Guerilla Toss - GT Ultra

Guerilla Toss for a few years now have been making off the wall, extremely noisy art punk.  With their 2013 debut "Jeffrey Johnson", I really didn't know what to think about it at first.  I mean, I'm into some pretty twisted stuff between being a fan of Prurient and being a fan of Pharmakon.  Guerilla Toss on this album brought to the able two massive Art Rock tracks that seemed to get weirder as they went on.  There were certainly great moments, like some of the later, funkier moments of "Chronophobia...".  But overall, I felt like one listen was enough for me.  Their 2013 EP "Gay Disco" wasn't that much more of an enjoyable experience for me.  HOWEVER, there was once again several really colorful and exciting instrumentals that I really did appreciate.  But I continued to feel like Guerilla Toss had so much potential, IF they got some structure to their music.  That being said, I was pretty shocked when I ended up really enjoying their 2016 album "Eraser Stargazer".  Now, this wasn't an album for everybody, it was still very noisy and abrasive.  But this album was easily the most exciting and colorful Guerilla Toss album yet.  Between the jazzy breakdowns, funky bass licks, and art rock style ramblings, it was in interesting listen.  But man, these new singles from Guerilla Toss have them going in a completely new direction.  It's still obviously very abstract, but it's the sort of wild, abrasive Pop music that I usually end up loving.  Let's talk about this album!

This short album starts out with “Betty Dreams of Green Men”.  It’s a very cosmic sounding start, but only a few minutes in and this is already easily the most structured and fun thing Guerrilla Toss have done so far.  I mean this is seriously funky as anything else I’ve heard this year, with some seriously ridiculous grooves and colorful synths.   But it also remains very wild and unpredictable as far as performance goes, so anyone who dug Guerrilla Toss’s earlier albums may certainly still did this.  But man oh man, overall “Betty Dreams of Green Men” is the wildly experimental pop music that i’ve been dying to hear this year.  It’s vibrant, it’s colorful, it’s entertaining, and I really don’t have anything bad to say about this at all.  “Can I Get The Real Stuff” is up next, and Guerrilla Toss are sticking hard to that synth pop sound, which is fine by me, so far this has been working great.  This is just as colorful and very experimental in feel.  While it sort of lacks the big groove feel of the last track, this one makes up for it with fun and exciting verses.  It’s hectic and chaotic, and seriously psychedelic.  But while “Can I Get The Real Stuff” has all of those wild components, it remains seriously catchy.  But this is what I’ve been saying for a while with Guerrilla Toss.  They’ve always had very bright instrumentals that needed to be executed much more structurally.  And that’s what we’re getting here, and the results are wonderful.  By the time we get to “Crystal Run”, it’s pretty ridiculous to even consider that this is the same band that produced such hard to follow and noisy art punk for years.  This one is back to having a pretty strong groove.  But as this track goes on, it’s getting further and further out there and seriously bizarre.  But it remains just as wild and as colorful.  “Crystal Run” is still seriously enjoyable however, but it’s not nearly as catchy and as infectious as the first few tracks.  But like I said, the instrumentals remain outrageous and mind melting.  Then we have “TV Do Tell”,, which in a weird way is a serious throwback to the New Wave of the 80’s.  Not only that, but it comes off super legit too.  Im not THAT into it though sadly, mostly because I feel like the lyrics are a little lazy and the performances aren't nearly as exciting.  But it’s still catchy, and as far as a new sound goes for Guerrilla Toss, these guys are still really branching out.  

Up next is “The String Game”, and I seriously love the very down and dirty funk on this one, as well as the very sinister vibe to all the instrumentals.  But as far as the vocals go, this one is a little too out there for my liking.  There are some great elements throughout, and I seriously do love the very cold and robotic vocals here, even though they do get a little repetitive.  Outside of that, this is still very colorful and eclectic and seriously hard to place.  In a good way however, a way that really has you questioning what you’re even listening to.  “Skull Pop” on the other hand is intense right off the bat.  I love the continued heavy use of seriously gigantic synths.  This one has just such a huge atmosphere which makes you feel like you’re in a seriously intense rave.  As this one picks up, things gets more and more explosive by the minute.  While the vocals on this one are just as twisted, monotonous and chilling, I feel like within this rapid fire atmosphere it actually becomes seriously stunning.  I continue to be seriously blown away by the fact that this is even the same band as before, the difference in structure is absolutely jaw dropping.  “Skull Pop” altogether has a whole lot of progressive influence within all of its twists and turns.  It’s hard to keep place of, but it’s a blast.  “Dog In The Mirror” has one of the most patient and bizarre intros here.  But at this point, I’m really not too shocked at all.  Bu when things get rolling, the funk here seriously becomes overwhelming.  I can literally pick out the instrumentals that I would hear on previous Guerrilla Toss albums that I saw potential in that i knew would be used right one day.  And here we are.  I love the upbeat and eclectic drums on this one as well as the passionate and wild vocal performance.  In a way this sort of reminds me of a mild version of “Strawberry Jam” era Animal Collective.  It sure as hell makes you move though, as it remains totally abstract but seriously colorful and exciting, and most of all fun.  This short album comes to a close with “Dose Rate”, and as this album goes on I feel like it just gets more and more bizarre.  I really wasn’t expecting this very slow and hazy finale, but it’s certainly ear grabbing and different.  But sadly, I’m really not into the very monotonous and mantra like vocals, I’m much more into the wild and outlandish performances.  But I certainly get what some people would be into with this.  Not to mention, instrumentally this is seriously a feast of everything weird and eclectic about this album.  

Rating: 7.5/10

Give A Listen To:   "Betty Dreams of Green Men", "Can I Get The Real Stuff". "Skull Pop", "Dog In The Mirror"

Overall Thoughts:  Man, what a serious turn around for a band.  Guerrilla Toss went from being a overly complicated Art Punk project, to a seriously fun and experimental Psych Pop band.  The performances here are wild, and often switch things up at a moments notice, making for a really exciting half hour.  My only real critique is, they need to stick with it.  They need to expand it and flush it out into an even longer album.  Because if they can do that, they can go toe to toe with a lot of really great experimental pop bands.