For those that neither know nor care, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is the black denim & waistcoat wearing waif from Puerto Rico who plays guitar and composes music for The Mars Volta.

Even if you hate TMV, hate all Prog and especially hate the idea of the electric guitar as a jazz instrument I would suggest you hang around for this one just in case.

The story goes that around 2005 Omar R-L relocated to Amsterdam, took half his band and Money Mark with him and laid down an enormous volume of improv rock and punk jazz explorations.

Some of this material was released over the course of the last year on four different records including this fantastic 25 minute romp through sexual politics, global disunity and a denunciation of Gods both old and new with the glorious assistance of Lydia Lunch whose recitation bridges Grace Jones in "Apple Stretching" mode with Mark Stewart at his splenetic best.

Musically Omar takes the Fela / Miles / Zeuhl road-map that Cope used to make "Rite Now" but puts the free jazz right back into the post punk funk. This is "Y" as it could have been if the Pop Group had stayed together and developed their art instead of bailing out and into new projects that were less than the sum of their parts and a pale shadow of former glories. The only thing missing here is a Dennis Bovell dub mix to take the already excessive over the precipice and into the eddying chaos below.

Where Omar's collaboration with Damo Suzuki ultimately disappoints this is chock full with thrills and spills.

Omar actually has a lot in common with Miles as a band leader and they share many of the same assets - wonderfully precise sonic attack, an instantly recognisable tone, musical curiosity, great taste in sidemen and stage presence to burn. All that with the clarity of mind and depth of vision common to people who have scraped the botttom of the drug culture barrel, encountered things (both real and not real) that they could have very easily lived (or died) to regret and yet survived to tell the tell.

They also have some of the same limitations - not the fastest player on the block and melodically at times a bit limited as an improvisor. Though we all know that speed and a florid line are no replacement for good taste and a fluid and economical turn of phrase. He also has that thing of being able to let art happen and disappear out the door without over-working it. Four albums last year. Another four promised in 2008. Now that's what I call music making

Get this and then get the wonderfully titled "Apocalypse Inside Of An Orange" and float awaaaay on a Godzilla of a groove.

Reviews Index