OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ & LYDIA LUNCH

The second of the 2007 amalgamations by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, this time with spoken word artist Lydia Lunch. The music is better than the preceding EP, but the vocals are not. Damo Suzuki provided a humorous break from the typical work by Omar & co. that, while not always pleasureable, don't really take over and detract heavily from the music, which besides was pretty monotonous without him. Lydia Lunch's vocals are dark and commanding, but I don't particularly care what she has to say here. The boys are providing more of an atypical backdrop for her thoughts and messages. Now, I have not heard anything else she has done - spoken word by itself is not something that interests me at all - but I don't think this is the kind of stuff she normally does. Considering it is a spoken word album, it is pretty cool, but I'm not going to be listening to it ever again. Believe me, I don't descriminate based on sound alone; it's not really captivating. Definitely not essential, but it is a fresh idea. Use your own discretion here.

I don't think there is an artist in the world right now that is making and releasing more albums than Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. The man is clearly on creativity overload as this is his 4th album, with many more releases spanning 2007 and 2008. The main difference with this album compared to the rest of his albums is that the lyrics on this album are spoken rather than sang. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez collaborates with Lydia Lunch on this album who is a spoken word artist. The lyrics are so controversial that you would probably expect them to be on rap albums rather than a progressive rock album. But somehow this just works.

The album kicks off as it means to go on with opening track 'Welcome to my church' throwing the album straight into a prog, jazz fusion style; mixing Omar's frantic electric guitar with saxophone performed by Adrian Terrazas-Gonzalez, keyboards performed by Money Mark, bass performed by Juan Alderete and drums performed by Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez. This sound is consistent through the whole album as Omar delves into his own world. But it is the collaboration with Lydia Lunch who delivers the vocals which is really the focal point of the album which says a lot considering the exquisite musical backdrop.

Although the album is only 5 tracks and 24 minutes in length, because the theme is the same all the way through, I feel Omar has done enough without over doing it. It is more of a concept album about god, women and war with the tracks having equal weighting than any particular song standing out. Opening track 'Welcome to My church' kicks off the controversial lyrics with Lunch displaying her dark humour with lyrics like, 'No women has never started a world war, No women has ever stopped a world war either'. In the second track 'Getting Rid of God', it is the saxophone which takes centre stage for the first half of the track till it is back to Lunch's rants.

Third and fourth track, 'Back to the Goddess' and 'The end of a white man's revelation' continue in the same vein setting the scene nicely for album closer 'Woman (In the beginning)' where Omar lets himself loose on the guitar with in my opinion his best work of the whole album. The controversial lyrics continue with 'We should have bombed the women of Afghanistan and Iraq'. If you think these lyrics are controversial or are offended by them this album is probably worth a miss as it does get more extreme. For me though Lydia Lunch offers a different way of looking at things, I don't agree with most of the things she says but at the same time her voice does fit with the music and the vocals are delivered in a tongue and cheek style.

Overall this is a very good album. Some of the statements made may shock you. But I think the point of the album was to make an impact on this listener and to make them think in a different way. Some may be offended, others may agree with what Lydia Lunch says. However one thing is for sure the frenzied music on display is once again of very high standard and kudos for Omar for experimenting his music with the spoken word.

Yeeaahh, even as a huge Omar Rodriguez Lopez fan this one is a bit much for me in all the wrong ways. A lot of parallels to Omar's previous ep, Please Heat This Eventually, can be drawn, along with acting as a pretty apt example of why it feels like one of these works and the other just, doesn't. Both are essentially just one massive suite that bring in a guest vocalist to do their own thing with Omar's jamming acting as a backdrop to their performance. The issue with this album is that while Omar's playing is incredibly strong as usual, it lacks a clear sense of drive and distinctiveness that allows this one rhythm to carry 25 minutes of music. It also feels like this one doesn't have as many additional flourishes to bring in some variety while maintaining a sufficient level of cohesion, which leaves things feeling really boring, especially during the portions where the instrumental side of things are left alone to do all the heavy lifting but just ends up sounding rather lifeless for the most part.

The issues with the album are really brought to its boiling point once you take Lydia Lunch's contributions into account however. While I'm sure that there's a world in which her spoken word works here, it simply doesn't do it for me at all, sounding totally at odds with the groovy, spacey jamming that the instrumentation dishes out. This ends up creating a potent tonal dissonance that not only sounds really "off", but also feels as if it removes a lot of the emotional power that Lunch's side of things is attempting to convey. The fun, somewhat upbeat instrumentation end up making her words of fury and desire for a rebellion of sores come of as lacking a certain conviction as an almost direct result of the way the 2 sides of this just don't mesh together well at all. For all intents and purposes I know that her words are angry, but I don't FEEL any of that anger, it feels less like a call to action or even a more broad stroke condemnation of something, and more just someone in a bad mood ranting at you for around 20 minutes. I feel like this side of things could have led to some great results if not for the stark contrast presented in the material that try as I might, I cannot overlook, but unfortunately, as it stands, this really does nothing for me and is only vaguely elevated by Omar's incredible talent being put on display to some degree.