A chaotic, knotty blast of sound and violence, El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s Cryptomnesia is intoxicating in its breadth and passion.
The band, a construction from The Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Hella’s Zach Hill, was originally intended as a sort of duo experiment but quickly blossomed into a wreckage of noise and experimentation. Along with Rodriguez-Lopez and Hill, El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez features Mars Volta lead vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Mars Volta’s Juan Alderete de la Peña on bass, and Hella’s Jonathan Hischke.
Call it a supergroup if you like, but El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez is a fucking attack on all that is holy. With ear-drum wrecking sonic assaults and enough musical intricacy to please math geeks everywhere, Cryptomnesia makes for one hell of an experience.
Building something on a foundation of Hill’s rabid drumming and Rodriguez-Lopez’s play-til-you-die guitar was always bound to be a bit of a dangerous venture at the best of times, but the results on this record are just staggering. It’s haunting in its need to spring loose from its crate and demolish furniture and fine art, leaving nothing but clawmarks and speckled pandemonium in its wake.
Cryptomnesia is actually one of three records made in 2006 by the band, meaning that there’s much more to come from this infuriating and imaginative group.
No easy feat to get into in one setting, Cryptomnesia is a bit of a clusterfuck. Violently artistic and incessantly bold, the “songs” roar and rattle into existence with peculiar effects, feral guitar and remorseless pounding from Hill. His playing borders on the irrational, rifling through insane fills while Rodriguez-Lopez’s guitar meanders with wrecked riffs and tricky patterns until the music absolutely breaks down.
In the middle of the madness, El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez seems suddenly content to lay out some of the sweetest and most satisfying grooves in modern music.
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