Many good things have come out of people becoming sober, and in the case of Michael Friedrich it meant forming Gurus. Forming, is, of course, a loose term, as Gurus features a rotating cast of contributors with Friedrich being the central axis of the outfit. Containing sounds that emanate from trash cans as well as saxophones, the result here is an experience of punk, garage and ’90s influenced alt-rock that is self-described as ‘cult-like’.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Fire\u201d starts with post-punk droning and chant-like vocals, and paints a tense atmosphere with both organic and computer-generated sounds. \u201cBelievers\u201d follows with more straightforward synth work and rumbling guitar work, and while the mood is certainly still on the darker side, there’s an industrial feel as well. \u201cMan And Beast\u201d is one of the quietest moments here, where the focus shifts to percussion, and \u201cChannel\u201d is also subdued, with repetitive singing and twinkling that sounds like a fading dream. \u201cOnly Natural\u201d picks up the pace, and at five minutes, it’s the longest track and one of the best, unfolding like the soundtrack to a chase scene in a spy movie. With a post-punk groove and intricate guitar work, it’s not far off from something released on Dischord Records circa 1992. <\/p>\n
\u201cGoing Home\u201d leads off the second half with keys and chanting, where an eerie backdrop is met with a hypnotic post-punk feel and busier instrumentation. \u201cOutside Your Fence\u201d is an album highlight, with a foundation that moves between talking and sparse, and loud and jagged, and would fit well in a sci-fi flick. \u201cStardust Motel\u201d follows and sounds like the antithesis of this, as it’s a dance song with world music-influenced percussion and a pop-friendly angle. \u201cT.M.C.\u201d is another dark song with a tribal feeling, and \u201cAll Around\u201d finishes the album with screeching saxophones, thumping drums, and mesmerizing melody disguised as a dark anthem. <\/p>\n
There’s no way of denying that Unconditional Surrender<\/i> is a great album, but it’s the sort of listen that just begs to be heard live, and seems that it could leave a much more sizable dent in a live situation rather than on record. Since this is not an option for most of us, I’m quite content hitting repeat on this disc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":32929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9915],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-44704","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gurus","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44704"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}