The Guapo album Elixirs concludes a recondite trilogy of recordings initiated by Five Suns and Black Oni, which has been referred to as the "" 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. 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 and Kavus Torabi. The line-up toured the US in 2006 with synth-prog band, Zombi. O'Sullivan recently left the band to concentrate on other projects, Mothlite ))) and keyboardist Emmett Elvin recently joined. More recently Sam Warren has joined on bass.
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, 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."
