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Member Name: Midrange

Product:	Frances The Mute - The Mars Volta
Date:	10/09/08 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intense jazz-rock-metal-prog-fusi on, a CD to drink with caution

Disadvantages: Will sound like a complete mess on the first listen

The Mars Volta, recently (dubiously) described as "The Best Progressive Rock Band in the World" are, what I would affectionately call, a "sonic assault". If you musically "faint of heart" then do avoid this record. Avoid the band as well. Too much too soon can be bad for the health.

Describing their sound to various friends, I frequently use words like: eclectic, jazz-rock-fusion, blistering, musical and bizarre. Try and imagine listening to a standard rock band, except with a virtuoso guitarist playing unspeakable modes across the top of some seriously funked up drum and bass grooves. The Mars Volta's (TMV) drummer lays down some nasty beats. And by "nasty" I mean "sick". Not content with the confines of standard rock drumming, he takes influence from latin-American and jazz music - combining complex time-signatures with cowbells, shakers and insanely tight snare drumming.

"Frances The Mute" seems to be a devisive album amongst TMV fans. Check out some of the reviews on Amazon to see what I mean - some people love it, some people hate it. In my misguided opinion, I see the album as a fine piece of work but (still) haven't quite "got" it. On first listen, I guarantee you that you will come away thinking "what a mess". It's only on your third or forth listen that the tangled riffs and high-p9itched vocals start to distill into something clear, musical and vaguely drinkable.

Track 3 (I shalln't give any track's full title in this review as they are unnecessarily long and involved!) is a good place to start. A funk / Cuban mix (yes, it can happen) with a punchy verse and a languid chorus that really reminds me of the "Black Books" theme tune. Whining guitars, slightly out of tune pianos, crazy rhythm section(s) all join Cedric Bixler in a cacophony of well-calculated musical mastery. These guys really can write - it just takes a while to untangle it all.

After track 3 it gets a bit tricky. The tracks here are actually only 2 songs, annoing spliced up by the record company to prevent the album from being classified as an EP. I can often sit through the whole lot - swinging gently/violently from one mood to another - it's all very tight and it's all very strange. Lyrically, it's probably best not to try and analyse this band too much - just keep a medical dictionary close at hand. Musically - stunning. The production is flawless. There are some extended "bird noise" sections to watch out for - I'm sure one day I'll understand it. Until then, I'll just enjoy the sounds.

Summary: Progressive rock meets Latin America - fast, furious and full of loudness