A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume One

"A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume One" was the first solo studio album by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez outside of his primary band at the time, The Mars Volta. The record featured a diverse list of collaborators, guests, and archival material by Jeremy Michael Ward, John Frusciante, drummer Blake Fleming, and Omar's father, Angel Marcelo Rodriguez-Cheverez. With original sessions recorded at Doug Messenger's Studio in Hollywood and Omar's "home" porta-studio (opens in a new tab) soon after At The Drive-In's breakup in 2001, Omar completed the album in 2004 at Mad Dog Studios in Burbank, California.
The "Manual Dexterity: Vol 1" CD/2×LP was released by Gold Standard Laboratories on 31 August 2004 as the first part of a soundtrack to Omar's yet-unreleased film "The Sentimental Engine Slayer" (with the upcoming Volume 2 and the movie expected the following Spring). The film release got postponed for several years, between legal issues over some of the footage and Omar's personal feelings — the movie featured his late friend Jeremy M. Ward (opens in a new tab) in one of the leading roles, who died of a heroin overdose at only 27 in late May 2003, weeks before The Mars Volta's debut album, De-Loused In The Comatorium, came out; Rodriguez-Lopez cited his unpreparedness to work with this footage so soon after the tragic loss as one of the reasons behind the delay. "The Sentimental Engine Slayer" film was completed and published by Rodriguez Lopez Productions six years later, premiering in February 2010 at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR); the DVD release came out in January 2013. The proposed Volume II of the soundtrack remains unreleased.