PERILS

3.5 stars. When I found out about this recording I was all over it in spades. I mean, "Five Suns" by GUAPO from 2004 is a monster in my music world. The mellotron storms on it like nothing I've heard before. So powerful! And this one-off project features two of the three GUAPO members which of course was the great motivator for me to track this down. The two GUAPO members are Daniel O'Sullivan playing guitar, harmonium, and autoharp plus David Smith on drums. Three more members add violin/viola, bass and keyboards. Interesting that "Perils" was released in 2005 the same year GUAPO released "Black Oni" and I actually slightly prefer "Perils" between those two.

Some differences between the two bands with GUAPO being more electric and powerful as "Perils" features a lot of acoustic sounds. There is no mellotron on this "Perils" album at all. Both bands make rather dark and experimental music. I see the band photo of them around a table on the bio here involved in a seance. So not my thing but it certainly shows in part the direction this music can take, down that dark road. About half of the album features tracks of two minutes or much less. Almost an avant/folk vibe here much of the time, and all instrumental. There's a fair amount of piano and strings and the guitar style doesn't do much for me. I do like how they contrast the light and heavier passages at times.

I would rate "Five Suns", "Obscure Knowledge" and "History Of The Visitation" as my favourite three GUAPO albums with "Perils" next, followed by "Black Oni" and "Elixirs". The enjoyment level is not very high at all here, I just can't go 4 stars. One and done.

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