Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez
A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume One (Gold Standard Laboratories) Even odds say Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez’s favorite flick is Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man. The Mars Volta and At the Drive-In guitarist/songwriter dives into Neil Young experimentalism headfirst on his solo debut, A Manual Dexterity, a half soundtrack to a work in progress and labor of love that Rodriguez-Lopez has been filming on and off since 2001. As the opening credits roll, the squealing axe of “Around Knuckle White Tile” grinds arrhythmic anthems through chaotic drums and swirling noise. Each track a new scene, “Here the Tame Go By” adds confusion to sadness with a deluge of delay. One lonely, sad riff becomes electronic, and the track slowly builds confidence. “Deus Ex Machina” is exactly that. From instrumental surrealism comes a Latin dance number, a twist in the fabric of the whole. Mars Volta echoes throughout, as on typewriter-ridden “A Dressing Failure” and the sci-fi prog rock of “Sensory Decay Part II.” Avant-garde doesn’t begin to describe the wild and wooly imagery in this music. It’s dreams and nightmares, fear and elation, fatigue and hyperactivity. As Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s trademark yowl reverberates over closer “The Palpitations Form a Limit,” it’s something some white-haired genius would be proud of. We can only hope the film reaches the same bar.
This article appears in October 8 • 2004.