Twisted Crystal sees Guerilla Toss return to DFA with a fresh batch of pieces for their art-rock puzzle. This latest instalment in the NYC new wave group’s discography perfectly lodges itself in between the stay up forever post-punk styles of The Slits, Talking Heads and ESG, yet is cooked with the sort of ingredients that will please the taste-buds of anyone biting into the Glaswegian no wave and electro/techno contingent of Optimo, Sparky, Happy Meals and Golden Teacher…
From the word go, Twisted Crystal goes in almost instantly with the angular yet irresistible catchy rhythms that if you let them, will properly charm you right up good and proper. While lead singer Kassie Carlson's sing-speak vocals recall the heights of Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, and Lizzy Mercier Descloux, on Twisted Crystal's nine avenues her delivery truly peaks with an addictive concoction that ensures her vocal personality is recognised from the word go.
Those familiar with the project will no doubt be aware of the group’s now trademark trusted Sequential Circuits Six Track Synthesizer and Clavia Drum Machine, these ever-present tools of the trade have seen the group fire through past gems for Digitalis, NNA Tapes and team up with Jays Glass Dubs for the recent excavations on DFA x Bokeh Versions. Yet here they are refined, moulded and polished across nine freshly sharpened electro-bangers by drummer/producer Peter Negroponte, whose passion for perfection and creation goes far beyond an all-consuming Tetris effect. At times, Guerilla Toss will let you loose in their neon maze of alternately pulsing time signatures, but by the time each track clicks to a close, all the roads bounce, meet, melt or snap back together into the one solid meditative groove. Twisted Crystal is an album that owes as much musically to Neu! and Cluster as it does to the slinky rhythms of liquid drum & bass and the early year 2000 onwards legendary legacy of its home imprint DFA.
If you let yourself enter into the sparkling Twisted Crystal world of Guerilla Toss they will be sure to ignite a swirling pop sound inside your head which like groups ever evolving electro punk-funk sound will evolve on and on and on.
