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 Hotel2Tango in Montreal.

Stubborn tiny lights vs. clustering darkness forever ok?

After two tireless years of touring and near-unanimous critical acclaim, Godspeed You Black Emperor! assembled a collection of new recordings that chart the creative evolution of the band as well as its literal physical movement on the road, criss-crossing North America and Europe. Five expansive full-band compositions are framed by various field recordings, tape manipulations and ensemble pieces in a return to the narrative sonic collage techniques that marked their 1997 debut (cst003). Four seamless sides of vinyl unfold a world of aching sadness and beauty, with musical quotes ranging from heartland americana to mitteleuropa folkways, all distilled through the unique sonic filters of Godspeed's pedal-crazy orchestral rock instrumentation. Harrowing guitars, plaintive strings, pulsing basses and explosive drums combine with glockenspiels, horns and tape drones to form an overwhelming palette of sounds, always driven by fierce melodic momentum and intense emotional resonance. GYBE! continues to paint on an impossibly large canvas, with an uncanny blend of world-weariness and naive exuberance that speaks volumes about the conflicts and contradictions permeating our political and cultural life. The tension between humility and hubris conjures an epic scope and a raw hope that such sweeping gestures might survive with some semblance of substance. If this record can create a clearing for itself, and breathe with a degree of the life that went into its making, Godspeed may yet topple a building or two.

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F#A#∞ was recorded at the Hotel2Tango in spring 1997 on a rented 16-track tape deck and supplemented with various field recordings. In the preceding year, the band had taken shape as a quasi-orchestral outfit involving most of the current players and had mounted a number of live performances combining multiple film projections with sense-rattling sonics., This is the first recorded document of godspeed as a large band and is soaring, fragile, awkward, heartbreaking stuff. Constellation released a vinyl-only pressing of 500 copies in August 1997, with LP jackets hand made by the label, the band, and various local artisans. It has since gone through many re-presses, with virtually all of the original packaging elements preserved. The opening monologue on side one (Dead Flag Blues) is taken from Incomplete Movie About Jail, an unfinished film by guitarist Efrim.