Album Review - Noctourniquet

Artist: The Mars Volta (USA)

Release Date: 23 March, 2012

I know it’s taken me a little while to write this one, but really, The Mars Volta isn’t any old band.  I find that you really need to be in the mood for them.  If you’re not in the right mind frame, they’ll probably give you a headache or a seizure.  But, if the mood does take you, they generally blow you away with their bombastic instrumental freak-outs and their weird, mystical lyrical subject matter.  There is no doubt that this band is like no other.  They are, at any given moment, progressive rock, abrasive punk, latin jazz, 1970s metal, ambient, beautiful and ugly.  Each release of theirs has contained something new for their listeners, and it’s because of this and The Mars Volta’s general complexity that I allowed this one to breathe a little while.  I wanted it to completely set in before I offered any opinion on it.  I have, in the past, changed my mind on their albums before.  Their third album, Amputechture (2006), didn’t do much for me.  I thought it was too long, too sprawling and needed the narrative glue that held their previous albums together.  Then I saw them play the Amputechture material live.  All of a sudden it made complete sense and now I love the album.  I don’t know what it was about experiencing that material live, but it certainly made it work for me in a way that it hadn’t before.  I write all of this because I want you to know how easy it is for me to change my ideas about any Mars Volta release.  Therefore, what follows below, is only my opinion at the time of writing this.  Who knows how it may change in the future.

            The first thing that struck me about this album was that it seemed to be an extension of their previous album, 2009’s Octahedron.  This album seems to be further exploring the more meditative side of The Mars Volta.  The songs are slower, shorter and there are fewer dramatic shifts in dynamics that has become the norm for their work.  Even where Octahedron had a few blasts of the old Mars Volta energy, Noctourniquet seems to be an exercise in restraint, albeit in a very Mars Volta way.  There are still odd time signatures, lyrics about strange beings that inhabit our planet with a few appearances by certain species of vermin that tend to make appearances in Mars Volta albums from time to time.  It could, perhaps justifiably, be said that Noctourniquet could have been named Octahedron II.  But, as with all things Mars Volta, it’s not quite that simple.

            What Noctourniquet does, more than any of The Mars Volta’s previous releases, is explore their electronic tendencies.  Where these flourishes have been present on their past albums, they were usually confined to the background.  They were used to colour the tracks and provide extra drama.  Essentially, you didn’t really take notice of them if you weren’t listening for them.  Here, though, these electronica moments are brought to the forefront.  On some tracks, they are now the driving force (taking over from Rodriguez-Lopez’s guitar), particularly on opening track, The Whip Hand.  The sound may be produced by guitar (as it is live), but there is no doubt that it leans more towards electronic music than it does traditional rock.  It is as though Mars Volta have placed this track first in order to make a specific statement.  They are at a point where their ‘different’ sound has become the norm for them.  They are, therefore, exploring new territory.  They are a band that has always looked ahead and have never repeated themselves.  They created a new style all on their own and now that fans have come to expect that style, they are changing it up.  It will be the point that fans will ultimately judge the album by.  Some want The Mars Volta to release nothing but De-Loused In The Comatorium (2003) and/or Frances The Mute (2005) copies.  Others will want The Mars Volta to continue pushing in a direction that is wholly their own, but maybe not this direction.  Some will love what they are doing will Noctourniquet.

            Another note about what makes this album different from anything the band has done before is the drumming.  For the first time I found myself having to listen for the drums in a Mars Volta release.  That’s not to say that the drums are criminally low in the mix or anything.  It’s just that, after the powerhouse styles of previous drummers, Jon Theodore (still the best drummer they’ve had in my opinion) and Thomas Pridgen, new skinsman, Deantoni Parks, displays a much more subtle technique.  There’s no doubt that he’s every bit as skilled (maybe even more so) than previous drummers, but he chooses not to be the focus here.  Perhaps this is because he has more of a background in jazz than the others.  By no means is this a bad thing, it’s just different.  Instead of having a thunderous fill punch you in the face (thank you Mr. Pridgen) or a beat appearing to be played with seventeen arms (thank you Mr. Theodore), we have subtle ghost notes, minimalistic patterns and intricate hi-hat work.  It will certainly be interesting to see how long Praks remains in the band, given their perceived rotating drummer policy, and what he does on future Mars Volta albums, particularly if the band decide to play loud again.

