Pitchfork

Reviewing a Gastr del Sol album is like drinking fine champagne through your nose. In both processes, you cannot ignore the creeping suspicion that you are, in fact, a dumb ass.

Listening to Gastr del Sol on the other hand is quite a different experience. Mixing elements of orchestral pop, avant jazz, soul, Celtic fiddle jams, ambient drones, math rock, found sound, minimalist composition, and god knows what else, the duo of David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke is out to post-rock your ass like its never been post-rocked before. While previous incarnations were perhaps a bit too abstract for this reviewer's liking, Gastr del Sol's last record, Upgrade and Afterlife hinted at a more tuneful direction. On this, their latest offering, that hint has become a solid elbow in the ribs, and the results are dazzling.

Camoufleur is packed with what can only be described as "transcendent moments." From the opening track, "The Seasons Reverse," with its stuttering time signatures, precision- plucked guitars and bubbling noises, to the gentle drone of "Each Dream Is An example" with Drag City crooner Edith Frost on backup vocals, Camoufleur summons a glorious mindfuck of a racket. Guitars, drums, horns, violins, and tape loops intertwine and bounce off each other, forsaking your conceptions of musical composition in favor of something greater and more difficult to grasp. This is the type of record that continually reveals new aspects of itself with every listen. It's a refreshing antidote to the disposable nature of pop music.

Which makes this writing gig of mine damn difficult. Love Gastr del Sol for the indescribable magic they bring us. Hate what they are doing to the lowly journalists.