Disco de The Mars Volta: “Tremulant [EP]”

The Mars Volta, with Jeremy Michael Ward, creating great music, I believe this is when they finally got their style, if you listen at the concerts they did before releasing this EP, it seems like they had an idea already, but they were working on their style on those european tours, after which they got to the studio and made this.

3 songs, less than 20 mins, but it seems like a whole hour when you listen at it closely, maybe because of the complexity of the songs. I had heard de-facto and had gotten to admire Jeremy Michael Ward, but when I got this, I couldn't believe the masterpiece he did on this record (as well as the other musicians) I'm sure he's responsible for putting on eunuch provocateur a hidden record that when you play the track backwards you can listen at a little girl singing a kinder-garden song in slow motion and then sayin: ¨Did mom or daddy ever had to spank you¨,I know it's sick but it's great, even in de-loused there's stuff like that, at least in Drunkship of lanterns when you play it backwards there's a second voice singing "it multiplies".

The Mars Volta is such an epic band, you gotta listen at their albums several times and play some tracks backwards to get the whole picture, for me they have re-defined the word art.

a dizzying blend of angular rock, electronic tomfoolery, and psychadelic dealings galore. things take a very interesting turn within these 3 songs. beginning with a faint blip that echoes some old Pink Floyd material, the first cut explodes with a calculated fury that is both primal and highly intelligent. the second song has a bit of a dubby structure and is a highly effective and powerful piece of music. the final track is a nice ep closer that has a sustained electronic ending that leaves the listener wanting more and more. a nice teaser for their epic De-loused album.

And with those words began the Mars Volta revolution . . . It's amazing to put this album on and realize that it came out a relatively short four years ago. How far the Volta have come in that short time! That being said, nothing like _Tremulant_ had come out before it. From the beginning notes of "Cut That City," you hear an explosive mix of electro-whatever, dub, and especially salsa, salsa, salsa--all heavied up to put you in a spin the likes of which no other music can offer.

All the songs on here are awesome. The reason the album is not a perfect five like all their others is that this is them still finding their stride (if only all of us could find our strides so strikingly!!!). Eva Catherine Gardner definitely holds her own on bass, for example, but she is definitely no Flea or Juan Alderete. All three songs have their own joys, to be sure, but they don't cohere to make a whole like their other albums. That being said, everybody who loves real rock should buy this album because it contains all the seeds of what makes MV great. Do you need to be reminded of these?:

Lyrics: Cedric does his Joycean transverberations better than he ever did with ATDI (and he did quite well there, thank you very much). Here's some "Concertina": "This scapegrace will pay my barking homage . . . Are you listening?/ On the 14th you stole what hasn't grown old." Impenetrable? Could well be. And those two lines say more than every other heavy band who has made the charts so far in 2006 combined (yeah, I'm talkin' to you Tool, Nickelback, blah-blah-blah). Listen to the live version of "Concertina" on last year's _scabdates_ for a deeper understanding of their lyrical enterprise.

Guitars: Simply put, Omar was let off the leash in a serious way. Every track on here has some sinuous guitar mesh/run/ cosmos that loses you in all the right ways. He showed all sorts of brilliance in ATDI, but he had to share the spotlight with the soon-to-be Sparta boys. Here he is where he and everyone else knows he belongs: center-stage. Pop in "Eunuch Provocateur" for one of these beautifully skronky guitar-centered compositions.

Keyboards: The aforementioned "Eunuch Provocateur" also highlights another aspect that makes MV great. Isaiah Ikey Owens on the keys. He had been highlighted on De Facto releases, but they had never rocked like this. His keyboards added to the sound/dubscape on those. Here they just assault you with soulful intensity. Oh yeah . . .

Jon Theodore: The only drummer in contemporary rock who rivals him for technique, execution, AND vision (can't lack that to attain greatness) is Brann Dailor of Mastodon. Hear his voodoo manifestations ripple across yur amygdala . . .

Jeremy Michael Ward: Fittingly, this album ends where the rest of MV's career was to have to pick up from: a Jeremy Michael Ward sound collage. This album might represent the first truly successful fusion of electronic dub and truly heavy music. Sadly, this must have had something to do with the drugs they were taking (and Jeremy was taking way too many--he wasn't long for the world after this one). But out of tragedy some of the most mysterious masterpieces come (read Lorca's _cante jondo_ [deep song] pieces for this--you'll get the MV connection, as they are deep and dark like Lorca in every meaningful way). They have yet to stop to emerging from this tragic legacy, but that counts for everything in art. The process of true emergence/transcendence.

_Tremulant_ shows every mark of greatness to come without quite gelling all the way; certainly forgivable, all things considered. Since the seeds planted here produced the best new band of the millennium, it deserves several spins at maximum volume on your headset/stereo. Then it demands that you do a tarantella rock dance to it; then that you analyze every note/word/sound. It obsesses you like only the best music can. The obsession never dies, as is not the case with all the other flavors of the month that have popped up to the surface of the stream of music in the four short years since the release of this milestone.

Among many people who are not band purists or die-hard fans, short EPs are looked down upon. However, great recordings such as Tremulant are entirely worth buying in spite of their brevity. Besides this, you can usually find Tremulant listed at a very reasonable price (here it usually never goes above $10) for its 20-minute length.

But money isn't what I'm here to discuss. What I want to make clear is that Tremulant is a true joy to listen to. While you can hear murmurings of De-loused in the Comatorium (The Mars Volta's first full length album which was released a year in succession of this EP), the songs here are truly unique and stand completely on their own. The elements of progressive rock and jazz stylings that have set the band's lofty reputation make their presence known here in more raw tones and with a clearer Latin influence than in De-loused (this holds true not only of the instrumentation but also of the lyrics: see "Concertina").

It should be noted that Flea does not play bass on this album (unlike on De-loused), and some people consider that a good thing; others a bad thing; and most don't actually notice. Regardless, the bass work on this album is exactly what you would hope for, if not more, from this band. In fact, some bassists consider the work on Tremulant superior to De-loused in terms of technique and style. It certainly is more technical-jazz oriented.

All three songs relate to subjects previously tackled by At the Drive-In and those same subjects preparing to be weaved into a more surreal story in De-loused. Thus, anyone trying to piece together the puzzle that is Cedric's lyrics will probably need to get a hold of this to get a more complete picture.

In all, Tremulant is a strong standalone piece that is held up by its powerful music. Its only flaw is its brevity, which in light of its quality seems insignificant. Anyone who enjoys Latin jazz-rock, jazz-blues, and/or progressive rock would be well off to check this out.

I listened to the 20 or so minutes contained on this CD, and wondered why I ever bothered spending so much money on other EPs and LPs...

Quite simply this is some of the best music I have ever heard and, (whisper this quietly), could even have dislodged all my At the Drive-in CDs put together as #1 in my heart.

But enough from me... go order this right away if you still haven't - you still have some time before the LP is released.