Gastr del Sol's <I>Camofleur</I>: C or D?

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This one landed in the sell-or-not listening pile recently. Before listening to it again, I don't think I could have told you anything about any of the titles on it. While listening to it, I found myself enjoying parts of it more than I would have expected. After listening to it, I still couldn't tell you much about any of the tracks, and I'm not sure I'll ever listen to it again. Please pierce my ambivalence with your paens or pans.

― Lee G (Lee G), Monday, 2 June 2003 13:46 (twenty years ago) link

Classic. It was the first record of theirs I'd heard, and I bought it as an incipient fan of the Chicago scene (I was currently grooving on Tortoise's TNT.) At first it didn't strike me at all, except for the great, poppy first track ("The Seasons Reverse"). It felt incomplete, and some songs seemed too slow and obtuse. But then I gave it time, and it began to open up. Search: "Black Horse" -- obviously a remnant of O'Rourke's Bad Timing days but in a busy little compact form, with saxophones that sound alternately like a Celtic folk song and Glassworks. You could criticize it for being too indebted to Fahey, etc., but for me, it was this song that introduced me to the experimental possibilities of the acoustic guitar. Also search: "Each Dream is an Example," if only because a girl I played it for said it sounded like "supermarket music."

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 2 June 2003 14:10 (twenty years ago) link

those taken with Camofleur should definitely track down Tape's Opera. similar MO of electronic/acoustic weavework, maybe a little less songy, more Scandinavian-rustic in mood. such a lovely disc, too humble to speak up for itself above the roaring, raging tide of hype. i dunno. every listen just leaves me feeling obligated to give it public props. it's almost a crusade at this point. humor me; check it out.

― summerslastsound (summerslastsound), Monday, 2 June 2003 14:59 (twenty years ago) link

i used to LOVE gastr del sol back when they were around, now i just find them too arch (see: free improv, indie rock AND brian wilson! aren't we spoiling you and oh no of course there's know way you'll catch us out cos look, we got markus popp mailing us noises etc etc too!!!). the thing with them was they always had great BITS but never sustained it over a record. tricky one - in certain respects i think trumans water were more valid with their more concise brief of "punk magma: squawk!!!", or Triangles with their melancholy glitchiness.
of course "most blues" is ace, and there is that one where edith frost sounds GORGEOUS. i dunno - despite their "avant gardery" or their signifying of avant garde er... signposts(?) (it was like, ahem, rather than say anything myself i'll just tell you about this book i read which OF COURSE (condesencion (sp?))i'm sure you're aware of ) maybe even (?) killdozer were as good as gastr del sol. i dunno i've been revisisting some killdozer - silly pointless southparky sludge, yes, but at least it knew it was fairly silly (cmon gastr were silly in a way (hey dave, sing that poem over this: bossa dub elctroacoustic donovan does unnecessary juxtaposition w/ this or that)). maybe they shoulda had some rubbery funk basslines and sung about doing a chicken dance or summat i dunno

― bob snoom, Monday, 2 June 2003 15:18 (twenty years ago) link

Thing is, I quite like the other GDS albums. But this one doesn't really do much for me. Again, it is the point of diminishing returns on the aforementioned approach, or a masterpiece whose genius has yet to fully reveal itself to me?

― Lee G (Lee G), Monday, 2 June 2003 15:21 (twenty years ago) link

were they too thinly spread i wonder? cos these days you get Upsilon Acrux outdoing Gastr's old tangled guitar schtick, and Cerberus Shoal outdoing their space/drone/jam pop. how original was camofleur? black horse may as well have been off fred frith's Gravity and i'm sure the Minutemen covered some of the territory previously. still - that wouldn't invalidate it. that last song is annoying. that is a stinking great DUD no contest

― bob snoom, Monday, 2 June 2003 15:38 (twenty years ago) link

it's the only thing from the Chicago post-rock years i can still listen to. i think it's even in my top 20 albums.

― JasonD (JasonD), Monday, 2 June 2003 22:16 (twenty years ago) link

five months pass...

