Guitar jams from Mars Volta leader
As a side project for an already
cultish band, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s Old Money is destined to
achieve instant bro-you-gotta-hear-this status for some and glance
harmlessly off of most. Though the Mars Volta guitarist drops in ambient
marimba (“Private Fortunes”), sludge-dub drums (“How To Bill the
Bilderberg Group”), free sax/synth squonk (“Trilateral Commission
as Dinner Guests”) and the occasional keyboard solo (“Family War
Funding (Love Those Rothchilds)”), Old Money is basically an album
of guitar jams. Coiled with elliptical melodies, vintage David
Gilmour reverb and dense layering, Old Money also has its share of
drum-less bedroom sessions (“1921”). The tongue-in-cheek song
titles—see: “I Like the Rockefellers’ First Two Records, But After
That...”—keep the sensibility au courant, despite the historical
references. It’s not necessarily an obvious headphone album,
but—perhaps due to the lack of vocals—there’s a vast space in
which to get lost, found and lost all over again.
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