The Mars Volta, Noctourniquet

nyarlothothep

Hmmm, this will take a while to sink in but so far its fairly good, not their best album, that accolade goes to Frances the Mute or Deloused, but I think its a definate improvement over Octahedron which sounded burnt out and bereft of ideas. I like the new style, the drumming is very interesting, it almost sounds drum n bass or Aphex Twin-like except its real. In Abstentia is really good halfway through, Zed and Two Naughts is a strong track, Dyslexicon is also good and the solo in Empty Vessels Make the Loudest Sounds is very powerful, its not overly technical but the notes played and the sound perfectly compliment each other. The thing is though I initially thought Octahedron was a good album but after a few weeks realised that it was just boring and their worst album (Amputechture scores points for being so wilfully weird and obtuse even though it was severe letdown after Frances the Mute). So whether this album will hold up is undetermined but so far I think it has more ideas and better less derivative songs compared to what's on Octahedron. Atm I'm thinking, equal to or slightly not as good as Bedlam but better than Amputechture and Octahedron.

LetsZep

Absolutely brilliant in parts, hard to digest in others. Typical Mars Volta..

nyarlothothep

That's true, In Abstentia for example, first 4.47 of it are ok, standard Mars Volta psychedelic soundscape kinda stuff, from that point onwards though the song becomes amazing, one of their best. Definately after that track the rest of album is a bit forgettable although it picks up substantially with Noctourniquet and Zed and Two Naughts.