Gastr Del Sol - The Serpentine Similar (1993)

 

Post-Rock / Avant-Folk / Math Rock

RIYL: Slint, The For Carnation, The Sea and Cake

★★★★

Working backward through experimental post-rockers Gastr Del Sol's discography has been interesting to say the least, as the duo of David Grubbs and the now legendary Jim O'Rourke honed their songwriting skills and upped the accessibility of their sound with each release, culminating in 1998's minor masterpiece of avant-pop, Camofleur. Their debut, 1993's The Serpentine Similar, already touches on all of the essential aspects of their sound: sinewy guitar noodling; snake-like, tangled song structures with occasional blasts of dusty percussion; surreal lyrics courtesy of Grubbs' understated delivery. But the record comes across as a shadow of their future selves, a lurking menace just out of sight, hovering on the periphery of your senses so you can't quite make out its shape. Clearly indebted to the softer and more haunted passages of Slint's Spiderland that kicked off the decade's creeping post-hardcore aesthetic, The Serpentine Similar is woven from those spiders' silken threads, forming a delicate web that threatens to ensnare anyone who approaches.