Classic! at least for "Blues subtitled no sense of wonder."

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:30 (twenty years ago) link

I like it enough to keep/listen to my other GDS record ("Crookt", which is actually pretty good in its own right I suppose), so some kind of classic. An awful lot of it is very pretty in an Autechreish MELODY ETC vs EXPERIMENTAL CRAP sort of way. Not as funky, still affecting.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:34 (twenty years ago) link

"Black Horse" actually evolved out of a Vietnamese folk song, if I remember correctly.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 18 November 2003 19:42 (twenty years ago) link

there are a couple songs on "the spectrum between" that I like as much as anything on "camofleur".

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 19:45 (twenty years ago) link

Getting Markus Popp involved = a stroke of genius.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 19:48 (twenty years ago) link

markus popp is on camofleur? no wonder it sounds good.

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 19:57 (twenty years ago) link

He added the other u.

― nestmanso (nestmanso), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 20:03 (twenty years ago) link

I like that album quite a bit. It's pretty.

― dylan (dylan), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 20:16 (twenty years ago) link

"Black Horse" sounds like it evolved from David Grubbs's doleful incessant pedantic musical worldview.

― scott m (mcd), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 20:21 (twenty years ago) link

you're right! It sounds so much like the Happy Cadavers or Squirrel Bait or Bastro or things he "evolved" from!

― hstencil, Tuesday, 18 November 2003 21:57 (twenty years ago) link

Haven't you heard the album Squirrel Bait Does Vietnamese Folk Songs?

― scott m (mcd), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 22:04 (twenty years ago) link

no, those bastards at Dutch East India are still sitting on the masters.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 18 November 2003 22:08 (twenty years ago) link

two years pass...

Camoufleur

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 10 June 2006 17:14 (seventeen years ago) link

― jäxøñ (jaxon), Sunday, 11 June 2006 00:31 (seventeen years ago) link

great album. i bought it on a whim without having a clue what it would sound like (knowing a bit about the participants though) and was most pleasantly surprised. it's twee without tooth decay in my memory. i am going to have to dig it out and check.

― breakfast pants (disco stu), Sunday, 11 June 2006 01:20 (seventeen years ago) link

i still play this alb a lot - a v. dense/rich rec, constantly rewarding in new ways - i love the little snatch of orourke 'talking' to the french kid - "i'm sorry i only speak english" haha - but also quite spot-on abt the way that the alb lies somewhere between Europe and America

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Sunday, 11 June 2006 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link

esp. in light of the sonic youth interview in the current edition of the wire where kim gordon talks about jim o'rourke adding france and various other countries to a lengthy list of places he would never visit/tour in again.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 June 2006 16:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I really like the album overall, despite the fact that there are moments of brilliance linked by long stretches of relatively inconsequential diddling. But there's less diddling and more brilliance than on other Gastr Del Sol albums. And it's generally very pretty. It's a great album to put on in the background on a summer day.

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Sunday, 11 June 2006 21:13 (seventeen years ago) link

one month passes...

Beatiful album art. I love Blues Subtitled, the way it kinda takes off, lands and takes off over and over again.

― from The ends of your fingers (prosper.strummer.), Sunday, 30 July 2006 18:52 (seventeen years ago) link

four years pass...

November is a time for Blues Subtitled. I wish there were more albums like this.

― Kinect: The Body Is Good Business™ (Hurting 2), Monday, 8 November 2010 14:12 (thirteen years ago) link

'Bauchredner' is very nice too. Is Jim playing a lap steel or pedal steel here?

― EvR, Monday, 8 November 2010 15:31 (thirteen years ago) link

think it's a guy called ken champion playing pedal steel on Camofleur and some of O'Rourke's solo albs

― Ward Fowler, Monday, 8 November 2010 15:54 (thirteen years ago) link

Definitely sounds like a pedal steel to me - you don't really get bends like that on a lap steel.

