OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ & LYDIA LUNCH

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.