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Roy Christopher writer

Sandy Carson photographer

22 June 2009

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

peoplemusic

THE MAN FROM MARS VOLTA

As the guitarist/composer for The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has had a regular outlet for his noisy but nuanced ideas for a decade and a half. Well, it seems that their regular output—The Mars Volta has released six records in as many years, with the latest, Octahedron, just out on June 23rd—is not enough. The guy has no less than a baker’s dozen solo and side-project records out, and they’re all good!

Well, they’re all good if you’re into proggy bluesy arty rock ’n’ roll. They’re all good if you’d like to hear what the edges around The Mars Volta sound like. They’re not out-take-ish though: these are fully formed musical onslaughts and they will broaden your head in the same way that The Mars Volta did when you first heard them.

His latest with El Grupo Nuevo De Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, which includes Zack Hill and Spencer Seim from Hella, Cryptomnesia, is a beautifully intricate extension of the last couple of Mars Volta outings, while Old Money is a bit more proggy and weird, but no less fun. Octahedron shows Rodriguez-Lopez eliciting a restraint unseen since Francis the Mute.

Ever wish your favorite band would release more records? Well, if The Mars Volta is your favorite band, chances are you haven’t even heard everything the members have out.

The Mars Volta are just kicking off a Euro-tour, starting in Zurich and culminating in shows in the UK and Ireland

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film

Banksy caught on film

Regular Level-online readers will remember the review of the Banksy exhibition that occurred last summer here in the massive that is more officially known as Bristol City. I’m guessing it was a firm success—over 350,000 people swamped the city’s medium-sized museum during the one-off season when Banksy took over the place with his take on art. It was, in a nutshell, bloody brilliant. Now you’ve seen the graf, watch the movie: yes, Banksy’s gone and made a movie. I for one can’t wait.

Mark Noble, 05 March 2010

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art

Love to Haiti

To Haiti With Love is a worthwhile cause with a slight difference: when you donate, you actually get a piece of artwork as a digital file. You can send this on to a friend or simply use the image as your own desktop wallpaper. Each piece of work will be sold as a digital postcard for £1 to raise money to help the situation in Haiti.

There are artists from around the world donating work, with more getting involved daily as this project snowballs. So far, the list includes David Shrigley, Genevieve Gauckler, Bob Kronbauer, Rob Ryan, Simon Peplow, Alex Trochut and Anthony Burrill with photographers Ye Rin Mok, Cass Bird and Valerie Phillips recently signing up.

Lee Basford, 06 February 2010

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photo

Olympic metal

Those cafe racer-riding photo-nerds at Olympus have churned out another iteration of the E-P-series, this time one for the masses. (That is, the masses that would have bought an E-P1 or -2 if only it weren’t for their fiddliness and pricey price tags.) The new E-PL1 is the iMac of the bunch, it doing most of the things its fancier brothers do—take quality shots, shoot 720p video, feel P-R-O-hip while you swap lenses—only more simply, for a few hundred quid cheaper, and with the backup of a built-in flash.

And you can get it in red.

Chris Noble, 05 February 2010

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