When Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez lost his mother Frances Sarah Rodriguez-Lopez in 2012, a woman that was a catalyst to his musical life, he felt compelled to honor her legacy and influence. Rodriguez-Lopez has worked in many projects that include the Mars Volta with older brother Omar and psych-rock band Zechs Marquise, but his solo work as Eureka The Butcher marks a radical departure into electronics.
Originally recorded in 2013, Music For Mothers is a dedication to Marcel’s mother. She guided him into music at a young age, encouraging him through piano lessons, musical history lessons, and many accomplished teachers. Piano was the entry, but his love of percussion has been his forte. Both instruments factor heavily into Music For Mothers, a meshing of her wishes and his self-discovery. The record was written in the down moments of touring with the Mars Volta, in stolen solitude on buses, in airports, in green rooms, hotel rooms and backyards.
On “Main Frame” Eureka The Butcher maneuvers through beat scene tropes of fuzzy warbles set to off-kilter percussion. As it plummets deeper in, the 8-bit glitch becomes dialed in to a nether region of the cortex. Darkness exists across the duration of the record, a curious presence in a dedication record, and its attachment to “Main Frame” remains unsettling. All that can be said is that Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez was creating from an emotional place in which he was never able to detach fully, given touring requirements. In these stolen moments of becoming Eureka The Butcher, he gave himself to a disquiet. It’s manifest is foreign introspection, the likes of which invoke hesitation to comprehend.
Eureka The Butcher’s Music For Mothers is out March 18 on Dome of Doom.