            Like Octahedron though, Noctourniquet’s star is vocalist, Cedric Bixler-Zavala.  His melodies often save the day on this album and make what could have been several bizarre noise pieces, delicate tracks with some humanity attached to them.  He still sings about stuff that only he can relate to, but he is the human link here.  To me, it seems as though Rodriguez-Lopez is now at a point where he’s putting music together for the specific purpose of challenging Bixler-Zavala.  It’s like he keeps throwing him tracks and saying, “Here you go, make this sound good.”  And for the most part, Bixler-Zavala succeeds.  There are moments on this album, with its electronic passages, that demonstrate that Massive Attack might want to tap Bixler-Zavala on the shoulder about being the latest addition to their ever expanding catalogue of guest vocalists (personally, I would love to hear it).

            I think the only real downfall of this album is its length.  Not in terms of time, but in terms of tracks.  At thirteen tracks, it is the longest Mars Volta album (Frances The Mute is actually their longest album in terms of time, but is the shortest in terms of tracks, it has five).  There is an argument that towards the end, things tend to drag on a bit, and for me, this is the case.  Had they culled two or three tracks, I think I would enjoy this album much more.  Things tend to become a bit same-y with tracks appearing to bleed into one another (particularly on the acoustic numbers), creating a plodding, limping-to-the-finish-line kind of vibe.  It’s a closing half that doesn’t really make me want to put it on again immediately.

            For me though, the highlight of the album is Noctourniquet’s centrepiece, In Absentia.  After five minutes of odd sounds and unusually (for this album) difficult to decipher vocals, the track opens right up into an outro that just might be one of the best things The Mars Volta have ever recorded.  Some may argue that the preceding five minutes are pointless, but to me, the outro wouldn’t have been as affective had it not had the build up and the, “What is going on here?” tone that the first section provides.  It is such a highlight though, that it makes much of what follows feel week.  As mentioned earlier, things go a little downhill from here and don’t quite recover.

            All in all, Noctourniquet is like any other Mars Volta album.  The die-hards will love it, the people who want another Deloused or Frances will hate it, some who want Mars Volta to continue to push boundaries might not like the specific boundaries the band is pushing here, and fans who are up and down with the band will love (or hate) it now only to change their opinion and hate (or love) it later.  And everyone else will wonder what all the noise is.

At The Drive-In in Retrospect: ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! (1995)

At The Drive-In’s second release ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! arrived about eight months after their debut EP, Hell Paso.  Those eight months appear to have been spent well with ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! being far superior to its predecessor having benefitted from the extra time spent as a band.  Again, the only band members from the “classic” line-up on this release are Ward and Bixler-Zavala, with the only change being the departure of drummer, Bernie Rincon, who was replaced by Davy Simmons.  However, the music here is much more exciting.  Things were starting to gel at this stage and here is where At The Drive-In began creating their signature sound.

 

The music bursts forth with much more energy than it did on Hell Paso.  If that first release was the sound of a band taking its nervous first steps, ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! is the sound of the band finding its footing and beginning to stand up for itself.  They’ve dispensed with the formulaic trappings that the earlier songs fell into and begun to embrace the odd flourishes that would become their staple in years to come.  The production quality has also been raised, particularly with regards to Bixler-Zavala’s voice, which was lost in the mix a little on Hell Paso.  However, if you’re expecting this to sound anything like Relationship of Command, you’re still going to be disappointed.

 

This EP, while being a huge step forward, is still the sound of a band trying to figure themselves out.  With this release they sound much more fun and happy than the band we know from 2001.  It’s almost as if this was recorded at a party.  There’s a fun energy about it.  There isn’t the aggression of later At The Drive-In, but they’re certainly developing the energy that would make them one of the most powerful live acts in the world.

 

There isn’t really much more to be said about his release.  It’s a huge step up from Hell Paso, but it also serves as a transition to their next recording, which would be their first full-length album, Acrobatic Tenement.  It’s as though this EP was their testing ground.  They were seeing if this new sound would work and if they could capture some of their live energy.  If that was the case, then ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! couldn’t be deemed as anything more than a successful outing.  If you want the true start to At The Drive-In’s sound, this EP is it.

 

By the way, if you’re curious about the title, it roughly translates to, “Alfaro lives, damn it!” and references the extremely left-wing Eloy Alfaro Popular Armed Forces group in Ecuador.  It’s the first indication of the strong-minded political nature that At The Drive-In would develop.

