ISMATIC GURU - AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF OVERWHELMING INFORMATION REVIEW

I was going to gatekeep this record. I found this writhing mass of squiggly sounds myself. I wanted to keep it that way, I really did, I swear. I suffered from the unyielding urge to buy this album on vinyl 13 times and bury them all deep under a tree somewhere no one would ever look. I can't tell you why. Chalk it up to the perverse, insane parts of my brain An Incredible Amount of Overwhelming Information scratches with a fine-tooth comb. Luckily, all that stimulation made me remember how I love writing record reviews before I blew all my cash buying out this record to keep it to myself. On with the review, then.

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John Toohill (Science Man) and Bran Schlia (Helmsley) have been putting their heads together and banging out twisted hooks under the name Ismatic Guru since 2021. Toohill's wonky guitars and Schlia's synth machinations are a match made in heaven, a work of absurd synergy that only gets tighter with each listen. These Buffalo-based freaks are in the lab often, and Ismatic Guru's string of short releases since 2021 proves it. Counting the new tracks on An Incredible Amount of Overwhelming Information, this LP is essentially a Frankenstein's monster forged of five EPs. 

Then again, the unrelenting 35-minute trip feels like it was intended to work this way from day one. The tracklisting is strong with no song shuffling, opening with new songs then crawling back in chronological order, closing with the songs from Ismatic Guru's first self-titled EP. As consistently sprawling and angular as the overall sound is, each track is inside of 2 minutes and no two are quite a match, like burnt-off fingerprints on the hands of a master thief. The sound is like fragments of Oingo Boingo's bones stuck in the teeth of The Fall, curled up and gnawing away underneath David Byrne's giant suit jacket. Then again, Ismatic Guru's whacked-out vibrations are too singular to pin down to just "neo-new wave" or "punk prog". 

An Incredible Amount of Overwhelming Information is angular, it's decidedly lo-fi, and it's notably psychotic even in its most straightforward moments. I'm not going track by track with you because I can't get through the record without putting a song or two on repeat yet. I will say that of late my favorite sonic nuggets to putter to the beat of are "Get Em" and "Eighteen Miles Long". You can watch the music video for Eighteen Miles Long on Tremendo Garaje's youtube channel below if that tickles your fancy as well. 

By my humble estimation, you can start wherever you want with An Incredible Amount of Overwhelming Information, because of the 26 tracks on this sprawling thirty-four-and-a-half-minute run, I haven't caught wind of a single dud or misfire. Varied as the tracks and EPs may be, they never stray from the sideways twilight zone of Toohill's scrawled lyrics and fanatical delivery, clawing its way out from underneath Schlia's chirping synths. Not to mention some of the punchiest, grooviest bass and drum work money can't buy holding it all together. This album feels like finding a gold bar in a burger, because not rolling with its particular brand of strangeness is a foolish decision, and it might hurt your teeth if you don't.