Gastr del Sol: The Serpentine Similar LP

The year was 1992. After a bruising run of tour dates the year before, the final lineup of Bastro - a power-trio of David Grubbs, Ken "Bundy" Brown, and John McEntire - retired, exhausted. Shortly thereafter, they were rebirthed, sans drums, via a new set of ideas composed in the cutdown configuration of Grubbs on guitars, keyboards and vocals and Brown on bass. Playing in duo format opened up sound and intention, leaving the need for speed (and the stock in rock) out, while letting in an expanse of brooding, droning acoustic space that highlighted the songs' serpentine shapes. This was something so radically different as to require a new calling card: henceforth, Gastr del Sol. Signing to Teen Beat, Gastr del Sol completed "The Serpentine Similar" in late 1992 for release the following year. Now, "The Serpentine Similar" has been returned to vinyl from the temporal streams of contemporary music listening, a glorious rematerializing of all its spatial details on LP for the first time in 20 years.