Elixirs takes brave listeners on a journey through dark forests of time to emerge in barren, but not interminable, climes beyond the treeline. This journey, however, is no fool’s errand. Both external discoveries and deep self-analysis are its reward. A violin on the album’s first track “Jeweled Turtle” sets an indistinctly chilling, but pleasant mood. Synthesizers, strange time signatures, and a harmonium lend the band an air of Middle-Eastern eeriness throughout. Your mind wanders. This isn’t the soundtrack to your day job. There are elements of jazz and post-rock here, but Elixirs is mostly weird and cerebral, with singing and voices conjured out of the mist on a few numbers. The effects are more beautifully creepy than harsh. It’s not all highbrow, though, as evidenced by the ass-kicking heavy bass part on “King Lordorm.””
Elixirs is the bookend of a musical trilogy the outfit—then a trio—started with 2004’s Five Suns and continued with 2005’s Black Oni. Is our journey complete? Guapo’s music is definitely informed by dark and disparate elements, but the band’s avant-garde sensibility and not-too lengthy compositions make it highly listenable. Think Fantômas or Peeping Tom with the same herky-jerky, carnivalesque atmosphere, but less goofiness.
Listening to Guapo is like getting lost somewhere in an otherworldly desert, being joined by oddly-silent-but-affable Vikings, the dudes who tape the show “Ghost Hunters” and perhaps the band Yes, and then all shuffling off to New Orleans’ annual JazzFest. Then, unfortunately, your mind and body must wander back to a habitable, expensive city where music reviewers try—really try—to explain to you what the present-day “prog-rock” and “psychedelic” “scenes” are like, exactly.
–Brendan Dabkowski
Guapo: www.guapo.co.uk
Neurot Recordings: www.neurot.com