Noctourniquet Double Vinyl

Noctourniquet And then everything went black, at least for a while, at least for The Mars Volta. In the months and yearsfollowing their fifth fulllength, Octahedron, Omar kept on at his usual fearsome creative pace. In fact, he ramped up hisoutput considerably, starting up his own Rodriguez Lopez Productions label and releasing a slew of solo albums. It was apractice hed begun shortly after DeLouseds release, with his solo debut A Manual Dexterity Soundtrack Volume One,but as the decade reached its close, Omar grew to rely upon his solo recordings as an outlet for his prolific creativity,these albums often exploring musical pastures far beyond even The Mars Voltas wideranging parameters. Beforechoosing to release music under his own name, Omar would always play it to Cedric first, to see if the frontman thought ithad potential to become Mars Volta music. Shortly after Octahedrons completion, Cedric flagged one batch of tracksOmar had cut with Deantoni Parks, a brilliant drummer and composer whod briefly occupied the Mars Volta drumstool inbetween Jon Theodore and Thomas Pridgens tenures, and whose volcanic creativity and unique, unpredictable approachto rhythm and composition had quickly made him one of Omars favourite artistic foils. As with the music that made upOctahedron, the new tracks Cedric had optioned for The Mars Volta often veered far from the riotous, Grand Guignolvisions of their earlier releases. It possessed the punchy, songbased focus of Octahedron, though this was aconsiderably darker, more menacing strain of pop, with synthesisers figuring heavily in the productions.Cedric took the tracks in 2009 and set about writing songs to the music. But no more new Mars Volta music would beheard until 2012. The years that passed inbetween were nonetheless momentous, and busy, witnessing an unexpectedreunion of the members of At The DriveIn, and Cedric joining his own sideproject, Anywhere. But there wasnt any signof life within the Mars Volta until Omar, Cedric and their bandmates took to the road for a series of live shows in the springof 2011, billed as The Omar RodriguezLopez Group, debuting the songs that would become Noctourniquet. The albumfollowed the next year, and it remains one of The Mars Voltas finest, its electronic textures staking out unfamiliar butfertile new ground. An unsettling, subtly turbulent listen, Noctourniquet found Cedric sketching out a story about somesort of device that stops the darkness from bleeding, drawing influence variously from the nursery rhyme SolomonGrundy, the Greek myth of Hyacinthus and the song Birth, School, Work, Death by British underground rockers TheGodfathers. It was an album of dystopian futurism, signalled by the paranoid cyberrock of opener The Whip Hand and itsunnerving chorus, Thats when I disconnect from you. But it was also an album of inspired, unexpected moves anduncanny invention, like how Dyslexicon seemed to eerily evoke Blondies Rapture, before rushing headlong into itsbruising chorus, tempos shifting restlessly throughout like quaking earth beneath the listeners feet, or how Aegis put abrave new spin on The Mars Voltas trademark rewiring of salsas overdriven passions, or how Cedric had never soundedas scary as he did on The Malkin Jewels mutant burlesque shuffle. Tracks like Molochwalker were sleek and concise in away The Mars Volta had never really attempted before which was all part of Omars plan. It had all been guitar, guitar,guitar, overdubs, everything fighting for space in the same frequency, he explains. So for Noctourniquet, it was all aboutsubtracting elements, of sticking to how I made demos. Deantonis presence helped revivify the group, playing againstclich and expectation, and taking each song in unexpected directions. Id beatbox a rhythm for him to play, to go with myguitar part, and hed come back with three or four alternate options. It was so great. Similarly, Cedric had never sungbetter than on Noctourniquet, staking out a fearsome spectrum from the chilling Tom Waitsian growl of The Malkin Jewelto the keening, beautiful vocalisation on Vedamalady, rising to match some of Omars most deft, most immediatelyeffective and melodic songs yet. Indeed, Noctourniquet is the sound of a band discovering new ways to do familiar things,renewing their commitment to their mission, finding fresh inspiration a decade in, and shaking off any complacency thatmight have come with ten years of acclaim and success.