The Mars Volta – Tremulant EP
(G.S.L.)

The Mars Volta contains two-fifths of the late great At The Drive-In, but listening to their first release you’d swear the ratio of ATDI members was actually a lot higher. I suppose this proves just how important Cedric’s versatile vocal chords and Omar’s frantic guitar riffs were to the success of their former band.

This is not to say that their new project sounds precisely like a continuation of At The Drive-In; although the similarities are unmistakable, the differences are also not very difficult to pick out. The songs hit hard when they want to, and then expand into longer, dream-like jams as Cedric’s operatic voice soars over the music, often drenched in reverb and spacey effects. The intro to the EP’s final song, Eunuch Provocateur, even features an echoey Pink Floyd-esque guitar riff… it’s probably safe to say that this kind of thing would not have worked as an At The Drive-In song.

Where The Mars Volta progress beyond At The Drive-In is with their incorporation of keyboards and dub elements (which Omar and Cedric have also toyed with in DeFacto, a collaboration with Mars Volta member and former Long Beach Dub All-Star, Isaiah Ikey Owens). It’s difficult to summarize how this affects their sound, but suffice to say that The Mars Volta are a lot more concerned with rhythm than At The Drive In ever were, and also come across as slightly more experimental.

It’s true that the Tremulant EP will probably leave you unsatisfied and craving more, but it clocks in at just under 20 minutes of music, which is pretty reasonable for only 3 tracks. Luckily, the epic, sprawling nature of the songs make this the kind of EP you could play repeatedly for days on end without ever growing tired of it. — Sean