Rickets & Scurvy

The best Drag City releases have always had an ability to sound anachronistic in the very best way — that is, somehow removed from the standard flow of time. Thus Smog or Royal Trux managed to sound like down home rock from the 70s or 80s yet when you stop and think about their structures and sonics you realise they’re completely unfamiliar. And thus with this 2002 masterpiece from David Grubbs with guest musicians including John McEntire of Tortoise and M.C. Schmidt of Matmos. Everything sounds familiar: it’s folk, it’s psychedelia, it’s indie, it’s a bit REM — but wait, no! The way those fingerpicked guitars are playing off the percussion and bass is… jazz fusion? hardcore? like something from a Terry Riley record? based on some new form of mathematics? It’s consistently disconcerting, but yet that familiarity — that sense that it’s been around for decades — abides, and won’t let your analytical faculties take over for too long, and you get drawn back into the dreamy atmospheres of the songs. For music this advanced to sound so natural is bamboozling, but still joyous after all these years.