Rodriguez-Lopez pushes his luck

It may seem strange that shortly after The Mars Volta released The Bedlam in Goliath, a solo album by Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez surfaced. And yet, Rodriguez-Lopez has further cemented himself as the busiest man in electro-rock, as Calibration (Is Pushing Luck and Key Too Far) comes right on the heels of Goliath.\nReleased a mere week after Goliath, Calibration finds Rodriguez-Lopez, his Volta bandmates and his ever-familiar cast of collaborators with another LP of layered, atmospheric material. Like his previous solo effort Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo, Rodriguez-Lopez recorded Calibration while living in Amsterdam.\n"Mexico" opens the album with the soft female vocals of Tina Rodriguez on top of a Mexican harp and watery synth effects, suddenly building to distorted guitars and explosive bass. The kickstart of "El Monte Tai" follows with the jolt of a steady beat and an echoed violin against killer synth harmonies from "Money Mark" Ramos-Nishita. Rodriguez-Lopez, meanwhile, shows off his fluent Spanish as he takes vocal duties. \nThe self-titled track, split into two halves on the album, thunders into familiar Volta territory. A wah-wah pedal and screaming lead guitar on top of a complicated time signature usher in Mars Volta frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala, wailing his high-pitched vocals over Rodriguez-Lopez's soloing.\nSoft-plucked electric guitar quietly builds into the dizzying "Glosa Picaresca Wou Men." John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers takes over the mic here, his voice under muddied effects as contrasting guitar and vocal melodies wage war in this art-meets-fusion track. \nRodriguez-Lopez certainly has a knack for arrangements, as songs such as "El Monte Tai" and the title track "Calibration" show. His performance with violin accompaniment on the soft "Grey (Cancion Para El)," as well as his solo performance on "Cortar El Cuello" highlight his dynamics as a guitarist. \nBut unlike Goliath, which found Rodriguez-Lopez and his Volta bandmates perfecting their sound, Calibration wears on the listener at times with wandering guitar melodies and unrelenting spacey effects. \nFollowing a critical success such as Goliath, Calibration may indeed be pushing luck too far.