercely independent and totally eclectic records. This fall marks the release of three records that all seem to harken back to a punk starting point, but bridge out in distinctive ways.
Hangedup is a duo featuring Gen Heistek on viola and Eric Craven on drums and percussion. The duo's compositions range from dark pop instrumentals with a hailstorm of viola notes, to meditations on the various tones embedded in different types of percussion. When Craven is caught behind the trap kit his drumming is extremely forceful and acute, and propels the duo like an oversized freight train. The last track "Broken Reel" is a romantic drift into folk-like melodies layered by Heistek's viola. Throughout the whole record these two musicians offer a seductive contrast to one another.
Exhaust is a trio that utilizes bass, drums, tape machines, clarinets, and maybe the occasional computer to compose songs that drift along like molasses and only briefly hint at melody. On Enregistreur, the combination of clarinet and hypnotic back beats sometimes calls to mind the late period work of Talk Talk, but as seen from a less overdubbed and more punk point of view. The fourth and longest track on the record, "Ice Storm," opens with dreamy low-level bass drones with static icing. Drums appear slowly to allow for the most simple of structures. The second half of the LP seems to occupy a bit more edginess, but retains the overall tone of the LP: that of events unfolding before us, and voices slowly shifting places in a heavy soup.
Yanqui U.X.O. is the third full-length record from Montreal's 9 piece collective, Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Over the course of their last 2 LPs and a 2 song EP, Godspeed have plotted a dramatic and slow building course with guitars that sound like strings, and strings that sound like rockets. Two bass players and two full trap kit players add a cinematic propulsion that ultimately explodes into sheets of noise that rest into ambient catharsis. Their instrumentals are often punctured by AM radio diatribes of life in late period capitalism. The packaging of their records, which has included everything from passages in Hebrew to the new LPs image of bombs dropping from an airplanes point of view, has added to the music's overall apocalyptic tone. Visibly absent from the new LP are any tape recordings or ambient tracks at all, which points to a band looking to turn over a new leaf, or maybe just questioning its own hermetic track record.
The stark passages of weeping strings and guitars are still present, as are the triumphant drum marches. Some lovely moments do emerge that sound like nothing the band has done before though, and the addition of some of Chicago's finest jazz players adds a refreshing tone (the record was recorded in Chicago at Electric Audio). New drum rhythms and guitar textures seem to occasionally emerge as well. However, ultimately, all passages lead to orgasmic cacophonous explosions, which can get a bit tedious over the course of a whole LP. If Yanqui U.X.O. is what I think it is though, a portrait of a band in transition, (and given this band's history) then we only have the future to look forward to.
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