Drag City / US / RE 2025
Though rooted in Chicago’s post-rock scene, Gastr Del Sol—particularly in its later incarnation with Jim O’Rourke and David Grubbs—defied genre conventions. Camoufleur (1998), their final album, was billed as a “pop” record, but only through the duo’s fractured lens: merging Brazilian psych, Van Dyke Parks-style orchestration, and dreamy folk textures.
Markus Popp (Oval) co-wrote and performed on the record, his digital abstraction most striking on the standout track A Puff of Dew, which bends O’Rourke’s guitar and Grubbs’ vocals into smeared, glitchy forms. With moments of lush cinematic beauty and experimental noise, Camoufleur blurs boundaries between post-rock, pop, electroacoustic, and avant-folk—an enduring, genre-defiant masterpiece that still resonates over 25 years on.