ALBUM REVIEW: Gu-cci – Tuscoma
Gu-cci is the third album from Wellington, New Zealand genre benders TUSCOMA and caps a fantastic foundational period for the trio. Since forming in 2018, they’ve let two full-length albums loose on the world and toured their home country with the likes of DEAFHEAVEN and WIEGEDOOD, as well as completing stints in Europe. This third record also marks their first foray with a dedicated bassist in Craig Leahy and thus presents the fullest look at what TUSCOMA are about as a unit. And what they’re about is making a raucous, riotous racket.
Emotions Divided By Lights gets us underway with a grotesque discordance that embeds a deep sense of dread and unease into you before unfurling into a flaming mass of spikes and tendrils. Angular and hypnotic, TUSCOMA sink their teeth in and keep you in a vice grip for the following near-40 minutes. Musically, there’s a lot here for fans of the likes of PHOXJAW, but vocally this sits far closer to someone like KVELERTAK or HEXIS. It’s a bewildering combination delivered to dazzling effect. Impeccable is a far shorter beast – the shortest on the record, in fact – but no less venomous, launching into a foul tirade right from the off, in which every member plays to their absolute limits. A sudden break and double beat precedes one final explosion that is as vicious as anything we’ve had so far this year.
On 2018’s debut album Arkhitecturenominus, TUSCOMA put across a very DIY, punk aesthetic to their sound. Sophomore release Discourse started to iron out the kinks and sounded fuller and richer than its predecessor, but still held telltale signs of a band trying to find their calling and their perfect setup. All of those obstacles are gone here on Gu-cci; the production value is as luxurious as its fashion house namesake, proving once and for all that polish need not be sacrificed in the name of intensity.
The other pitfall with this style of metal is that when a band insists on going this heavy for this long on an album, they risk their efforts all sort of blurring into each other, becoming more of a blancmange of brutality than a menu of singular, jagged courses. To negate this, TUSCOMA have punctuated Gu-cci with shoegaze atmospherics that allow the record to breathe. Album closer Aris Dazed does this particularly well, making the most of its nigh on 14-minute runtime to build and swell via expansive, more measured instrumentation and sparing vocals. It still has that grit and intensity that has very much been baked into the DNA of Gu-cci but delivered in a more affecting way that’s likely to stay with you long past the end of the record.
All told, Gu-cci is a discombobulating and dizzying experience – but that’s no bad thing. There is so much happening in every sonic pocket of TUSCOMA‘s unnerving soundscape that it’s impossible to take it all in on just one listen. Lend this one your time, and it will repay you in gold.
Rating: 8/10
Gu-cci is set for release on June 30th via Landmine Records.
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