Guapo - History Of The Visitation (2013)

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Guapo - History Of The Visitation (2013)

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Prepare yourself for an experience that’s simultaneously otherworldly and assaultive. On paper, the music of Guapo reads like a riddle – the British quartet’s sound is based around ideas like controlled chaos, atonal harmony, uplifting darkness, and beautiful destruction. Nothing about the band or their work seems to adhere to even the most open-minded set of preconceptions about the meaning of umbrella terms like “rock,” or “progressive,” or even “experimental.” But when you abandon the need to reconcile any of these concepts with each other, and simply let their latest album, History of the Visitation, speak for itself, everything becomes radiantly clear.

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Guapo - History Of The Visitation (2013)

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Back in ancient music history (circa the late '90s), Guapo were regarded by some as "playful." After various lineup changes and albums like 2013's CD/DVD set History of the Visitation, this does not seem to be a particularly playful group – unless a darkly hued outfit like Univers Zero could be considered playful. Now a quartet with drummer David J. Smith the only original member, Guapo are identified with the 21st century resurgence of Rock in Opposition avant-prog, a style/movement/community of which UZ were founding contributors during the late '70s. Whether Guapo consciously considered themselves part of the RIO lineage from the start, they seem willing to draw from the dark side of that lineage on History of the Visitation – while incorporating myriad other musical elements into their proggy instrumental blend. The five-minute buildup of ominous orchestral tones and textures comprising the "Visitation" intro to 26-plus-minute album centerpiece/behemoth "The Pilman Radiant" culminates in a slow and eerie melodic fragment echoing not only a similar bit from "Jeweled Turtle," the leadoff track to Guapo's previous album, 2008's Elixirs, but also the equally unsettling start to "The Funeral Plain" from UZ's 1986 Heatwave. A deep irregular throbbing drone underpins sustained metallic oscillations – as at least some of the album's seven guest musicians on a variety of reeds, brass, and strings are slowly buried by the onslaught – before "The Divine Vessel" continues the suite with initially waltzy understatement; the Fender Rhodes of new keyboardist Emmett Elvin (replacing Daniel O'Sullivan) is supported by drummer Smith and bassist James Sedwards before guitarist Kavus Torabi burns his way into the arrangement with a sustained tone and deliberate ascending melodic line. Elvin rips into dramatic organ chords before the band plunges into a full-on rapid-tempo bridge and a rhythmically shifting space jam melding the introduction's ambient roar with an insistent hard rock pound and Fripp-ish repeating guitar line. "The Pilman Radiant" alternately slams, gallops, (intentionally) stumbles, and floats through its second half before returning to its midpoint theme, as Guapo display their affinity for "Larks' Tongues" and "Fracture"-era Crimson over UZ's more chamberesque side. "Complex #7" is another dark ambient foray into the "Visitation" zone, but the concluding "Tremors from the Future" is an altogether different machine, cruising through uptempo and even catchy segments – Elvin's staccato attack on the keys would be downright funky if he were playing a clavinet. The companion DVD of Guapo live (with O'Sullivan on keys) is dominated by a very professional multi-camera video – in arty black-and-white – of the band performing "Five Suns" at NEARfest 2006; the performance careens toward proggy bombast, with Torabi in particular throwing himself into his (foot)work. Despite its inferior single-camera video (but fine audio mixing/mastering by Udi Koomran), the band's sparkle-shirted performance of Elixirs' "King Lindorm" at France's RIO festival the following year is a more nimble affair, with a greater measure of "avant" poured back into Guapo's avant-prog mix.

by Dave Lynch

Guapo Biography

Prolific British avant-proggers Guapo have released numerous albums and EPs since forming in 1994. Despite often changing from one release to the next, or in some cases, from one song to the next, their style has maintained basic reference points including France's Magma (whom they name-checked in one album title), Japan's Ruins (with whom they recorded an album), and groups of the Rock in Opposition scene, including Present and Univers Zero. The band's lineup has undergone many changes as well, but for much of Guapo's history the core of the group consisted of drummer/percussionist David J. Smith and bassist/guitarist Matt Thompson. Other periodic full-time members during the group's first decade included bassist Rojer Macoustra (with the band from 1994-1996), bassist Pid (1996-1997), and Honkies saxophonist Caroline Kraabel (1999-2000).

Guapo self-released three EPs – Hell Is Other People (1995), Guapo Is No More (1996), and Horse Walks into a Bar (1996) – and one full-length album, Towers Open Fire (1997), through their own Power Tool label before moving to the French Pandemonium imprint for a series of releases. These included the EPs Eat a Car (1997) and Guapo vs. Magma (1998) and the full-length CDs Hirohito (1998) and Great Sage, Equal of Heaven (2001), the latter of which was co-released in the U.S. by TumulT. Yet another album, Death Seed (their aforementioned collaboration with Ruins), which was actually their third full-length, came out on Italy's Freeland label in 2000. Keyboard player Daniel O'Sullivan joined Guapo for The Ducks and Drakes of Guapo and Cerberus Shoal, a collaboration with Cerberus Shoal released by North East Indie in 2003. He continued as part of Guapo's trio lineup heard on 2004's Five Suns (released by Cuneiform) and 2005's Black Oni (released by Ipecac).

Matt Thompson departed Guapo in 2005, and the duo of Smith and O'Sullivan (with assistance from string player Sara Hubrich and vocalists Alexander Tucker and Jarboe) recorded the album Elixirs, released by Neurot in 2008 and completing a trilogy that also included Five Suns and Black Oni. After bassist David Ledden joined Guapo as the band's bassist for live dates throughout 2005 and into 2006, he departed the group and guitarist Kavus Torabi and bassist James Sedwards came on board. The quartet lineup of Smith, O'Sullivan, Torabi, and Sedwards toured the United States and Europe, playing numerous dates including appearances at NEARfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in June 2006 and Carmaux, France's Rock in Opposition festival in April 2007. O'Sullivan was the next Guapo member to depart the fold, and new keyboardist Emmett Elvin joined the band prior to the recording of its ninth album and second Cuneiform release, History of the Visitation, which arrived in January 2013. In addition to an audio CD, History of the Visitation included a DVD featuring video of the group's performances at NEARfest and the RIO festival, when O'Sullivan had been in the lineup.

by William York

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Guapo - History Of The Visitation (2013)

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Guapo - History Of The Visitation (2013)

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Guapo - History Of The Visitation (2013)

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Guapo - History Of The Visitation (2013)

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Guapo - History Of The Visitation (2013)

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