 

Other articles in this series:

 

Hell Paso (1994)

The Return of At The Drive-In

At The Drive-In in Retrospect: Hell Paso (1994)

All great bands have to start somewhere and it was this 1994 release that began it all for At The Drive-In.  Paid for by guitarist, Jim Ward’s college savings, it shows the band still in its formative stages.  Only two members of what is now considered to be the definitive At The Drive-In line-up featured on this EP, those people being guitarist and backing vocalist, Jim Ward, and lead vocalist, Cedric Bixler-Zavala.  With a title that reflected their feelings about their home town of El Paso, Texas, Hell Paso was released not long after their first ever show with the music bearing little resemblance to what would come in the later part of the decade.  It is, honestly, an average listen notable only for what the band would become.

While the music doesn’t match up to the experimental, boundary pushing that made them popular, it did give the first indication of what would become one of At The Drive-In’s staples; odd song titles. They are titles that give very little indication to the nature of the songs.  In a way, At The Drive-In is forcing you to abandon your expectations by giving you very few clues regarding what you might hear.  So it might have been a bit of a disappointing listen back in 1994, as it is now, to hear such straightforward music from the three tracks presented here.

The opening track, Grand Mox Turkin, the track with the strangest title, is probably the most “normal” song here.  It is two minutes and forty-three seconds of straight up, early 1990s punk.  In fact, at times, this track has certain hints of Green Day in it, particularly with the vocal melodies in the chorus.  Only at the 1:30 mark does the track provide something unexpected with a chugging, almost trash metal-like riff, but even this is relatively hidden.  At The Drive-In hadn’t learned how to explore their diverse influences yet and as such, tend to stick to formulas that they know how to work.

Second track, Red Planet, continues in much the same vein with its predictable pop-punk power chords.  Of the three tracks on this EP, this is probably the least interesting.  What it does show though, is that even in their early stages, At The Drive-In were capable of recognising and developing a catchy melody when required, something that they almost avoided in later years.

It’s only on the final track, Emptiness Is A Mule, that the listener is given some kind of indication that At The Drive-In has the potential to be something special.  The multi-tracked vocals that open the song create an almost swirling effect, disorientating the listener before jumping back into “safer” territory with a standard punk riff.  While this introduction is only brief, it does show that there is something different about this band and if they are able to develop it, they just might turn out to be something worthwhile.

Overall, At The Drive-In’s first release, Hell Paso, is fairly amateurish.  And so it should be.  No band is brilliant from the get go.  It takes a lot of time developing a sound and going through different band members before everything clicks and things start happening.  So it was for At The Drive-In.  Hell Paso, does have fairly poor sound quality, song writing that is not quite developed, and a tendency to try and fit in with what was popular in the punk world at the time.  But it does also show the faintest glimmer of potential and just a touch of what was to come.

Next Friday we look at how At The Drive-In developed their sound on their second EP, 1995’s ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo!.  Also, come back tomorrow to get a review of Lamb of God’s new album, Resolution.

Other articles in this series:

The Return of At The Drive-In

The Return of At The Drive-In

It seems as though the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has become the great reviver in rock music.  Since its humble beginnings in 1999 the festival has hosted, or played a significant part in, the reunion of many highly influential acts such as Iggy & The Stooges, The Pixies, Rage Against The Machine, The Verve, Pavement and Faith No More.  Many of these acts were thought to be dead for good by fans around the world with reunion rumours being limited to barbeque “Wouldn’t it be great if…” conversations.  However, Coachella seems to keep pulling off the impossible and this year it appears as though hardcore is the theme with the return of Swedish band Refused (whose The Shape of Punk To Come has to be one of the greatest albums of all time) and one of my personal favourites, and a band that many see as one of the most important of the last 15 years, At The Drive-In. 

When I heard the news that the El Paso quintet was coming back, I nearly fell over.  Of all the possible reunions of great bands, this was on my “never in a million years” list.  The bad blood from their 2001 break-up and the busy schedules they have with their current projects seemed far too much to overcome.  But now the impossible has happened and the mighty At The Drive-In have returned, I’m going to take this opportunity to explore what made this band great.  Over the coming weeks I will be publishing a series of retrospective reviews, looking back at the band’s recorded history and what each release means to the history of the band and what it might mean now.  This will begin on Friday with a look at their 1994 debut release, Hell Paso and then on each Friday following, a release will be explored until we reach their final work, the highly influential Relationship Of Command.  But before we do that, I want to take this time to explore the questions that At The Drive-In’s reunion has raised.  While their return may be one of the most anticipated music events in 2012, there are many things that fans want to know.  What will happen to the new The Mars Volta album and the recently announced Sparta reunion and new album?  Is this a one off?  Will there be new At The Drive-In music?  Why now?

