I've never been quite sure what to make of this album. I've got a feeling I'm not supposed to. There are songs, but songs that don't work like popular songs do — nothing catchy; even where there's repetition, it's a slippery repetition. The final piece is an instrumental that noodles along on acoustic guitar for its first half, and then takes an unnannounced left turn when trumpets and drums come in for the last few minutes (the Boy really picks up on transitions and intros, and he was beating one hand on his bottle at this point). But even then it's not an attention-seeking change, not as sudden as one of John Zorn's lurches between genres. The album gives me little that's solid to hold on to and grow to like, and I like it for that.
Wikipedia tells me this was the last album by Gastr del Sol. I've never heard any of their others, though I dip into the work of the principals, David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke from time to time (I saw O'Rourke at a festival at Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield in 1998, and Grubbs at The Spitz four years ago). That leaves me similarly uncommitted and undecided. Which is annoying, and intriguing.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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