Gitkin
5 STAR MOTEL
(LP)
12 Inch LP
5 STAR MOTEL
Side
BPM
Tracklist
143
145
125
Reissue On “5 Star Motel”, that younger Gitkin (henceforth referred to simply as Gitkin) has sought to expand the philosophy he encountered on that tape. The guitar is common thread, the raft to navigate a sun-dappled stream of ideas. It’s an embrace of cultures where folkloric stringed instruments still rule, or where they ve led to a more recent embrace of the electric guitar. He traces the loose, meandering paths which join them together.
Originally released in 2018, 5 Star Motel is the beloved debut album from Gitkin—a fuzz-soaked, genre-blurring tribute to a long-lost uncle who once crisscrossed America selling knock-off guitars and trading stories in roadside motels. Pieced together through scattered family anecdotes and the discovery of an old cassette, the album imagines a life shaped by late-night encounters with fellow travelers—immigrants from Ethiopia, Mexico, Indonesia, and beyond. Their musical echoes ripple through the record, where Peruvian chicha rhythms dance with desert blues, Middle Eastern scales meet twangy Americana, and everything is filtered through a warm, analog haze.
More than a tribute, 5 Star Motel is a journey—through memory, myth, and melody. It’s an album that celebrates the way music moves across borders and cultures, reshaping itself along the way. Repressed for 2025, this cult favorite still sounds like a dispatch from somewhere just outside the map—restless, raw, and timeless.[info sheet from distr.]