Bastro – Diablo Guapo (1989)

Something was brewing in Louisville, Kentucky, at the end of the ’80s. Back in 1983, some teenagers, at the time between 13 and 16 years of age, had formed the band Squirrel Bait, and recorded two LPs. The band broke up in ’87 and two new bands emerged from it. One was called Slint (to be discussed later). The other was called Bastro. Guitarist David Grubbs (later: Gastr del Sol and others) and bassist Clark Johnson recorded the EP »Rode Hard & Put Up Wet« in 1988, with Steve Albini at the controls and a drum machine as the drummer that was soon replaced by John McEntire (later: Tortoise and others), a percussion student at Oberlin College in Ohio. The three then recorded »Diablo Guapo« in 1989, the first of two grandiose albums that formed the basis for the developments of math rock, post-rock and post-hardcore in the nineties. This album could no longer be thought of in familiar categories, was metal, was jazz, was fluffy melody as well as the most beautiful noise. It shook off all that was conventional in rock.