GUAPO

New LP ‘Obscure Knowledge’ May 2015

guapo_admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 20:36:45 +0000

We’re happy to announce our new record ‘Obscure Knowledge’ will be released via Cuneiform on 26th May 2015. Initially on CD followed by a Ltd edition vinyl pressing.

We also sadly have to announce the departure of bassist James Sedwards who has made the decision to stand down in light of his ongoing commitments to Thurston Moore’s group amongst others. We have shared some fantastic experiences during his 8 year tenure with the band and wish him continued success in his new adventures.

Filling his boots and the right foreground is the magnificent Mr. Sam Warren .

Forthcoming New Album

guapo_admin — Thu, 22 May 2014 19:12:02 +0000

Guapo will be heading into the studio to record a new album in June 2014. The record is due for release on Cuneiform early in 2015.

Guapo inteview for It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine

guapo_admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 18:15:00 +0000

http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2014/04/guapo-interview-with-david-jsmith.html

Guapo 20th Anniversary 2014 – 1st concert

guapo_admin — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 20:52:00 +0000

Gaupo will be performing on Thursday 13th February at The Rhythm Factory, Whitechapel. London
Doors 7.30pm
More info to follow

History of the Visitation Reviews

guapo_admin — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:59:00 +0000

More loveliness for History of the Visitation.

http://zombywoofblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/guapo-history-of-the-visitation-review/

The Stargazer’s Assistant – Mirrors & Tides, Sivers & Voids Limited Double 10″ Vinyl

guapo_admin — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 19:30:00 +0000

Now taking pre orders for The Stargazer’s Assistant double 10″ LP. It comes in a limited edition of 300 copies and includes a download card/code.
Release date is 27th July.
£20.00 post paid for UK residents
£22.00 post paid for rest of Europe
Paypal: stargazersassistant@yahoo.co.uk
or visit: www.guapo1.bandcamp.com

LABEL
Utech Records
utechrecords.com
CATALOG NUMBER
URLP079
FORMAT
2×10”
Poster sleeve 20”x20”
Black vinyl + download
Edition of 300
TRACKLIST
Side A
Coral Butterfly
Side B
Mirrors & Tides
Secret Kingdom of the Swift
Side C
Night Soil
Shivers & Voids
Side D
The Dream Kingdom
ART
Patti Jordan
pattijordan.com
DESIGN
Keith Utech
ARTIST PHOTO
ASW & DJS
STREET DATE
July 27, 2013
CONTACT
A 2×10” vinyl release from David J. Smith, The Stargazer’s Assistant, incorporating 2008’s acclaimed Shivers and Voids EP on Utech Records and a new three-track EP, Mirrors and Tides, featuring “Coral Butterfly”, “Mirrors & Tides” and “Secret Kingdom of the Swift.”
Eyes closed, ears wide open, we are given freedom to dream the void. Sweeping, intricate, sometimes ominous yet always exuding a warmth and depth of emotion, The Stargazer’s Assistant produces pure cinema of sound.
For the new EP, David J. Smith is joined by Circle vocalist Mika Rättö’, who sings on the heart-breaking “Coral Butterfly”. David also had the honour of playing the late Finnish jazz drummer Edward Vesala’s Sound & Fury collection of unique metal percussion.
Ancient forests, vast plains, billowing clouds, rusted metal hulks, wet rock walls, lights flickering in darkness: these are the subtle visions of The Stargazer’s Assistant.
Born in Stourbridge, 27th August 1970, David J Smith studied fine art before gaining his BA at Cardiff in 1991. He moved to London in 1994 and concentrated on musical projects, including the avant rock group Guapo, which he co-founded.Smith has been playing drums and making music since 1986 and is regarded as one of the UK’s most spectacular and imaginative percussionists. As well as The Stargazer’s Assistant and Guapo, he performs with Cyclobe and the Amal Gamal Ensemble.
stargazersassistant.blogspot.com
THE STARGAZER’S ASSISTANT
MIRRORS & TIDES, SHIVERS & VOIDS

Visitation in Manchester

guapo_admin — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 10:06:00 +0000

Guapo show in Manchester 14th July.

