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**Guerilla Toss - GT Ultra**
★★★★☆

There's something beautifully unhinged about Guerilla Toss that makes perfect sense in our current moment of cultural vertigo. The Boston-bred quintet have spent the better part of a decade perfecting their particular brand of art-damaged mayhem, and with GT Ultra, they've delivered their most cohesive statement yet – which, given their propensity for controlled chaos, is rather like saying a tornado has learned to waltz.

The journey to GT Ultra finds the band emerging from a period of profound transformation. Frontwoman Kassie Carlson's well-documented struggles with addiction and subsequent recovery cast a long shadow over their earlier work, lending an edge of genuine desperation to albums like Eraser Stargazer and What Would the Odd Do?. But where those records often felt like transmissions from the void, GT Ultra pulses with hard-won vitality. It's the sound of a band that's stared into the abyss and decided to throw a dance party instead.

Musically, Guerilla Toss have always been genre-fluid shapeshifters, and GT Ultra sees them diving deeper into the funk-punk fusion that's become their calling card. Think early Talking Heads if they'd been raised on a steady diet of Captain Beefheart and Crystal Castles, with a healthy dose of ESG's rhythmic minimalism thrown into the mix. The rhythm section of bassist Stephen Cooper and drummer Peter Negroponte locks into grooves so hypnotic they border on the narcotic, while guitarist Arian Shafiee layers on squalls of processed guitar that sound like they're being transmitted from a parallel dimension where new wave never died.

But it's Carlson who remains the band's secret weapon, her vocals careening between breathless whispers and full-throated howls with the unpredictability of a live wire. On album opener "Cannibal Capital," she rides Cooper's rubbery bassline like she's surfing a tsunami, her lyrics painting surreal portraits of late-capitalist malaise with the fevered intensity of a street prophet. It's an exhilarating way to kick things off, setting the tone for an album that never quite lets you catch your breath.

The album's standout tracks showcase the band's remarkable range within their chosen parameters. "Plants" builds from a minimalist drum machine pulse into a full-blown disco-punk freakout, Carlson's vocals weaving in and out of the mix like smoke. Meanwhile, "Meteorological" finds them at their most accessible, crafting something that almost resembles a pop song if you squint hard enough – though one delivered with their trademark sense of controlled derangement. The title track "GT Ultra" serves as the album's centrepiece, a seven-minute odyssey that sees the band stretching out into more experimental territory, building tension through repetition before exploding into cathartic release.

Perhaps most impressive is how the band manages to maintain their experimental edge while crafting their most listenable album to date. Producer Ben Greenberg, known for his work with Uniform and The Men, deserves considerable credit here, capturing the band's live energy while adding layers of sonic detail that reveal themselves on repeated listens. The production walks a fine line between clarity and chaos, ensuring that even the most abrasive moments retain a certain pop sensibility.

GT Ultra arrives at a time when Guerilla Toss have never been more vital or visible. Their relentless touring schedule has built them a devoted following among the art-rock cognoscenti, and their influence can be heard in a new generation of bands mining similar territory. They've become something of a cult phenomenon, the kind of band that inspires fierce devotion among those who "get it" while remaining refreshingly indifferent to broader commercial concerns.

The album's legacy may well be as a perfect distillation of what makes Guerilla Toss special – their ability to find beauty in discord, to make the avant-garde feel urgent and immediate. In an era of increasing musical conservatism, they remain committed to pushing boundaries, creating art that challenges as much as it entertains. GT Ultra doesn't just document where they've been; it points toward a future where the weird kids inherit the earth, one gloriously unhinged groove at a time.