Storm Static Sleep: A Pathway Through Post Rock

by Jack Chuter

Yanqui U.X.O. was produced by Steve Albini. He also went on to produce some colossally immersive works by Mono and Neurosis (which I’ll talk about later in the book), and I ask him how he managed to make these records so enveloping. “It sounds like I’m ducking the question but I’m pretty sure what’s vast or epic about all that music is what the bands have worked so hard at in rehearsal, and the limit of the credit I deserve is that I didn’t blow it when they asked me to record them,” Albini replies modestly. Indeed, he’s listed in the credits of Yanqui U.X.O. as recordist rather than producer, reducing his role to capturing what was already present rather than having an active part in the architecture. “I’ve learned a lot of specific techniques to help in certain situations, but each of those bands is quite different and required a different approach. About the only common thread with all those bands is that they have light and dark contrasts, heavy and light. If you make the light parts sound commanding, then there’s no dynamic range left to make the heavy parts have the appropriate impact, so you have to be willing to let the quiet parts be quiet or unassuming, at the risk of the listener having to do some of the work by paying attention. The payoff for that is that when the audience is paying attention, they’re rewarded and the impact of the band’s music isn’t softened.”