TYCHOZORENTE

If there's one thing anyone can say about Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, it's that he's not afraid of experimentation and doesn't shy away from tackling a new genre. His discography shows him dabbling in music similar to The Mars Volta while also trekking to jazz, pop, avant-garde music, and, in this case, electronic music. But tackling doesn't mean touchdown. This album certainly has some nice moments, but they are few and far between. The excellent vocals from Ximena Sarinana Rivera are wasted on this album, and that's the real shame. Had these stellar melodies been brought into heavy progressive rock or even acoustic territory, Tychozorente would have been a fine collection of songs. Instead, Rodriguez-Lopez leaves listeners with bland, pulsing electronic rhythms littered with his usual sputtering noises and effects. Perhaps as a challenge to himself, he has no guitar presence at all here.

"Los Siete Sermones a los Muertos" This is an unusual step for The Mars Volta conductor. While the bizarre effects and noises are certainly present, this is an electronic dance song with charming and hypnotic female vocals.

"Polaridad" Somewhat atonal percussive tones lead into a straightforward beat and further beautiful singing.

"La Paradoja Divina" The second track segues into this haunting mess of bass, percussion, spoken word, and choral Mellotron.

"Contra Suspiros" This is like the second part of the previous track, with nothing that distinguishes it from what came before.

"El Todo" The vocal melody and the performance of it are brilliant, but the backing music is too minimalistic and doesn't fit what's going on there. This could have made a remarkable heavy progressive rock song rather than the thin, experimental electronic business it is.

"Piedras y Ansiedad" Various weak tones work over a simplistic drum and bass beat before the vocals enter. Even more so than the previous the track, the backing music is incompatible with the vocals, and it's busy and empty at the same time.

"El Ritual Como Fin en Si Mismo" More tinny noises and spoken word make up this brief track. It has some interesting tones and bass involved, but nothing else.

"Consecuencias" And again, the previous track melds right into this one without anything really being different- just an extension of what came immediately before with a different title.

Everyone interested in Omar Rodriguez-Lopez music perfectly know two things about him: he is very productive, releasing some albums every year, and you never know what kind of music is released on every next his solo album. Some of releases are really great, other are just very average or even hardly listenable.

This new release is very unusual. This is far not the first Omar collaboration with Mexican singer (and his girlfriend) Ximena Sarinana Rivera, they have recorded few great works and few more very average. This album contains two main components - Ximena's great slightly folksy vocals and bunch of keys/synth/electronic effects. No Omar's guitar work is presented.

As a result, music there is freaky spacey/psychedelic electronic with really strong, if a bit monotonous female vocals over it. Happily, there are plenty of melodies and atmosphere, so generally album is not boring. Even more - being quite easy accessible (and in many places similar to trip-hop works), this album still balances on the edge between electronic pop and electronic-based prog.

For sure, you can't find there no traces of The Mars Volta, or Omar's crazy guitar noises, which are so characteristic for many his albums. It's just different music. Not pure prog, not great, but really interesting.

This has a great album cover. What the hell is that? The music here is Omar's attempt at electronica with mixed results. This is a 2010 release but could have came out in 2000 or earlier. Actually, I've heard very little electronic music from the past ten years that did anything that wasn't already being done by the late '90s. When rockers decide to do electronic music it can be hit or miss. Usually a miss which is the case here.

Ximena Sarinana Rivera does most of the vocals(mostly in Spanish). There is a few songs with some guy speaking in Spanish. It's not listed who does those spoken word parts. I've heard Omar do interviews in English, but I can't tell if it's him speaking. Anyway, the songs with the spoken word parts are the least interesting on the album. Omar's brother Marcel is credited with playing Mellotron but no 'Tron sounds really stand out.

"Polaridad" has a video for it. It's probably the best song here. It has a good beat and a nice synth solo near the end. The only other song that stands out is "Piedras Y Ansiedad", which has English lyrics. This song has a good bass synth sound. Good synth solo too. Ximena does her best singing on the album here. It sort of sounds like a Mellotron generated sound at the end.

Tychozorente is mostly synths, programmed beats and vocals. Not a bad album per se, but it's hardly 'prog'. At least it's nice to get a break from the freaky guitar and oddball manipulated vocals on some of his other albums. If you like modern dance/club music you might like this. Otherwise, don't bother. 2 stars.

Do I perhaps throw around praise for Omar Rodriguez Lopez's creativity and willingness to experiment with almost every new album of his I listen to? Maybe. Do I intend on stopping this any time soon? Certainly not, the man's just got too many awesome ideas floating around for me to consider that, even on his weaker albums such as this. Tychozorente isn't an album I consider to be all that great, all things considered, but it's definitely a cool attempt at another unique style, being some kind of dense, psychedelic electronic album with pop elements in the structure of the songs themselves. Everything sounds strangely lethargic and slightly slower than it should, with these abrasive, whirring electronic elements worming their way into every facet of the composition to create something that's equal parts hypnotic and garish. I really love what this is trying to do, but with that said, the bizarre approach taken is often something that's more interesting to talk about rather than actually listen to. While the lethargy can give some amazing atmosphere to certain tracks, it often works against what's being done, just feeling annoying and sluggish, especially with the blaring electronics. Ximena's vocals also don't really work here for me, with a lot of sustained notes that just end up being grating to me rather than actually evoking much of anything, at times even seeming to work against the music itself for no reason that I can discern. I really do respect ORL for yet again making something entirely off the wall, but this is definitely one of his weaker experiments to my ears.