Now a quartet with drummer
David J. Smith the only original member,
Guapo have become firmly identified with the 21st century resurgence of Rock in Opposition avant-prog. 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 2013's CD/DVD set
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
Heatwave, the 1986 album by darkly hued RIO co-founders
Univers Zero. 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
Univers Zero'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. ~ Dave Lynch
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