Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Cryptomnesia

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "So many jumpy, frenetic, whipsawing guitar lines go zooming through Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s head that his main band, the Mars Volta, can’t hold them all. That’s why he has his own extensive catalog of … largely (but not entirely) instrumental works. … 'Cryptomnesia' tilts toward songs instead. Its tracks were recorded in 2006 by members of the Mars Volta … and from Hella the hyperactive Zach Hill on drums, who can keep pace with every riff. … Then, last year, the Mars Volta’s singer, Cedric Bixler Zavala, added lyrics and vocals on most of the tracks. … The result is as frantic as the Mars Volta’s own material, but terser, and occasionally something approaching catchy in songs like 'Half Kleptos,' if helium-tinged vocals and bruising progressive-rock riffs could possibly add up to catchy. The lyrics have Mr. Bixler Zavala’s usual gross-out potential, profanity and medical obsessions — 'Don’t make me steal all your vital organs,' he croons, way up high, in the album’s title song — but his vocals carve simple paths through the thickets of notes" ("New CDs," 5/11/09).