Guerilla Toss
367 Equalizer
Infinity Cat; 2014
Review by Emilio Herce
I wasn’t sure what to make of Guerrilla Toss’ latest, 367 Equalizer, at first. The EP, released on Infinity Cat Recordings as part of their bi-monthly Cassette Series (curated by Diarrhea Planet’s Casey Weissbuch) hovers somewhere between art and noise rock, a soundscape I’d compare to a discotheque in an active saw mill, undulating and undeniable rhythm bathed in industrial whirr, with the possibility of limb loss.
Or maybe not a sawmill. The songs on this EP are wholly of the information age. Yes, 367 Equalizeris steeped heavily in atavistic technology, the only physical release of the EP was on tape, and the opener, “TV Spell,” a droningly infectious and percussively bent track, name checks VCRs repeatedly, but the transcendent themes on the record all carry markings of a later era. There’s a relatable wariness, a search for something novel (though not for novelty’s sake), and finally unable to find anything new, Guerilla Toss has created something else entirely.
It’s as if the band processed a bunch of disparate genres through a shredder, then laid out these strips in arrangements all their own. The result is a catchy cacophony of anxious energy, intoxicatingly noxious, which simultaneously kills and embraces everything that came before it.
The eponymous/closing song on the EP, a indelibly funky track fit for a favela fight scene, is more distorted homage than send-up, and like the other songs on the EP, “367 Equalizer” is not a artifact, but a wholly alive thing. This latest release makes for unexpected ear candy, if with the occasional hidden razor, for flavor.
