Review: Guillermo Sexo | Bring Down Your Arms EP

[UPDATED] Boston psych-pop veterans Guillermo Sexo Wednesday (yes, Wednesday) release a short set of new material that crackles with vitality, the three-song Bring Down Your Arms EP. The collection is a harbinger of the quartet's forthcoming fifth full-length, which is titled Dark Spring and will (appropriately) be released later this spring. The first two tracks of the EP, the strummer "All Whispers" and the more mysterious "Echo Out My Call," were initially intended for a double A-side digital single, but fortunately for fans the band decided more is in fact more and created the EP. The patiently intensifying dynamic of "All Whispers" definitively indicates Guillermo Sexo is operating at the top of its game not only from a songwriting perspective, but also while working in the studio. The song steadily ratchets up the tension, so there is a robust contrast between the easy bounce of the first verse and the thundering, final chorus. After a remarkable, wiry solo from guitarist Reuben Bettsak deliciously slips around the beat, singer Noell Dorsey shouts "I wanna let you know;" her shout lights the fuse for the brief explosion of distorted guitar and ebbing feedback that closes out the number (and which also reminds us that Justin Pizzoferrato, who has pushed buttons and ridden faders for the significantly loud Dinosaur Jr., as well as Thurston Moore, Young Adults, Speedy Ortiz, engineered the sessions that produced Bring Down Your Arms and Dark Spring).

"Echo Out My Call" touts spine-tingling verses spread across expanses of bashed quarter notes. Its chorus' memorable melody and pleasantly scritchy guitars strike a pleasantly jarring contrast with the bright guitar melody that begins the title track, which closes out the EP. "Bring Down Your Arms," which we were privileged to debut during New Music Night 7 last September, pairs a pretty, cascading guitar melody with an entrancing, meditative chorus to create one of the quartet's best songs to date. We expect fans will be able to order Bring Down Your Arms via Bandcamp sometime in the next 36 hours, and we will update this item with an embed of the EP and a buy link as soon as they are available. There is, of course, plenty other Guillermo Sexo to be had, not the least of which is the band's previous long-player Secret Wild, released in July 2011 [review here]. Guillermo Sexo also contributed last year the lead track to Clicky Clicky's Nofuckingwhere compilation, the details of which are right here; while we're waiting for the EP to appear online, why not stream the foursome's cover of Ride's "Seagull" via the embed below? UPDATE: the EP is live, stream it below and buy it here.



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