OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ

Only so many times that ORL could do the whole "Omar goes pop" move before he misstepped with it I guess. Umbrella Mistress sees him leaning even further into psychedelia here than he did on Blind Worms Pious Swine, but it ends up sounding a whole lot more conventional than that one despite this. Rather than the bright, colourful and surreal nature of that album, where everything sounded vaguely uncanny, yet pretty nonetheless, this takes on a far more mellow, ethereal sound, with the way everything is so muffled and reverb-heavy being enough to sand down a ton of the rougher edges previous found even within projects like this. The issue to me lies in the fact that I don't really see this as an album with many original or interesting ideas going for it, it really is just mellow psychedelic pop, and while this leads to a couple of gorgeous tracks, namely Eastern Promises and Blue Pale Queen, I often find that there's just not quite a strong enough sense of melody to make a lot of the songs here rise above being a bit of a bore. If you reaaallly liked previous instances of Omar Rodriguez Lopez diving into more approachable, pop territory, then you might find something to enjoy here, but otherwise, I do think that there are quite a few other albums in this vein by him that I'd hand you first before even thinking of showing this one.

I definitely think that I approached the ORL IPECAC recordings with the wrong perspective and mindset by thinking that these were all going to be more scattershot and messy. While they may be largely just collections of demos and unreleased music that he threw at the record label and told them to do whatever they felt like with them, these have been shockingly good and varied. Time and time again they've shown themselves to be these very solid, cohesive albums that take on rather different styles and never feel as if they were unreleased due to a lack of quality. While this takes on a more standard Omar feel than the previous 3 albums in this series, there's still a lot to love here, with everything being drenched in a hazey reverb that cuts out some of the more abrasive sounds in favour of something a little more psychedelic, especially when looking at elements like the wobbly synth noises on Extravagants Dietes that further add to this atmosphere.

This also definitely feels like it's the album that contains the most demo material, not just because of the fact that it bears a lot more similarities to past albums, with the guitar evoking a lot of Bedlam In Goliath's frenetic madness in particular, but even the more lo-fi recording and the raw nature of it all contribute to this feeling. This shines most brightly in Primitivo y Barbaro bearing a lot of similarities to the middle section of Metatron, which impressively manages to capture a lot of that song's explosive energy despite not having Cedric's vocals or Thomas Pridgen beating a drumkit to death at mach speed. Overall a fantastic album, though not one that I especially think is essential listening to anyone other than big Omar Rodriguez Lopez fans that want to hear as much of his music as possible (me), since there are other albums that are a bit more polished and final sounding that utilise a lot of these ideas. Amazing, but inessential all the same, strongly recommended for fans, and to be fair, new listeners would find a lot to love in this as well, it's just that there are some other albums that I'd send their way before considering this one.

Admittedly, when beginning on the IPECAC recordings with ORL, I wasn't expecting a whole lot to reach the level of greatness that Sworn Virgins had displayed, let alone for such a feat to be achieved a mere 2 other albums into this series, but yeah, this absolutely fits that bill, albeit with an extremely different approach to what Sworn Virgins had in mind. Similarly to Corazones, this shows Omar taking on a far more pop-oriented approach to his songwriting, but instead of the distinct tinge of indie rock that was present there, he goes in a more psychedelic direction, bringing in some light electronic elements along with once again making use of all sorts of vocal effects, with the interesting difference of them certainly not being utilsed to the same extent as normal. It leaves the album in this great middle ground of sounding quite strange while still having that grounded side to it that complements the style well. Songs like Vanishing Tide and Lights showcase this particularly well with the way they have such clear, beautiful melodies thrown onto a backdrop of vaguely uncanny soundscapesthat serve to elevate the listening experience. The curveball of the final 4 tracks being this instrumental suite that is far more conventionally prog was also a cool think to see, especially given how strong their sense of momentum was thanks to that repetitive bassline, closing the album in an unexpected, yet undeniably welcome way that added another layer of idiosyncracy to it all. The album that I'll recommend people who were disappointed about The Mars Volta's self- titled album and wanted to see a more interesting take on pop from them, even though this album only has ORL on it.

Well, if I thought that Sworn Virgins showed ORL going in a more accessible, digestible direction in a lot of respects, then Corazones just takes that whole idea to another level by ditching the abrasive textures and raw energy entirely, instead replacing it with something far closer to folky indie rock rather than anything that he's done before. It helps that the songwriting is pretty strong as well, once again having a keen ear for melody and taking that really, really far to craft some fantastic moments like Running Away and Sea Is Rising, while providing small bits and pieces that still maintain a hint of his usual quirkiness here and there to give it something a bit extra. This is particularly notable with the ending of If I Told You The Truth I Would Be Made Of Lies having its title repeated in a fashion that doesn't quite rhythmically flow in a clean way, feeling more like a big run-on sentence than anything else, but it's definitely a bit of a common theme throughout to have these short lived moments.

Despite my praises, I still think that this lacks in a few areas that makes it a listening experience that falls slightly short of greatness, particularly with the way that there are quite a few points where it feels clear that Omar was struggling hard with the whole idea of stripping back and simplifying his ideas here, as there are a few tracks that end up feeling a bit underbaked, as if the ideas he had sometimes hinged on crafting those more complex soundscapes and mysterious atmosphere and would've worked better if they had been used on a more traditional album from him. This particularly rears its head in the middle portion of the album where outside of Sea Is Rising, nothing really lands too well. Even so, this is still a great time and one that I appreciate in part because even this far into his discography, Omar Rodriguez Lopez once again shows another side to his songwriting and pulls off the style mostly with grace, despite some missteps here and there. Not really my first choice for an ORL album that people should immediately go to, but for fans who are interested in exploring the sheer range of his material, this is a good one.

