Eureka
(DOMINO)

Though still relatively young, Jim O’Rourke has worked with an amazing variety of artists, both in the avantgarde and the "alternative" pop field (from Tony Conrad to Smog to the High Llamas). He has been making records under his own name, has produced/remixed other people’s music, and lately has also started his own sub-label to re-release the sort of obscure bands The Wire readers are so fond of. Of all these eclectic projects, Gastr Del Sol is probably the one which has attained the widest public recognition. The Chicago "Post-Rock" wave has been much hyped in late 90’s, and Gastr Del Sol (Jim O’Rourke + David Grubbs) have been, after Tortoise, its major representatives. Their records were collections of instrumental pieces (mostly acoustic guitar, John Fahey style -with unpredictable forays into harder territories) and really strange "sung pieces" undermined by unusual arrangements and ambient/concrete soundscapes, always very personal and intimate. One of their trademarks were the suspended, slightly surreal lyrics, coupled with David Grubbs’s unemotional, colloquial style of singing. Last year’s "Camoufleur", Gastr Del Sol’s swansong, was their most accessible work, boasting pearls like 'The Seasons Reverse', a great electroacoustic pop song, a true masterpiece of its (subtle, strange) kind. Grubbs being the singer, people generally thought him the band’s songwriter, and O’Rourke the "ambient noodler" responsible for all the weird things. That was quite mistaken, as this new "Eureka" goes to show. It is a much warmer, less intellectual affair than the records done by Grubbs after "Camoufleur". Hmm, please don’t be put off by its cover, which is supposed to be funny, nor by the opener, an interminable (but good) version of a song written by Glasgow cult artist/eccentric Ivor Cutler. The good stuff starts right after it. Delicate pop tunes in a Van Dyke Parks-meets-Paul Simon kind of style, coloured with latin/jazz accents, and linked by long instrumental reflections. O’Rourke may not be a great singer (and he didn’t get to sing much on Gastr Del Sol albums), but you can tell he’s putting his heart into it, and his thin, fragile tones work well within this environment. He even does a cover of ‘Something Big’ by Burt Bucharach that’s more than alright, and guaranteed to put you in a good mood. On a totally different note, the four minute intro to ‘Movie On The Way Down’ has an epiphanic quality to it. Distant, brassy sounds are heard over a vinyl record noise foil -you can sense a void, an impossible calm pervading the air, like the world is going to stop. The title track is magnificent, too - a beautiful song that turns into a wave of architectural trombone and trumpet, then slowly goes adrift in a sea of soulful electronic noises - a sort of ‘Brilliant Trees’ for the post-rock generation. Yeah, it’s great to know that Jim O’Rourke has just finished working on the new Stereolab and (rumoured to be quite Brazilian-ish) High Llamas albums - I think very good times lie ahead!