Tremulant

When At the Drive-In decapitated itself, it basically split a whole into two halves; the Mars Volta took up the more ethereal, spacy, and experimental one. This project seems to pretty much abandon the nearly radio-friendly station they had previously taken up with Relationship of Command by creating an epic-length masterpiece of quirky, spacious sound rather than the more upfront rock aspects (the half of which is now embodied in the other ATDI offshoot band, Sparta). With Tremulant, the Mars Volta threaten to outdo the sizzling body of work of their past lives with the creation of something seething and timeless, melding their more beautiful and transcendent styles with rhythmic battery and shimmering gloss. Cedric's vocals mesmerize, as always, backed with the odd lust of Omar's melody and the powerhouse rhythm section and keys. If this EP is only a taste of what is to come, listeners have quite a bit to expect from this outfit. ~ Blake Butler