Record Review: The Mars Volta – Noctourniquet

Alright here’s the deal with the new Mars Volta record. It’s not as chaotic and not so guitar based. It’s like a more chilled out relaxed version of what you previously know as TMV. If their music was a person, imagine the person as this crazy and out of control shirtless dude that used to get all hopped up on mescaline, speed, and tequila, but took some time off from partying and now only expands his mind with deep thoughts, painkillers, and DMT. It’s not boring and slow, its more subtle and slow motion while still having all the psychedelic twists and turns… Like a griffin peacock stuck in a rainbow sherbet tar pit.

The salsa flavored afro punk funkers took considerable time off between Noctourniquet and their previous record Octahedron.  When  Octaherdron came out the band claimed that it was their more calm relaxed record. Now that Noctourniquet has been released I would definitely say that this is the more relaxed anti-spaztic album. Apparently, Omar Rodriguez Lopez has been done with the this album since early 2010 and has been waiting for Cedric Bixler-Zavala to finish up the lyrics and vocal melodies. The extra time taken with the vocals really shows on this record. As opposed to previous releases from the band, this record shows more distinct melodies from song to song where before ol’ Cedric seemed to become a bit repetitive and monotonous as the album cruised along. There’s no John Fruscainte this time around, apparently he is in some sort of anti-commerial levitating soul search phase. The new addition of drummer Deantoni Parks is just fine, TMV seems to have no problem coming up with drummer after amazing drummer. (I think whenever the band sees a really good drummer somewhere, they kidnap them and keep them chained up in a closet until needed).

However, this album is not perfect, like any other TMV release there is some fat that needs to be trimmed in order to make it a less tedious listen. The majority of the tracks are awesome with great melodies, strong rhythms, and interesting electronic blips and keyboards, but tracks five and six “The Malkin Jewel” (the albums lead single) and “Lapchoka” have to go. These songs just drag tempo wise. It’s strange to me that the band would choose the “The Malkin Jewel” as the jam to preview the album and get people hyped. There are plenty of other tracks like opening track “The Whip Hand” or “Dyslexicon” or the most up beat track on the whole album “Molochwalker”. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though, I don’t think I am advanced enough to understand the cryptic logic of TMV.

 

 

Overall Opinion:

The Mars Volta are an amazing band and Noctourniquet shows the them branching out.  Although, I was bit disappointed that it wasn’t another record of progged out funk, I still very much enjoy the majority of the compositions on the new album. The vocals here are easily the best out of all the TMV records combined, with exception to the vox on “Ilyena” off of The Bedlam In Goliath… love that track! So if you’re into putting all your TMV records on a slow-motion turntable and kicking back to the jams while sniffing Elmer’s® then this album is a Friday Night waiting to fulfill your dreams.