Spotlight: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is by far one of the busiest musicians alive. Throughout his 27-year career, he has played, produced, and composed music for four bands and a solo project, collaborated with artists ranging from John Frusciante to Lydia Lunch, and has four movies in progress. Most recently, he announced the release of his sixth solo album, Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus. The album was written in 2001—between the death of his hardcore band At the Drive-In and the birth of progressive rock band The Mars Volta—and is the fourth album he has released from this time period.

Not much is known about the album other than its release date—September 9th—but Omar's material is so diverse that it will be difficult to give it a single genre.

Guessing the Content of Omar's Sixth Solo Album

So far, Rodriguez-Lopez has kept a tight lid on the contents of Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus. Supposedly, it was recorded in 2001, during a crucial period in his musical development. The time Omar spent between At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta began the multi-instrumentalist's exploring different genres. His 2004 solo debut A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume One (which was recorded a few weeks before his upcoming album) saw him making a post-rock movie soundtrack, while his most recent solo album Calibration ranges from electonica to acid jazz.

While Omar's solo material is incredibly various, one can still gather clues as to what the new album may entail. He has stated that it was recorded a few weeks after A Manual Dexterity, which was a tame album by his standards. Either the new album will continue in the trend of being tame yet dynamic, or it will drastically contrast its counterpart. The latter appears to be the more probable guess after looking at Omar's other recent releases.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus Expected to Be Heavy

The 2008 release by The Mars Volta, The Bedlam in Goliath, was the heaviest album yet by the band, full of aggressive synthesized effects and showy drumming that bordered on the ridiculous. His other 2008 release—a collaboration with vocalist Jeremy Michael Ward—fit snugly in the noise rock genre. With these two albums in the picture, it is highly probable that Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus will be another loud and intense album from Rodriguez-Lopez.

A final detail of the album is its track listing and approximate length. The album sports nine tracks and runs for 43 minutes, which is remarkably short compared to The Mars Volta's 60-80 minute CDs. Additionally, a portion of the album's material was originally meant to be used by The Mars Volta on their first album, De-Loused in the Comatorium. This is another indicator that the solo album will be heavy, as The Mars Volta's debut saw them recovering from the loudness of At the Drive-In. The album was notable for heavier songs combined with drastically contrasted slow jams. If the slow jams were represented by A Manual Dexterity, and Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus was recorded just weeks after, then it is a good guess that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's new solo album is going to be a delightfully noisy endeavour.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus will be released September 9th on Infrasonic Sound. Follow Omar on his Myspace.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus Cover

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds