Gastr Del Sol - We Have Dozens Of Titles (3LP Box)

Drag City - DC836LP

3lp Set

Like a bolt echoing back from the blue, We Have Dozens of Titles restrikes the iron of Gastr del Sol, plunging the listener (that's us!) back into the mael- strom of their all-too-brief (-but-ultimate- ly-long-enough-to-change-everything-in- cisively) passage of 1993-1998 via an assembly of previously uncollected studio recordings and beautifully captured unre- leased live material. Gastr del Sol's music was of the trans- formative variety - or was it transfiguration they were up to? Or transmigration? Flux was key, to be sure. David Grubbs formed Gastr from the final lineup of Bastro; on Gastr del Sol's debut, The Serpentine Similar, Grubbs, Bundy K. Brown and John McEntire downshifted from a thrashing electric outfit into a droning, acoustic-based one. Following this, the lineup shifted again, decisively - Brown and McEntire departed to focus on the project to be known as Tor- toise, and Jim O'Rourke arrived, pairing with Grubbs to make a sequence of unpre- dictable leaps across genre and practical approach alike, over three LPs and a pair of EPs that threatened the passage of musical time as we knew it in the mid-90s. We Have Dozens of Titles contains nearly an hour of previously unreleased live recordings, alongside another near-hour of studio recordings culled from previously uncollected singles, EPs, and compilations. At long last, vinyl purchasers will hear the full range of "The Harp Factory on Lake Street," "Dead Cats in a Foghorn," "Quietly Approach- ing," and "The Bells of St. Mary's" for the first time EVER on vinyl - all of it, live and studio alike, lovingly mastered and remastered by Jim O'Rourke, and packaged in a three-LP box set with a wicked Roman Signer image on its removable lid, interior printing on the box bottom and inner sleeves for each LP with performance credits for all the songs. As much as Gastr del Sol's albums show- case a group eminently at home in the stu- dio, they were inclined to thoroughly reinvent their compositions in performance. While reviewing live tapes for this compilation, the studio versions of most things felt more and more definitive, with the exception of the live takes included here, which essay startling new qualities in pieces that have been in the public ear for several decades. The majority of these live performances come from a miraculous find in the CBC archive - a broadcast-quality recording of Jim and David from the 1997 Festival Inter- national de Musique Actuelle de Victoria- ville. This was the last time they performed together as Gastr del Sol, during which sev- eral still-gestating Camoufleur pieces were presented in radically different forms and Jim played organ on a track from David's first solo album, the concert-closing, band closing (and now album-closing) version of "Onion Orange." The studio recordings included were orig- inally released by the Red Hot Organization, God Mountain, Table of the Elements, Sony Japan, Teenbeat and Drag City. Studios uti- lized in the making of the material were Idful Music Corporation, Kingsize Soundlab and steamroom. The extended company of play- ers on these numbers includes Jeb Bishop, Bundy K. Brown, Steve Butters, Gene Coleman, Thymme Jones, Terri Kapsa- lis, John McEntire, G nter M ller, Bob Weston and Sue Wolf - a virtual "what's who wha'?!?" of Chicago's hothouse scene in those times. We Have Dozens of Titles revisits the slow-burning incendiaries of Gastr del Sol, finding, once again and after so much time elapsed, another, further set of reinventions from a group who continues to change the way we hear music.

Side A:
The Seasons Reverse (Live)
Quietly Approaching
Ursus Arctos Wonderfilis (Live)

Side B:
At Night And At Night
Dead Cats In A Foghorn
The Japanese Room At La Pagode

Side C:
The Bells Of St. Mary's
Blues Subtitled No Sense Of Wonder (Live)

Side D:
20 Songs Less
Dictionary Of Handwriting (Live)

Side E:
The Harp Factory On Lake Street

Side F:
Onion Orange (Live)

• We are a small independent record store that's been selling new vinyl records in Melbourne, Australia since 2011
• All delivery orders are shipped for $8.95 with Australia Post and include tracking
• Pickup is availble from 461 High St Northcote. This is a free option during checkout
• We go to extreme lengths to make sure our customers are happy
• We use the best mailers available with lots of space for corner protection, and we make sure orders are packed tightly to avoid seam splits
• We ship almost all orders within 1 business day (excluding special or preorder products)
• If there are any issue with an order due to damage, delivery issues or faulty discs we cover all costs associated with replacing and/or returning items
• We're happy to give free expert advice about turntables and hi-fi including setup and playing issues
• If you want to get in touch, email info@thornburyrecords.com. If you would like to talk to us on the phone, send an email requesting a call back