Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Calibration (Is Pushing Luck And Key Too Far)

[3/5]

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has mucho ambition and talent–maybe more than is strictly healthy. These circumstances lead him to use a more-is-more approach to composing and recording, which is often TMI for its own good. Still, give us Rodriguez-Lopez’s nothing-succeeds-like-excess M.O. over most rock musicians’ chronic underachieving any day. As for Calibration, it’s hyped as his “electronic rock album,” but it doesn’t deviate much from the Mars Volta’s rococo, robust prog suites. TMV mates Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Thomas Pridgen appear, along with keyboardist Money Mark and guitarist John Frusciante, who add dexterous, dynamic touches to Rodriguez-Lopez’s psychedelic convolutions. His guitar still baroquely ripples and blazes like Carlos Santana on a peyote bender, but he’s enhanced it with stranger electronic filigree than what’s typically heard on a Mars Volta release, while de-emphasizing vocals. “Electronic” it may be, but Calibration is still more about bruising third eyes than making hips shake. (N2O) Dave Segal