First, let us begin with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s project, The Mars Volta.  Back in August they toured Australia with a set that consisted almost entirely of new songs.  The only old, recognisable tracks they played were the final three; Son Et Lumiere/Inertiatic ESP, The Widow and Goliath.  The band had described these shows as inviting the audience to a private rehearsal of the new album.  As I’ve stated before, these new tracks featured a leaner, more direct sound without the long, jam passages that they had been known for.  It was a sound that could only be described as being closer to their At The Drive-In days while still being, very much, The Mars Volta tunes.  As per usual with The Mars Volta’s work, this new set of songs had already been recorded and was awaiting a release.  The release date kept being pushed back and pushed back and is now slated for March 27 with the title, Noctourniquet.  With this new album on the way and The Mars Volta about to go headlong into the promotion of it, questions have arisen regarding the longevity of an At The Drive-In reunion, especially when compounded with the recent announcement that Sparta have ended their hiatus.

Around the same time as The Mars Volta’s Australian tour, Sparta (featuring At The Drive-In members Jim Ward and Tony Hajar) announced that they were ending their three year hiatus and were about to begin playing a run of shows as well as writing and recording an album of new material.  Like The Mars Volta, with Sparta back in the studio and about to begin the process of touring and promotion, the At The Drive-In reunion seems to be something that could only ever be a one off performance with serious doubts concerning any new At The Drive-In music any time in the next year or so, if at all.

There is one small theory that appears to be buzzing around the internet though, and it’s that the new The Mars Volta and the new Sparta albums are actually one and the same and is, in fact, a new At The Drive-In album.  As unlikely as this sounds (considering The Mars Volta played an entire album’s worth of material back in August that, while leaner and more direct, was still too Mars Volta-esque to be At The Drive-In material) there is plenty of talk about it, both positive and negative.  The positive is that any new At The Drive-In music is a good thing and the sooner it comes out, the better.  The negatives come mostly from The Mars Volta fans who believe Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala have come too far with their experimental progressive rock sound to go back to their post-hardcore/punk days.  The pull in different creative directions that broke the band in the first place would only be amplified by the eleven year gap, and the different creative paths of the band members, since their last show together.

Which brings us to the question everyone’s thinking but dares not ask; are they just doing it for the money?  In my opinion, who cares if they are?  This is a band that never received the financial rewards they deserved for singlehandedly making punk music relevant again after skate-punk got old and pop-punk became embarrassing.  So why not reunite exclusively for a festival, win over some new fans, remind old fans of how good they were/are, gain some publicity and go back to their different bands and use that publicity to promote the new The Mars Volta and Sparta albums, all while cashing a comfortable pay cheque along the way?  That doesn’t sound like selling out to me.  That sounds like good business thinking.

However, all of this talk and all of these questions seem to be distracting from what is the more pressing issue here, that one of the greatest bands of the late 1990s and early 2000s is back.  I feel as though I’ve made it clear that I don’t care how long At The Drive-In stick around for this time.  The important thing is that their highly volatile live show will be on display again.  Those in attendance at Coachella won’t forget what they see and other bands that consider themselves highly energetic performers will be forced to rethink that assessment.  At The Drive-In were never about anything more than unrestrained passion, they didn’t care about anything else other than their music and pushing the boundaries of their capabilities which is more than you can say for the majority of modern performers.  And it is this reason that I am glad that At The Drive-In have returned; to teach lessons that some need to learn, and to remind the world of the great band that they were.

So don’t forget to check back on Friday and every Friday following as we journey through At The Drive-In’s recorded history and remind ourselves of what, exactly, the world will be in for on April 15 and 22 and why the hype surrounding their return is justified.  As for the other reuniting band at Coachella, Sweden’s Refused, stay tuned for a retrospective review of their seminal The Shape Of Punk To Come sometime before the festival.  I feel as though I am doing them a disservice by only looking at one of their albums, but I am new to their music so any look back on their career would just be amateurish in my hands, so I will leave that to someone who is more qualified.  As always, thank you for reading and I hope you check back on Friday.