''Cryptomnesia'' is the debut studio album by

El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez was a band consisting of Omar Rodriguez Lopez (guitar), Cedric Bixler-Zavala (vocals), Juan Alderete de la Peña (bass guitar), Jonathan Hischke (synth bass) and Zach Hill (drums). History Originally thi ...

, released on May 5, 2009. The album is the first of three albums recorded by the band, and is Rodriguez-Lopez' eleventh record overall. According to Rodriguez-Lopez, the album was "recorded in the summer of 2006, around the same time I did ''

Old Money Old money is a social class of the rich who have been able to maintain their wealth over multiple generations, in contrast with new money whose wealth has been acquired within its own generation. The term often refers to perceived members of th ...

''. It was a very, very fun record to make. I made that record in five or six days."

Background

The band features

Omar Rodríguez-López Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López (born September 1, 1975) is a Puerto Rican guitarist, songwriter, record producer and filmmaker. He has formed or played in several bands, including The Mars Volta, At the Drive-In, Antemasque, and Bosnian Rainb ...

on guitar,

Zach Hill Zachary Charles Hill (born December 28, 1979) is an American multi-instrumentalist and visual artist. He is best known as the drummer and co-producer of the groups Death Grips, and the I.L.Y's, and as the drummer of math rock band Hella. Ear ...

(

Hella ''Hella'' is an American English slang term originating in and often associated with San Francisco's East Bay area in Northern California, possibly specifically emerging in the 1970s African-American vernacular of Oakland. It is used as an i ...

) on drums, Jonathan Hischke (Hella) on synth bass, and

Juan Alderete Juan Alderete de la Peña (born September 5, 1963) is an American musician. He is best known as the longtime bassist of Racer X and for his tenures in the Mars Volta and Marilyn Manson. Biography Alderete was born in Los Angeles, California th ...

(

The Mars Volta The Mars Volta is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 2001. The band's only constant members are Omar Rodríguez-López (guitar, producer, direction) and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (vocals, lyrics), whose partnership forms the core of the ban ...

) on bass guitar. Additionally, Cryptomnesia features the vocals of guest frontman

Cedric Bixler-Zavala Cedric Bixler-Zavala (born November 4, 1974) is an American musician. He has been the lead singer and lyricist of the progressive rock band the Mars Volta since its inception in 2001. He was the lead singer and only constant member of the post-ha ...

on nine of the album's eleven tracks. Rodriguez-Lopez completed the album in 2006, shortly after finishing The Mars Volta's ''

Amputechture ''Amputechture'' is the third studio album by American progressive rock band the Mars Volta, released on September 12, 2006, on Gold Standard Laboratories and Universal Records. Produced by guitarist and songwriter Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the alb ...

''. Bixler-Zavala's vocals were tracked in summer of 2008. Regarding the release, Cedric Bixler-Zavala states: "if anyone's bummed that ''

Octahedron In geometry, an octahedron (: octahedra or octahedrons) is any polyhedron with eight faces. One special case is the regular octahedron, a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, four of which meet at each vertex. Many types of i ...

'' is too simple or too pop, they can buy

his His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, ...

album and it'll take them right back to that eavierkind of sound. It's one of my favourite things I've ever worked on. It's pretty much a Mars Volta record, just without Thomas ridgen Ikey wens and Marcel odriguez-Lopez" A special limited advance vinyl offering of only 3,000 copies was made available exclusively to indie retail in honor of Record Store Day on April 18 and saw its official release on CD, vinyl, and digital everywhere on May 5, 2009. The album was made available for pre-order from hellomerch.com on April 8. In the liner notes of the album, Omar states:

To soothe the symptoms of a cursed go-between, this magnetar of a record (an uncomfortable meditation on bad manners), was recorded in the foul summer of 2006. It then sat in my grotesquely overpopulated, roman holiday of a closet, awaiting its vocal tracks, which were finally realized in the illustrious Australian summer of 2008. Being predisposed to insults, I would like to say now that I love this record with all my guts and find it very much worth the wait (I hope you'll agree, though I sense some of you may not). This project, as many before it, though one small step in my (our) personal therapy, still bears the question: is our footing sure enough to be trusted?

Track listing

Personnel

Omar Rodriguez Lopez Umar ibn al-Khattab (; ), also spelled Omar, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () and is regarded as a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muha ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

keys Key, Keys, The Key or The Keys may refer to: Common uses * Key (cryptography), a piece of information needed to encode or decode a message * Key (instrument), a component of a musical instrument * Key (lock), a device used to operate a lock * ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Cedric Bixler Zavala –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

* Jonathan Hischke –

synth bass Keyboard bass (shortened to keybass and sometimes referred as a synth bass) is the use of a smaller, low-pitched keyboard with fewer notes than a regular keyboard or pedal keyboard to substitute for the deep notes of a bass guitar or double bass ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cryptomnesia (Album) 2009 albums El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez albums Omar Rodríguez-López albums