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Best of 2025

Gastr Del Sol

Upgrade & Afterlife (2LP)

Label: Drag City

Format: 2LP

Genre: Experimental

Preorder: Expected 23 May

€34.00
VAT exempt
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Upgrade & Afterlife stands as a pivotal and singular recording in the catalog of Gastr del Sol, the duo of David Grubbs and Jim O’Rourke. Originally released in 1996, this album is frequently cited as a landmark of post-rock and experimental music, praised for its blend of avant-garde abstraction, folk minimalism, and a restless, exploratory spiritThe album opens with “Our Exquisite Replica of ‘Eternity’,” a piece that has become emblematic for many listeners: a slow-building, cinematic soundscape that combines mangled drones, brassy orchestral samples (from Hans J. Salter’s The Incredible Shrinking Man soundtrack), and electronic textures to create a sense of alien strangeness and emotional depth. The track’s title, inspired by a sign on a Japanese perfume vending machine, hints at the band’s playful conceptual approach.

Throughout Upgrade & Afterlife, Gastr del Sol continually subverts expectations: “Rebecca Sylvester” begins as a sparse guitar ballad before dissolving into ambient abstraction, while “Hello Spiral” and “The Relay” explore fractured electronics, shifting grooves, and prismatic vocal layers. The closing track, a cover of John Fahey’s “Dry Bones in the Valley (I Saw the Light Come Shining ‘Round and ‘Round),” features a guest appearance by Tony Conrad on violin, bridging American folk traditions with the avant-garde and providing a fittingly monumental conclusion.

Critics have described the album as “stark and minimalist at times, jazzy and far-ranging at others,” with a unique ability to make “background music that quietly asserts itself into the foreground”. Pitchfork noted its way of letting “folk and avant-garde abstract each other into something warm, minimal, and slanted”. The album’s cover, Wasserstiefel (Water Boots) by Roman Signer, further underscores its enigmatic and conceptual nature.

Upgrade & Afterlife remains a touchstone for listeners seeking music that is as immediate as it is strange, as spiky as it is immersive-a record that continues to reveal new layers with every listen, and a high point in the collaboration between Grubbs and O’Rourke

Details
Cat. number: DC90
Year: 2025
Notes:
In full color-printed gatefold sleeve with sticker with artist and title on the front of the shrinkwrap and a barcode sticker on the rear. Lyrics and credits on the inner panels. No insert. Recorded at Steam Room and Airwave, with [...] at Streetville (A1) and [...] at Soma (C4) Cover: Wasser Stiefel (1986) All songs © Gastr Virgo and Field Code Music (BMI), except D7 © Tortoise Music (ASCAP). © and ℗ 1996 Drag City Tracks are numbered sequentially regardless of side on the release. Track durations do not appear on the release. Runouts are etched. Lacquer cutting company/engineer, vinyl pressing company derived from runouts.