EL BIEN Y MAL NOS UNE

Omar's IPECAC records are interesting in the way they can be put into 2 distinct categories. Amongst the first 6 of these albums, there has been a perfectly even split between melodic, psychedelic pop music and utterly wild, chaotic nonsense, with this falling more in line with the latter. What makes this album so interesting to me is the way that it ends up feeling like the closest thing to a middle ground this group of albums has gotten so far, despite having some truly nasty sounding industrial noises that feel like a toned down take on the garish synths of Tychozorente. I feel like this largely stems from how bright a lot of the electronic elements sound, being very warm and happy sounding, most notably in La Voz, with a lot of the stranger elements being filled in by the other elements of the composition. The contrast in this chaos and the stronger focus on vocal melody makes it a bit of a weird listen and the first of this particular group of albums that I really feel takes a few listens to properly sink in, but it's worth a listen for some of its harder hitting tracks, even if there's also a decent amount that can feel slightly akin to a retread. Definitely an album I could see an ORL fan getting something out of, but there would still be a fair few other albums I'd pick as a recommendation before sending this one their way.