UN ESCORPIÓN PERFUMADO

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (ORL) December's release is available for download from his site already. If still not too long ago with every of his new release often listener was afraid on getting some noisy and chaotic heavy mix (what happened time to time), with his ORL most recent releases the problem is different.

For some time he found out the heavy use of electronics on his solo releases, and this album is one between such series. All music is played by trio, without guest musicians or usual female vocals. But the music is not so different from what was released during few last months: deeply psychedelic (pop) rock with melodic tunes, overdose of electronic effects and noises, melancholic, obviously influenced by ORL some last Latin music flavoured albums. Omar sings himself all vocals, and besides of it all space is filled with loops and all possible electronic noises over the head.

This album is far from some earlier releases with bulk structure and raw improvs. Still enough experimental, it is much more easy listenable, better structured and in many places more remind experimental psyche-pop, than rock. Again, as often with ORL, he doesn't care too much about consistence of materials he releases as solo albums, so quite often compositions remind more blueprint or rehearsal versions for (possible) future The Mars Volta releases.

Not the best and not the worst ORL solo release. Really interesting one for artist's fans, for newcomers it's better to start from Omar's more essential albums.

Talking about Omar Rodriguez Lopez in the way I do is pretty funny to think about, because he's an artist that I really, really appreciate, but I rarely find any specific album of his to be outright amazing as a whole, more often than not having some absolutely standout tracks in a more inconsistent package as a whole. Because of all this, I end up thinking that it's awesome to get those albums by him that really are fantastic through and through, such as this one. In quite a few ways it feels like a bit of a back to basics time for him, with the Latin rock tinged psychedelic jamming being back in full effect, except this time it has an aesthetic that I'm even more of a fan of. The entire album feels as if it has these dark, murky undertones to it thanks to how heavy and distorted the bass and percussion feel. For each warm piece of imagery, you get this distinct sense of contrast with the way these lower end instruments completely change the soundscape that's being created, a feeling that's further increased with the other elements at play to make for one of the more dense albums ORL has made in his solo career. Songs like Mensaje Imputente also represent this sense of raw passion that hadn't quite been something focused on for a bit now, with these huge, climactic choruses and guitar work bringing forth a very strong sense of energy too. While the entire album is just full of highlights, the final two tracks especially take this to another level with the mix of jamming, this amped up prog rock song leading into this lengthy drum focused instrumental that continuously finds new ways to fall off the rails while also sounding like a perfect way for the album to end off in general. Overall just a very dense album with some of the tightest, most cohesive songwriting since Old Money, and while I'm not quite as into the atmosphere and aesthetic here compared to some of his more adventurous albums like Cryptomnesia, I also can't doubt that this is even a more well rounded album than that.