Super System (Dischord, 2002) added manic doses of electronics to the recipe. The short, quirky songs became even more unpredictable and undefinable. The dadaistic pastiche Faith Based Music, the neurotic Contortions-like funk of My Bird Sings, the six-minute Fall-ian grotesque Being Boulevard, the Pop Group-ian free-jazz of Disappointment Spelled With A V. and the psychotic synth-pop of Buildables wed German rock of the 1970s, the no-wave of the 1980s and the post-rock of the 1990s.

Each of the three previous albums introduced something completely new, but this one merely simplifies the idea behind the third album's electronic pop, to the point that El Guapo occasionally sounds like a badly disfigured New Order mix. The 1980s revival that is taking the USA by storm is more like a disease than a blessing. Except for the grotesque I Don't Care, there isn't a second on this album that can be defined "original". Under the shadows of Kraftwerk and Devo, Just Don't Know, Ocean and Sky, Pick it Up , and Underground commend as much respect as a Duran Duran cover (or original).

Il terzetto di Washington El Guapo (Peter Cafarella alle tastiere, Rafael Cohen alla chitarra, Justin Moyer al basso e alla batteria) contina la tradizione avant-jazz-hardcore di bands altamente sottovalutate degli anni '80 come Saccharine Trust e Universal Congress. El Guapo debuttano  con l'EP di sei pezzi The Burden of History (Resin, 1997), cui segue l'album The Phenomenon of Renewal (Resin, 1998) e il live album The Geography of Dissolution (Mud Memory, 2000). 

Super System (Dischord, 2002) aggiunge all'insieme delle maniache dosi di elettronica. Le canzoni da lente e angolate diventano meno prevedibili e meno definibili. Il pastiche dadaistico Faith Based Music, il funk nevrotico alla Contortions di My Bird Sings, i sei grotteschi minuti della Fall-iana Being Boulevard, il free-jazz di memoria Pop Group di Disappointment Spelled With A V. e il synth-pop psicotico di Buildables uniscono il rock tedesco degli anni '70, la no-wave degli anni '80 e il post-rock degli anni '90.

Ciascuno dei tre precedenti album introduceva qualcosa di completamente nuovo, ma questo è una mera semplificazione dell'idea retrostante al pop elettronico del loro terzo album, al punto che gli El Guapo a volte finiscono per sembrare un brutto remix deturpato dei New Order. Il revivla degli anni '80 che sta prendendo d'assalto gli USA è più una malattia che una benedizione. Ad eccezione della grottesca I Don't Care, in quest'album non c'è un secondo che si possa definire "originale". Dietro l'ombra dii Kraftwerk e Devo, Just Don't Know, Ocean and Sky, Pick it Up, e Underground si guadagnano tanto rispetto quanto una cover dei Duran Duran (o un'originale).

El Guapo reformed with drummer Josh Blair of Orthrelm and three vocalists (keyboardist Pete Cafarella, guitarist Rafael Coen and bassist Justin Destroyer) and changed name to Supersystem. The new quartet debuted on Always Never Again (Touch & Go, 2005), a varied collection that harked back to the age of disco-punk but with an emphasis on Blair's jaunty polyrhythms (Born into the World). Supersystem's second album, A Million Microphones (Touch & Go, 2006), is a more mature work that focuses not on the dance element but on the un-dance element, i.e. on the deconstruction of the cliches of dance music, possibly the most erudite and hip-shaking such attempt since the Pop Group of the 1970s. The three vocalists take turns at spitting words into the faulty rhythmic clockwork. Cafarella's synthesizer adds a Pere Ubu-esque feeling to the arrangements. But the driving force of the music is Blair's irregular rhythms, that frequently define the very definition of "rhythm", as they keep shifting in a neurotic manner.
The syncopated synth-pop with pseudo-rap declamation of Not The Concept and the naive melody, the whirling guitar and ugly techno beat of The Lake are the appetizers. Prophets has the light/ironic quality of a commercial jingle, while The City (semi-pop melody, semi-Latin beat) exudes the atmosphere of a cabaret.
The main meal comes with Eagles Fleeing Eyries, evoking the distorted-mirror experience of a B52's retro-dance hit though layered rhythmic effects while disorienting with the delicate notes of a harp. However, the power of Supersystem's method is better displayed by the tortured psychodrama of Earth Body Air, in particular by its elaborate vocal and electronic counterpoint (over looping polyrhythms that update Talking Heads' futurist world beat). The "singing" in Joy is basically a dialogue between a voice and its echo, while the instrumental part piles up African beat, acid keyboards and twangy Middle-Eastern guitar.
The album closes with the barbershop harmonies of Revolution Summer, embellished only by a syncopated robotic beat and timid synthesizer and piano noises. With the exception of White Light White Light (punk-ish rigmarole, harsh riffs and rocking rhythm), the songs are hardly knock-out punches. It is their incoherent and apparently cacophonous development that grants them a malign status.

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