SEPULCROS DE MIEL

After few below the average solo albums in line, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez returned with great one again. Previous duet with John Frusciante release was extremely raw, and could be counted as rehearsal recording only. But just in few months it grew up till Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quartet, which released one of his greatest album in time.

From the very first sounds you will understand what this album is all about - deeply psychedelic guitar jamming with plenty of synth and electronic effects. But differently from many similar ORL works, ma accent there is spacey atmospheric sound, excellent guitar works, complex rhythmic structures, many jazz fusion elements. And almost no chaotic cacophony at all!

In some sense it's a return to early TMV sound - nostalgic Latin guitar tunes cross all the dreary electronic space. Having two great guitarists on board and almost all TMV team on support, it's not strange this album is so Mars Voltian. Less aggressive and much more melodic, than some last TMV/ORL works, it could attract many of fans of few first The Mars Volta albums.

Fully instrumental, for some listeners it could be counted as TMV without vocal ( and again it has its positive side for some, not for me though - I like TMV vocals). Yes , it still jamming, but with guitars beauty on every second. Looking from another side, this album has many parallels with Ozric Tentacles, but without their rhythm machines.

Really pleasant surprise, I could recommend this album for many fans, who were disappointed with some radically raw ORL previous albums - this one is really different.

Fortunately, it's not as "inaccessible", as TMV is. Heavy Psychedelic jamming just for fun, or is it intentional ? However, what I know for sure is that Omar improved greatly with this album. After series of albums of rather bad quality, solo output for this prolific genius from Puerto Rico becomes even more unbalanced.

But what's most important is that this album catches you. It grabs you by your soul and puts you on hallucinogenic journey through depths of your mind. I normally don't like Psychedelic that much, but fortunately, there's something that appeals even to non-Psych fans. Appeals to your psyché. Spacey sounds for sure, scattered wisely through within these sounds so that it makes firm combination, serving cosmic purposes.

4(+), it's great to find that there's nothing dull about this album, maybe except first and last two minutes.

Anyone who has listened to The Mars Volta knows that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez loves studio manipulation and bizarre experimentation. Here, he sets up some intriguing heavy psychedelic jamming and twists it in inconceivable ways through volume and panning envelops and various studio effects. This project- too short to consider a full album- is not one of his better efforts.

"Part I" Percussion and electronic noises make up this pseudo-sci-fi opening.

"Part II" Wailing space sounds scream over a funky bit of music that sounds as though it was intended for a 1970s porno flick.

"Part III" The music evolves into a heavy psychedelic guitar jam.

"Part IV" As the atmosphere grows stronger with the addition of some incredibly drumming, the warbling, psychedelic lead guitar remains fairly restrained and smooth.

"Part V" The fifth part is merely a continuation of the previous part, with nothing significant changing.

"Part VI" It devolves into a collection of strange sounds, keeping the heavy drumming and laidback guitar, whilst adding some impressive bass work.

"Part VII" Atmospheric effects warp this heavy rock music into something unusual- at times almost white noise.

"Part VIII" The obvious bad mixing on purpose does become irritating- like a child is playing with volume knobs or listening to loud music in another room on a broken radio. The solid guitar becomes mere goofing off, and the multiple methods of experimentation wear out their welcome, eventually returning to the opening bit.

The idea of Omar Rodriguez Lopez really going all out into experimental jam band territory seemed like a pretty exciting prospect, showing off a colourful array of some of his most mind bending, expansive ideas that felt completely unhindered by anything. Unfortunately, Sepulcros De Miel proves yet again that ORL works best in the confines of some sort of restriction he places upon himself, because for as awesome as this is in many spots, it also feels a tad aimless for a lot of the runtime. You've got a lot going on for sure, with the endless guitar solos having snippets of frenetic drumming or abrasive electronics interspersed throughout, keeping things feeling constantly spontaneous, yet cohesive due to so many spur of the moment musical decisions still feeling unified under a central aesthetic that's colourful, psychedelic and very abstract. The structure of it all is really what lets the album down however, as while there are so many moments that feel utterly incredible, especially part III and the way that a wall of guitars erupt in the back of the mix and craft such beautiful, melancholic melodies, there are equal moments where it all sounds like a mess that starts and stops a bit too quickly to fully invest me in any one particular aspect beyond "hey this sounds pretty nice". That said, this album really DOES sound nice so it's a shame that as a whole it probably could've used a bit more time being workshopped to truly achieve greatness, but at the same time, this shows that even some of Omar's less polished works end up being wildly successful in certain regards.