Ah well, the hot streak was bound to end eventually, he released another album that I wasn't much of a fan of unfortunately. Solo Extrano feels like a bit of a retread of a lot of ORL's previous ideas that swirled around when he was messing about with more industrial and electronic sounds, having a very similar brand of dissonant murkiness, but unfortunately sounding far more amateurish at the same time. Even after having listened to this a few times now, I just don't really see much that especially stands out as something I find particularly engaging, not even conceptually. This separates it from an album like Un Corazon da Nadie which at the very least had the makings of something interesting underneath its lacklustre execution, with its dark, brooding atmosphere that bordered on sounding like some hopeless dirge. In comparison this just reads as a collection of abrasive, somewhat surreal tracks and nothing more, without ever really feeling as if it has a concrete enough idea to form into anything substantive here. Not the absolute lowest point in his discography, but certainly extremely inessential with even its standout moments not doing much you haven't already heard 50 times before in Omar Rodriguez Lopez's unending catalogue of music.

After a string of decent at best electronic experiments that never really grew into something truly great to me, Woman Gives Birth to Tomato proves to be an incredibly refreshing listen. You can still hear some of Omar's interest is messing around with synths throughout this, but this is primarily a frenetic jazz album that borders on free jazz at points, with these electronic elements acting more as a way to add further texture to the tracks as opposed to being the driving force. It's not just a case of it being refreshing and novel either, it's just a great album in general, taking a lot of clear inspiration from artists such as Ornette Coleman and then mixing in some colder, more abrasive elements to it all to create this messy, futuristic experience that walks the line between nightmarishly intense and gorgeously passionate. Stuff like this is why I continue to stick with going through the discography of ORL even after a string of albums I don't feel especially strongly about, because you get stuff like this that ends up being so exciting and surprising all throughout, with each dull moment feeling wholly temporary before you get something truly amazing thrown your way.

This is definitely my favourite of the electronic oriented ORL albums from what I've heard so far, largely for the way that it approaches everything with a bit more caution and elegance than his other material from this era without sacrificing its experimental edge. These chaotic, atonal screeches of distortion are balanced by a very melancholic tone yet again, only this time the compositions have a bit more life to them, evoking a lot of vibes that are rather similar to something you'd hear in The Mars Volta, just once again put through the surreal lens of Omar being the only one touching these tracks. The drums also help add to this all, with songs like Sea is Rising especially benefitting from slightly more basic musical elements. Overall just a very solid time, would definitely be cool for those who were big fans of Noctourniquet especially, since this similarly plays around with some pretty ugly ideas in more accessible ways than one might expect.

While Omar continues to explore the electronic elements of his music in a similar way to how he tapped into them with Octopus Kool Aid, Equinox sees him taking things in a far more abstract, formless direction. There are very few melodies to latch onto and the rhythmic elements feel jagged and chaotic, as if they're barely being held together and often just entirely falling out of time and trying their best to keep up, it's all a very bizarre, messy listen that takes on a very experimental edge on the whole. The issue to me is that I feel like it goes a bit too far in this direction to the point where it's difficult to find much tangible at all for the majority of the album's runtime, even if it has its standout moments such as the warped, almost dancelike beat of Lovely Rain and Dientes para el osmosis just generally reeling things back in a touch to really play to the strengths of the erratic vibes while working in some of his classic magic to really bring it to the next level. I continue to really enjoy ORL's approach to music being so free but at the same time I really do find that his best work tends to flourish whenever he is able to add more of those elements of nuanced structure and moments of more subdued material to help guide his music in a direction that makes those intense moments feel so much more impactful. I feel like Equinox is emblematic of both sides of this as well, as despite being so freeform for most of it and feeling a bit homogenous as a result, those few moments where everything gets stripped back a layer reveal some of his signature greatness, and I'm hoping some of the albums of his I'm yet to hear further expand upon this again, especially those that continue to play around with electronics.

The electronic era continues with yet another vibey mood piece that puts more significance on the textures and vague bits of imagery mixed throughout rather than a more tangible sense of individual songwriting, this time feeling like a bit of a middle ground between the strange, but bright pop melodies of Octopus Kool Aid and the endlessly dark, murky atmosphere of Un corazón de nadie. The main point of interest here is the way the electronic instrumentation ends up feeling like a bit more of a backdrop to the other elements at play here rather than dominating the compositions in the past, with a far stronger emphasis on the interplay between the fuzzy vocal melodies and drum beats being notable. It's all pretty well played and leads to crafting a pretty mysterious vibe that's worth listening to if you really like that stuff, but I also found that with the exception of the very emotionally charged final track Angel Hair, nothing else here was really something that outright moved me in a way beyond simply finding it pretty cool. This is definitely the sort of album more for the fans than one that I'd ever really consider as a good point to start listening to Omar Rodriguez Lopez.

ORL continues his exploration into electronic territory by utilising such instrumentation in yet another pretty different way, this time using it as a sort of backdrop to craft a lot of dark, sombre soundscapes that simultaneously foreboding and mournful. Unfortunately, that's about all I feel this album has going for it, a bunch of initially interesting soundscapes that don't really get expanded upon in any especially interesting ways, ultimately being a bit of a hollow experience. I don't deny the fact that there was certainly quite a strong effort to craft a unique, haunting experience either, this isn't quite like a couple of his other projects that sound more akin to messing about for the sake of seeing what he could do (a totally fine approach to do that sometimes has worked out rather well for him), but rather a very conscious effort to craft something deeply cohesive. I simply just don't feel much from it and think that a bit more time to properly develop a lot of the individual elements here to do more than simply fit an aesthetic would've gone a long way into making this a truly compelling experience. Not particularly bad, it just doesn't really do much in the end unfortunately.