Chimpomatic

Omar Rodriguez Lopez

Old Money

Stonesthrow

Omar Rodriguez Lopez is the guitarist with The Mars Volta and this, his first proper solo album, is a collection of instrumentals and sound collages which serves as a strong statement of where he's at musically. Initially, this album comes across as the Volta without vocals, but repeated listenings reveal a wider scope of influences and textures. Genreally speaking only a couple of tracks resemble the Volta in terms of arrangement - notably the opener The Power Of Myth and the title track itself - elsewhere ORL's earlier excursions into the world of dub and found-sound are very a big influence, with mighty Studio 1 rhythms bouncing off latino melodies and third-world samples. The other big influence which flavours this record is mid-70's Jazz fusion, and by that I mean the good stuff - the use of Bass Clarinet cannot help but invoke the sound of Bitches Brew or Herbie Hancock's Sextant, and Omar's guitar playing coupled with some furious drumming are as close to a modern Mahavishnu Orchestra as we're likely to find.

What makes this good is Omar's approach to playing guitar - he is, without question, the finest rock guitarist to have emerged in two decades and this is a statement I'll attempt to qualify right now: consider the dilemma of the talented musician. If you have the dexterity and the ear for complicated playing, there is often the need to show-off, to learns tricks and to become nothing more than a performing stunt-show of arpeggios and flashy techniques, so many great players end up making music which only serves to highlight their technique. ORL is a very gifted guitarist but he understands something at a much deeper level than the sweep-pickers of fusion or math-rock - his solos charge head-on into unknown places, like someone riding the scree - a controlled crash at high speed. Really, the closest comparison to ORL's solo playing is Frank Zappa - he's really got that wah-wah thing down. On top of this, Omar clearly loves sound manipulation so his guitar sounds are often heavily effected, overdriven and swirling, but with a highly contemporary edge.

So, if you want to hear an album with a lot of high-quality guitar experimentation against a backdrop of electric Miles, King Tubby and Medal-era Floyd, then this is your new year purchase. If that sounds like your idea of hell then steer clear. Personally, I would love to hear the results if Omar teamed up with Bill Laswell - I think that would be a musical marriage made in psychedlic heaven.

#Music
#HarrisPilton

5th Jan 2009 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Various Artists

Peanut Butter Wolf Presents...Chrome Children

Stones Throw Records

Following the critical success of Dangerdoom's The Mouse And The Mask, the late-night animation network Adult Swim has teamed up with Stones Throw records to bring us this epic all-star compilation that really showcases the breadth and scope of this label. Stones Throw is celebrating it's ten year anniversary and following the excellent 'Stones Throw: Ten Years' record, Chrome Children is the second compilation to mark this occasion. The label has always been committed to quality beats whatever form the may come in and Chrome Children features big hitters like MF Doom, Madlib and J Dilla alongside lesser known artists like Guilty Simpson.

Having teamed up with a cartoon network you might expect playful beats from the Ugly Duckling school of thought but then you must remember that Adult Swim brought us cynical classics like Family Guy and American Dad, so bubbly beats is the last thing on offer here. Oh Zone starts us off gently with a wonderfully eclectic beat structure and effortless rhymes that leads us on to the star of the album - Guilty Simpson. Stones Throw's newest signing and long time J Dilla associate, Simpson has a dark and brooding rhyme style and with the lyric "My mood swings like pendulums, I got two birds, one's the middle finger and trust me it's the friendly one," his voice resonates with a booming seriousness that is echoed by the minimal bass heavy beat. The quality keeps coming, with Madlib offering up a great solo cut that showcases his easy as pie style. Stones Throw's ace card is the mighty and elusive MF Doom who appears here with Madlib as Madvillian and Monkey Suite takes no prisoners. Doom's vocals are monotone and unrelenting, the beat: dark and plodding and all the other tracks tread carefully around Monkey Suite, so as not to anger this masked and hooded heavyweight.

But thankfully it's not all doom and gloom and the many instrumentals here offer much needed relief. Koushnik offers up a funked-up calypso gem in the style of Stomp armed with a plethora of rubber dustbins while James Pants hits us with a B-Boy friendly slice of breakbeat bliss. All this was a surprise to me as I had the J Dilla cut pegged as the instrumental high point but was sadly disappointed. Nothing Like This is an adventurous piece of beat technology that has all the signs of Dilla class but ultimately goes nowhere. Dudley Perkins crafts an expert 3 minutes of cartoon hip hop that falls somewhere between Outkast and Del era Gorrilaz. His style of rhyme/singing over the dramatically animated beat seems almost freestyle and it's playful tone is very welcome at the midpoint of this record.

The beauty of this long standing record label is its refusal to be type cast as a hip hop label and has continued to source new forms of funk, R'nB and soul but as a compilation this can sometimes tread thin ice. With the exception of Pure Essence's glorious Gil Scott Heron infused soul of Third Rock the non hip hop cuts seam weak when put alongside the heavy-hitting rhyme sayers and Chrome Children does seem to tail off towards the end. But this is all forgotten when you take a look at the DVD that accompanies this anniversary collection. It features interviews with Madlib and Stones Throw mastermind Peanut Butter Wolf but more importantly showcases the labels all-star line up gig at the SXSW festival. Though not particularly visual this gig shows just how important this label is and features all the players including a highlight set from the lyrical acrobatics of Percee P. The masked figure of MF Doom is the headline act here and offers non US viewers a rare chance to catch his live set as he is curiously unable to leave America.

A label of this magnitude can't hope to please every one all the time and though this generous package is patchy at times it shows us just how high its sights are set and with fantastic album art work and some brilliantly animated videos on the website it really shows its commitment to creativity in general.

#Music
#HHG

13th Nov 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet