Review Summary: Ruthlessly experimental, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's new group's Cryptomnesia is as impenetrable as it is enjoyable.
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez likes breaking rules. The Mars Volta’s axeman/brainiac practically spits in the face of time signatures, puts wa-wa effects where they otherwise don’t belong, and releases album after album upwards to eight in a single year. He just doesn’t stop. El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez is his very brief side-project with drummer Zach Hill, with plenty of familiar faces including long-time friend and Mars Volta frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala and consistent Mars Volta bass buddy Juan Alderete. The group’s debut record Cryptomnesia is a screeching mental case of an album, one that will confuse many, but ultimately reward those who stick through the distortion effects and completely nonsensical lyrics.
Cryptomnesia is as impenetrable as a steel wall, but as playful as one with random graffiti painted all over it. Rodriguez-Lopez constructed this album because he wanted to, and it shows. It’s an album that I can practically guarantee you won’t get at first listen. That being said, there are hooks on Cryptomnesia. The crazy lyrics and metronomic pace of “Half-Kleptos” is actually pretty catchy, and could (very loosely) qualify as single-worthy. The wackiness of “Tuberculoids” has Cedric Bixler-Zavala calling out in high falsetto for a majority of the song, with the effect switches running riot on the instrumentals throughout. These hooks are consistent, but unlike the more popular works from Rodriguez-Lopez, they aren’t obvious and are usually masked by Rodriguez-Lopez’s effect-rich guitar sounds. You’re going to have to sift through a lot of abstraction to find these hooks, even if the album isn’t defined by them.
Any sense of structure is set aside with “Puny Humans” with constant tempo changes and Zach Hill’s maniacally fast drumming. It seamlessly moves into the similar “Shake Is for 8th Graders,” which also runs the gambit of insane drumming from Hill and abstract, apocalyptically produced guitar sounds. Rodriguez-Lopez makes sounds from his guitar without any sense of discrimination. Whether it’s a screech, a grunt, or something completely different, he makes the noise work.
A trifecta of similar songs, “Paper Cunts”, “Elderly Pair Beaten With Hammer”, and “Warren Oates” are three of the best on Cryptomnesia. If anything, these three songs would sound perfect on a Mars Volta album. They feel just abstract enough to be worth listening to all three, back-to-back. The actual guitar sounds aren’t as buried beneath aural effects on these, especially on the solid closure of “Warren Oates”. The crazy cacophony settles from a coiling spiral guitar note into a congealed pool of unity by the end of the record (punctuated by the bizarre, 30-second audio track, “*** Your Mouth”).
Looking for lyrical consistency from Bixler-Zavala is a losing battle. Don’t even try it. However, Bixler-Zavala’s singing style echoes his work on The Mars Volta’s The Bedlam in Goliath album, adding more falsetto then punk yelling. For the eight tracks that Bixler-Zavala guest-vocals on, prepare for plenty of nasally growling (though it is disappointing that Bixler-Zavala does add too much variety to the vocals). Interestingly enough, Bixler-Zavala doesn’t have a concept to lyricize about this time around (as he usually does on other Mars Volta records), which practically says to him “do what you’re good at.” What’s he good at? I don’t even think HE knows.
Of all of Rodriguez-Lopez’s side projects, El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez-Lopez feels the most personal and tightly knit, while also being heavy and purely about rock. The songs are borderline insanity for sure, but there’s a refinement, a careful hand that obviously cares deeply about simply jamming with buddies. Like many of Rodriguez-Lopez’s past works, Cryptomnesia is abstract and will not be for everyone. Even if you’ve stuck by him through his past works, Cryptomnesia will, for better or for worse, surprise you. The guitars will grind and squeal, the drumming will pound and crash without warning, and Bixler-Zavala will ramble on about who knows what. If you’re daring enough to go beyond At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta and see some Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s finest side projects, Cryptomnesia is a steep start, but nonetheless, a satisfying mix of creativity and pure “I don’t give a damn” rock.
