Crookt, Crackt Or Fly

Description

Thirty-two years after its initial release, Gastr del Sol’s second album, Crookt, Crackt, or Fly, is finally available on vinyl again. Led by David Grubbs and his new partner Jim O’Rourke, this album marks a turning point in the band’s history, replacing the hypnotic drones of their early work with complex, almost silent acoustic intertwining. The guitar here becomes an instrument of dialogue, with precise and unpredictable interactions, at the crossroads of minimalist folk, contemporary music, and post-rock experimentation. The album is a series of poetic disjunctions, between bursts of improvisation and sophisticated sound collages. Tracks often begin discreetly only to derail—"Work from Smoke" or "Every Five Miles" shift spaces mid-song, absorbing the listener into a maelstrom of bass clarinet, vibraphone, drones, and field recordings. This shifting sound material, both organic and cleverly constructed, blurs boundaries: here, the song always seems on the verge of dissolving into a parallel sonic alchemy. Crookt, Crackt, or Fly remains a foundational work today, emblematic of the encounter between formal rigor and total freedom. Recorded at the end of 1993, it embodies the first phase of the Grubbs/O'Rourke dialogue and lays the groundwork for a unique musical language, as demanding as it is mysterious. A valuable reissue for anyone interested in 1990s American avant-garde.