Guapo (band)

Music

Guapo have affiliations with the Rock in Opposition movement, after performing with bands such as Magma and Present at the Rock in Opposition Festival at Carmaux, France in 2007.

The Trilogy

The Guapo album Elixirs concludes a recondite trilogy of recordings initiated by Five Suns (2003) and Black Oni (2004), which has been referred to as the "Empire Strikes Back" record. Every record takes on new musical hues and offers disparate ideas and perspectives. However, an upheaval in the line-up, which of recent years had been anchored by the trio of Daniel O'Sullivan, Matthew Thompson, and David Smith, triggered a change in course when Thompson left the band in 2005.

Other projects

Both Smith and O'Sullivan perform in the antique-prog band Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses. Smith created a large scale, multi media installation entitled "The Other Side of the Island" for which he made a soundtrack with O’Sullivan and Antti Uusimaki under The Stargazers Assistant moniker (the recordings of which were released on Aurora Borealis last year). Smith also plays with members of Coil, Cyclobe and Shock Headed Peters in the Amal Gamal Ensemble. Despite these distractions, Guapo has been maintained as a primary focus and "Elixirs" has been three years in the making.

Line-up

Following the departure of Thompson, O’Sullivan and Smith added two London musicians to the fold, James Sedwards (of avant-rock band Nought) and Kavus Torabi (of Cardiacs, Knifeworld and formerly The Monsoon Bassoon). The line-up toured the US in 2006 with synth-prog band, Zombi. O'Sullivan recently left the band to concentrate on other projects (Æthenor (Vhf Records), Mothlite (Southern Records), Grumbling Fur as well as moonlighting in the live line-up of Sunn O)))) and keyboardist Emmett Elvin recently joined.

Press

Taken from Ipecac Recordings in reference to the release of Black Oni, produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano.

"Guapo have conjured a harrowingly complex and unflinchingly epic piece of work. Heady and hypnotic, driving and relentless, tumultuous and visceral, sonic and serene, the sheer odyssey that is Black Oni encompasses many paradoxes in its massively dynamic scope. Picking up where they left off from their previous Cuneiform Records release Five Suns (2002), the band continue to expand on their palette of dexterous chamber-rock anomalies, modal transcendence, and apocalyptic death marches, and like its predecessor, Black Oni is one singular piece of music, making it the second record in a trilogy of large-scale symphonic forms. Incorporating elements of prog, avant-garde jazz, kraut-rock, minimalism and a range of folk mediums from Britain to Indonesia, Guapo take their queue from a disparate array of influences including Magma, King Crimson, Boredoms, Goblin, Sun Ra, Charlemagne Palestine, Univers Zero, This Heat, Olivier Messiaen and Popol Vuh. The assembly of Dave Smith's explosive drum assaults, Matt Thompson's brazen and prowling bass throb, and Daniel O'Sullivan's ethereal keyboard reveries telepathically collide in an augury of rich and cinematic musical ceremony. Black Oni is Guapo's most monumentally unreserved offering to date."

Albums

EPs and singles

with Ruins and The Shock Exchange

with Cerberus Shoal