― Kinect: The Body Is Good Business™ (Hurting 2), Monday, 8 November 2010 16:23 (thirteen years ago) link

thx to thread for reminding me to put this on

― bear, bear, bear, Monday, 8 November 2010 16:29 (thirteen years ago) link

Yeah, I played it this morning, too. :)

― jaymc, Monday, 8 November 2010 16:35 (thirteen years ago) link

Nice record, but the two tracks mentioned in this latest bump are the clear, clear highlights.

― acoleuthic, Monday, 8 November 2010 17:03 (thirteen years ago) link

Seasons Reverse (?!)

― Kinect: The Body Is Good Business™ (Hurting 2), Monday, 8 November 2010 17:06 (thirteen years ago) link

Is it really someone else than Jim playing steel? Because you can hear it in 'Le Paysage Zim Zum' (from Sonic Youth's 'Kali Yug Express' EP) too.

― EvR, Monday, 8 November 2010 17:10 (thirteen years ago) link

seven months pass...

bauchredner

― plax (ico), Sunday, 26 June 2011 20:04 (twelve years ago) link

most blues are subtitled either "no sense of wonder" or "no sense of scale"

― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 26 June 2011 20:32 (twelve years ago) link

for example?

― mississippi delta law grad (Hurting 2), Sunday, 26 June 2011 20:41 (twelve years ago) link

I wish that were actually true

Skip James - Devil Got My Woman (No Sense of Scale)

― mississippi delta law grad (Hurting 2), Sunday, 26 June 2011 20:41 (twelve years ago) link

Robert Johnson - Come In My Kitchen (No Sense of Wonder)

― mississippi delta law grad (Hurting 2), Sunday, 26 June 2011 20:41 (twelve years ago) link

i was sleeping

― plax (ico), Sunday, 26 June 2011 21:05 (twelve years ago) link

Subtitled (________)

― Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Monday, 27 June 2011 00:15 (twelve years ago) link

Adjusted for market price, this free advice is worth $1

― Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Monday, 27 June 2011 00:17 (twelve years ago) link

five years pass...

Theyyyyy shuffle because it's been
more than two years
First seeing you in a snowbank
Then a sweater
And then a swelter

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 30 September 2016 13:58 (seven years ago) link

i should really revisit this album. i felt like it was nowhere near as good as upgrade, mirror, and crookt but maybe i didn't have the right ears for camofleur at the time.

― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Friday, 30 September 2016 14:56 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

November is a time for Blues Subtitled. I wish there were more albums like this.

― Kinect: The Body Is Good Business™ (Hurting 2), Monday, November 8, 2010 2:12 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I started early this year. Such a great fucking record, and band.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 2 October 2017 19:08 (six years ago) link

seven months pass...

DG's early sketches of "seasons" & "blues" live at the black cat in 97:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVzuSSliajU&feature=youtu.be&t=1260

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 24 May 2018 06:16 (five years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVzuSSliajU&feature=youtu.be&t=1260

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 24 May 2018 06:17 (five years ago) link

c/p: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVzuSSliajU&feature=youtu.be&t=1260

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 24 May 2018 06:17 (five years ago) link

enjoyed revisiting this album recently now that drag city is on spotify

― jaymc, Thursday, 24 May 2018 06:25 (five years ago) link

Hey I had problems embedding videos too for a long time, so I had to bookamrk a random thread that told me how to do it

You need to paste the url but change it from https:// to http://
― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:56 (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also, take out the “&feature=“ just to be safe
“/watch?v=“ then the 10-12 characters for the video title
― Google Murray Blockchain (kingfish), Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:58 (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― obnoxious pun (ultros ultros-ghali), Thursday, 24 May 2018 09:17 (five years ago) link

https://www.rollingstone.com/yo-la-tengo-ira-kaplan-five-songs-w520167/gastr-del-sol-the-seasons-reverse-w520172

It's O'Rourke speaking to the firecracker Frenchies tho

― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 24 May 2018 09:29 (five years ago) link

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Gastr del Sol's Camofleur: C or D?