As lead guitarist and songwriter for acts such as At The Drive-In, The Mars Volta and about a billion side-projects and collaborations, Omar Rodr铆guez-L贸pez has been responsible for some pretty “out there” and left-field stuff. However, dark, synth-led electronica? That’s definitely a new one. Alongside singer Teri Gender-Bender of Mexican garage-punks Le Butcherettes and drummer (one of a couple of hundred that were once in The Mars Volta) Deantoni Parks, this grew organically from an Omar Rodr铆guez-L贸pez Group (he’s not an egotist, promise…) tour lineup, but once the potential was realised for creating new and different sounds, Bosnian Rainbows were born. Despite this being an unfamiliar set of clothes for Rodr铆guez-L贸pez to wear, they seem to fit magnificently on this bewildering but quite fantastic album.
Most of this record’s quality is down to the honeyed voice of Gender-Bender, which sounds like a three-way hybrid of Siouxsie Sioux (of Siouxsie And The Banshees), Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife/Fever Ray and Patti Smith. Her sublime vocal talent is permitted to take centre-stage throughout, and while OR-L (it’s a long name, okay?) is occasionally permitted to unleash his trademark fretboard histrionics, this album sees an unwavering focus and self-restraint not seen since, well, ‘One-Armed Scissor’. Synth player Nicci Kasper is also a key element to this group, as all the basslines in an album packed full of groove emerge from his keys, creating a sinister bottom-end to the icy, foreboding atmosphere.
Where previous outings for Rodr铆guez-L贸pez, in fairness, ended in more misses than hits, this consistently smacks the nail right on the head – the songs are shorter (sorry TMV fans, no 33-minute 眉ber jams here!), so maybe “quality not quantity” is what his career has been missing thus far. The most impressive part of the album is the mid-section, encompassing ‘I Cry For You’ and the three prior released “singles”, ‘Morning Sickness’, ‘Turtle Neck’ and ‘Torn Maps’, moving effortlessly between the sounds of post-punk, early-80s new wave and melodic pop. Closer ‘Mother, Father, Set Us Free’ is a lighters-in-the-air anthem, which gains pace towards the end and should provoke a riotous reaction in the live arena. A clever touch is that the ending organ sounds of ‘Mother, Father…’ lead straight back into the start of opener ‘Eli’ creating a circular album – The Mars Volta’s ‘Frances The Mute’ did the same with ‘Cassandra Gemini’ feeding straight back into ‘Cygnus Vismund Cygnus’.
This may be wildly different from anything he’s put his hand to before, but for a man who’s contributed to classics the magnitude of ‘Relationship Of Command’ and ‘De-Loused In The Comatorium’, ‘Bosnian Rainbows’ represents another career high for Omar Rodr铆guez-L贸pez. Forget his stand-offish and obtuse “presence” at the recent At The Drive-In reunion shows; this new, completely fresh and, perhaps most key of all, accessible direction fits OR-L like a glove – whether he’ll stick with it or get restless and move back to self-indulgence only time will tell, but if you’ve never before been able to appreciate his post-ATD-I output, now would be an excellent time to start.
OLLIE CONNORS