YANQUI U.X.O.

This creative post-rock group uses a alternative instrumentation (mostly acoustic strings), powerful compositions, and an exceptional use of dynamics to create music that can reach heights of crushing beauty and anxiety-inducing intensity. In many ways, GY!BE is the iconic post-rock band, and this is their probably their most powerful and interesting album. I think the overall experience can be summed up as baleful, taking the listener to powefully dark places of their own imagining.

The template "Yanqui" uses is repeated throughout this album: slow, delicate, threatening introductions, swelling over the course of several minutes to nightmarish crescendos of distortion and frantic rhythm. This is largely accomplished by the heavy use of violin and guitar distortion, and will almost certainly make the listener feel something. Many won't like "Yanqui" sound, it can simply be too dark and too stressful to be enjoyed; for those initiated into the conventions of the genre, it offers an original sound of destructive, depressing instrumentals which pack a whallop. Play "Yanqui" to clear the room at a party, scare your neighbors, and make your relatives wonder if maybe "your 'music' has gone too far".

A dark, brooding highlight of the genre.

Songwriting: 4 Instrumental Performances: 3 Lyrics/Vocals: NA Style/Emotion/Replay: 4