Show English Spanish lyrics back Volta Nick Parker Editor Chief There is truly only one way to describe The Mars Volta epic Their new album is par for the gigantic sonic course that the experimental rock alt-rock band has built Its winding guitar lines and smooth bass walks push the boundaries of music Various intertwining time signatures make it seem like hundreds of instruments are being played at once but are all barely hanging on to one another rhythmically This chaos is one of the most impressive weapons in The Mars Voltas Volta's arsenal against the verse chorus world of popular music If Pink Floyd had an affair with Bjork on Frank Zappa's suede Mexican beach couch you'd get The Mars Volta nine months later like Frances The Mute and their length full-length debut Deloused in The has many layers of trans-elemental trans The TIle Mars Volta Continued on page 6 The Mars Volta brings a third disc Continued from page 5 sounds rushing around your ears ears like snakes in Arabian palace Some slide around slowly and subtly to the Eastern beats while others jump frantically across the room in search of their next meal The band is the perfect Hispanic acid trip The albums album's second track is isa isa a a nearly early 17 minute 17 voyage into pulsing sick sea-sick sways of consciousness It then segues into a delayed floating drop in the ocean Finally the song finds a waterfall of colliding passages where it is finally laid to rest as a screaming behemoth Day of the includes Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass bassin bassin bassin in a schizophrenic opus of percussion and throbbing grooves It then explodes into a cornucopia of moving lights and sounds The second half of the song is a spastic helping of bumping rhythms tightly knit falsetto r and 2001 esque I-esque I space trips The album ends with the final snake flailing for its life on El lEI Ciervo A slow saxophone backs intermittent guitar tangents and vocal distortions The Sept 12 release of marks the third full- full length studio album from founders vocalist lyricist Cedric Zavala Bixler-Zavala and guitarist composer Omar Rodriguez The two have toured the world in support of their chaotic melodies and even stopped in Salt Lake with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in August Their show is as entrancing as it is experimental with the spastic twitching and harried movements from the singer and guitar player One of the most interesting things about The Mars Volta is its half-English half half- half Spanish lyrics Both Bixler- Bixler Zavala and Rodriguez- Rodriguez Lopez grew up in El EI Paso Texas and spoke a mixture of the two languages The two were childhood friends and founded co-founded At The Drive- Drive in with Jim Ward Paul Hinojos and Tony Hajjar Before I enjoyed commercial success the band split into The Mars Volta and Sparta Bixler- Bixler Zavala and Rodriguez Rodriguez- Lopez formed The Mars Volta Volla and the rest created emo group Sparta Hinojos would later leave Sparta and join The Mars Volta as asa asa asa a sound manipulator The Mars Volta is truly different in the pantheon of modem modern music Their experiments and digressions are integral rather than gimmicky gimmick like most that attempt such a sound The band mixes hundreds of elements but manages to execute the melding with precision and grace not grace not an easy task With they've earned a permanent spot atop the mountain of experimental rock |