Guapo Live in London 25.04.2013

guapo_admin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:12:00 +0000

This is really happening. Get your tickets here.

http://www.musicglue.com/corsicastudios/eventdetails/25-apr-13-guapo-corsica-studios/

H.O.T.V. review

guapo_admin — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:57:00 +0000

Nice write-up.
http://thefourohfive.com/review/article/guapo-history-of-the-visitation

There must be a surrendering, from the very beginning, of any preconceptions about the progressive or avant-garde. Any frequenter of pop music will be entirely uncomfortable at every juncture, but that’s the point. We can’t apply pop necessities to music which is entirely uninhibited and seemingly uninfluenced, although that’s almost certainly not the case. The very concept of a song, which we have grown to understand as a concentrated form, carries no weight in this medium. These aren’t even moods or ambiences which can be deciphered through the modern understanding of music and human interaction.

A more appropriate take would be that these are swathes of creativity, unabridged and unapologetically vast. Opener, ‘The Pilman Radiant’, is a lumbering, prehistoric beast; meticulous and repetitive, purposely so. We get a circling of the frenetic sound, altering the prominent voice through wild guitar, bass and percussion. These are exo-sounds where the instrumentation is free from the restriction and dilution of structure, allowing ambitions to be as they are, not as they would be. There’s a metronomic aspect, not just in the percussive sense, but in the way that phrases seem to serially return with sequential arpeggios that feedback against swathing underlying intensity. All seem to be cast indistinctly into an abyss which achingly forms them together into a tangible, collective sound. And that is ‘The Pilman radiant’.

Their ideas have been defined as “controlled chaos” with dissonant sound somehow jarring yet almost resolving. Much of the listening experience is subconscious, and likewise, it seems that the music itself is subconsciously driven. It seems like human intervention hasn’t had any bearing, as though the barriers, and transparency, of conscious thought have been at least subdued. There’s a fundamental familiarity with the sound which perhaps goes beyond music as a means of entertainment and rather uses it as a tool for spiritual ceremony.

At times, and during second track, ‘Complex #7′, the connection to what we understand as music is indeed spurious. With electronic fizz punctuated by linear pulses as though the record were on ‘Stand-by’. Yet despite the lack of reference or context there is a fundamentally affecting quality, perhaps in the timbre of the undertones. ‘Tremors From The Future’ echoes, as much experimental/progressive music does, the preceding decades; reinterpreting an approach. But rather than repeating, or falling to cliché, Guapo take experimentalism into an exciting sphere. The stereo sound of the headphones begins to sway while the arpeggiated theme intertwines sub-plots laden with mute scratches, creating a deep 3D collage to comprehend.

Even the concept of what an album ought to be is challenged. Time’s influence seems fickle as the listener is immersed into the extra-terrestrial, multi-dimensional, the cyclic and the dissonant. Ninety-five minutes is filled (really filled) with six tracks that are typically diverse. But actually, diversity isn’t that typical is it? Originality in aspect and perspective that doesn’t cower under the far reaching umbrella of pop; and that’s the one thing that is exclusively human: The potential of art. From a sound which seems wholly inhuman, the very fact of its existence exemplifies the possibilities. Harnessing ambiguous sound and shaping it, weaving it together beneath others, applying the human element is what makes this ultimately beautiful. It is a maximalist, seismic event; almost inconceivable. Yet it was.

Rating: 7.5/10

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Released 29th January

guapo_admin — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:37:00 +0000

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.
History of the Visitation is the ninth album from the forward-looking foursome. This album finds them following through on the kind of epic constructions that sprung forth from their albums like Five Suns and Black Oni.
The record is dominated by the 26-minute tour de force “The Pilman Radiant,” offset only by the 11-minute journey “Tremors from the Future” and the considerably more compact sonic sculpture known as “Complex #7.”
The band currently comprises drummer and founding member David J. Smith with mainstays Kavus Torabi (Cardiacs, Knifeworld) on guitar and James Sedwards (Nøght) on bass, joined by recent addition Emmett Elvin (Chrome Hoof, Knifeworld) on keyboards.
In addition to the new studio album, both the CD and LP versions include a live DVD of the group from their 2006 and 2007 USA and European tours. This is the only live footage of the band available to the public and features former member Daniel O’Sullivan of Ulver and Sun 0))).
Only 300 copies are available from us of the high quality vinyl pressing, which comes in a stunning gatefold jacket and which includes the DVD and a digital download card.