At times of global crisis, Montreal post-rock three-piece Yoo Doo Right try to channel their distress in positive directions, and their third album, From the Heights of Our Pastureland, finds them looking for ways to rebuild what is broken. “Late capitalism is ever present… we’re all witnessing a genocide in Palestine in real time,” drummer John Talbot told Still Listening magazine last month. “I don’t think it’s weird that this record feels a little bleak… [but] all hope is not lost, there is still lots of beauty to be found.”
The new album came together in unusual circumstances, when the band – the lineup completed by Justin Cober (guitar, synths, vocals) and Charles Masson (bass) – were snowed in for three days while recording in Saguenay, Quebec. “One night in -40C weather, Justin and I walked up a mountain to a yurt that was doing a dinner service. I guess the freezing cold and isolation of it all lent to the energy we were putting into the songs.”
That energy is hard to resist on songs such as Spirit’s Heavy, But Not Overthrown, Part 2, which melds post-rock ambition with krautrock rhythm (they take their name from a song by Can) and adventures in thrilling noise. Very much one for fans of Mogwai and Godspeed.
