Notofu.com: Omar Rodríguez-López
Published by: Notofu.com
Date: December 18, 2009
Format: Web (www.notofu.com)
Type: Music Review
Omar Rodríguez-López – Solar Gambling
Solar Gambling is a record with two vastly different identities. On one hand, Omar Rodríguez-López presents the chaotic frenzy of fast, tightly executed guitar and drum work, reminiscent of his work in The Mars Volta. On the other hand, there are a few songs woven into the succession of songs that are ambient, mostly quiet, moody and sometimes dissonant.
It’s for this reason that half of Solar Gambling is a success. The songs where Rodríguez-López turns it up and lets loose are the ones that work. They’re full of energy and the musicianship that is showcased through his quick, intricate playing is outstanding. Meanwhile, the tracks where he’s holding back, trying to create spacey soundscapes are only useful as space filler to justify calling the effort a full-length rather than an EP, which is what this should have been. Yet these songs (“Colmillo Castrado,” “Los Tentáculos De La Libélula” and “Lorentz”) made it onto the record even though they lack confidence and structure.
Unlike Xenophanes, which was released in November, Rodríguez-López does not share vocals with Ximena Sariñana Rivera. On Solar Gambling, Rivera, the Grammy Award and Latin Grammy Award nominated vocalist, takes one hundred percent of the vocal responsibilities. The result, aside from the aforementioned instrumental efforts, is an interesting contrast between her rich, soulful voice and the intense, jagged instrumentation.
One problem may be that Rodríguez-López is now independently releasing his music through his own label, Rodríguez-López Productions. While the practice of bands stepping out on their own has been rewarding for some, Radiohead as the obvious example, this particular case seems to have left Rodríguez-López without a filter. He has released two full-length albums within a few weeks of one another. In many instances, under a record label’s supervision, for many reasons including marketing, cost of production and a laundry list of others, a group or artist would have taken the best ten of the twenty songs and released one good record. In this situation, though, all twenty were released, thus creating two marginal albums with some high points and – sadly – many low ones as well. Even though the fellows in Radiohead can do what they want, when they want to do it, I’d bet that we won’t be seeing a free flowing of some good, some half-assed songs coming from that camp any time soon.
2.5/5