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Guapo is an instrumental progressive rock band with a sound that exists outside of time and trend, sounding something like a more esoteric take on the most cerebral and austere moments of ELP, shown in the agile unisons between organ and guitar.  They've gone through frequent line-up changes since their original album in 1997, making for unpredictable studio albums, sometimes resulting in truly bizarre sounds like the esoteric drone album "Elixirs".

"Obscure Knowledge", their latest release, is an intensely ambitious and complex, distinctively 70's style 'prog rock' opus, with few catchy moments to make its consumption easier.  The band's consistent, mid-paced jamming rhythm is accessible enough, but dissonant, strangely unsatisfying note choice is the norm on this album.

If you're one to criticize music for having 'too many notes', this isn't the album for you.  I don't think I've heard an album with this many notes since attempting to absorb Upsilon Acrux' "Radian Futura".  Pointillistic, mutating scalar patterns in odd meters are ubiquitous, sure to make a theory major squirm.

Not being an expert in theory myself, I can say with certainty only that it is clever, and the mathematically morphing larger arc of the pieces is palpable and impressive.  The average Dream Theater rip-off or djent band has much shorter songs, and can't resist a triumphant repetitive chorus, a crowd pleasing device in which Guapo would never indulge.  This music is closer to classical in its uncompromising, impenetrable density than what is commonly called 'prog rock'.

Their sound has a formidably unknown, larger than life quality that is similar to Magma.  An uneasy, dark tone is kept throughout the album's many passages, secured by the minor key waltz breakdown 12 minutes into the first piece, sounding very cinematic and inspired by haunted Romantic period classical.

As with their previous album "History of the Visitation", this album utilizes a classic 70's device, presenting a hefty 25 minute song on the first side of the LP, and a pair of shorter compositions on the 2nd half.  The glowering pagan ambient experiments of "Elixirs" aren't totally forgotten, as the 2nd piece, shortest on the album at 4 minutes, is a shrill, third eye opening nebulous & arrhythmic sound.  For the third and final track, Guapo resumes their frantic shred.

The production is as good as anyone could want, a vivid, immediately feeling mix with rich tube amp guitar tones, classic space jazz reverb for the vintage sounding rhodes and organ grinding, and impressive spatialization during the ambience moments.

This album is every bit as good as the previous "History of the Visitation", though perhaps a bit less satisfying in the traditional blues rock sense.  It takes a special type of listener to appreciate music which sustains such disorienting unease, but Guapo's musicianship and utterly out of the box approach to songwriting is undeniable, and there are endless reams of detail to be discerned from this recording.