The Guru Guru - Point Fingers (2020)

With clear nods to bands like METZ and The Mars Volta, and having worked with producer David Bottrill, whose credits include Tool and Coheed & Cambria, it’s no surprise to discover that this second full-length from Belgian quintet The Guru Guru is a rather bizarre affair.

There’s plenty of great riffing on show, notably on opening track Mache and the bounding Ex-Alexander, but it’s blended with an array of off-kilter sounds, effects and melodies that largely prevent any of the 10 songs here from straying into catchy territory. Crafting easy-going earworms, though, isn’t the objective here, with The Guru Guru focussing on songwriting that’s eccentric, genre-defying and, in the case of pared-back number Know No, very engaging to hear.

The strangeness of the music might not always convince – Skidoo, for example, is just a little bit too weird to get on board with – but what The Guru Guru have achieved here is a collection of songs that, while not being for everyone, are uniquely theirs.