It's been years since I've listened to anything by GASTR DEL SOL. The Chicago super group which comprises of
David Grubbs, John McEntire (Tortoise) and Jim O'Rourke. 'Twenty Songs Less' was originally released way back in 1993 on
Teen Beat. This reissue sees the tracks pressed onto clear vinyl without the sleeve artwork, instead it's on the centre labels. What you get here is a gentle acoustic guitar with subtle effects which at one point becomes smothered in a barrage of jazz drums for reasons beyond my comprehension. Lower in the mix are distant field recordings of children playing and some squeaks made by something
squeaky. The flipside begins with a big avant garde jam type jazz noodle which becomes reduced to more acoustic guitar and what I suspect are spliced tape edits of the session which
O'Rourke used to do very well back then. I always preferred Brise Glace
to these though. They were wicked.
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What their label says...
Gastr Del Sol was one of the most critically acclaimed experimental groups of the last decade, creating songs from pieces of disparate musical fragments (namely haunting, repeated guitar and piano riffs and otherworldly tape manipulation) and pasting these fragments back together with little regard for linear motion. They were an oft-cited stalwart of what is sometimes termed the "post-rock" movement of the 1990s. Based in Chicago, Gastr del Sol explored idiosyncratic sonic textures, veering from avant-garde punk to atonal songcraft to Musique concrete to composition for small orchestra.
Gastr Del Sol line-up :
Jim O'Rourke - electronics, engineering, editing John McEntire - drums Bundy K. Brown - acoustic David Grubbs - acoustic guitar, piano
