the mars volta; Omar; a vade mecum

I'm at Manic Coffee and I'm reading interviews with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - one half of the Mars Volta ATDI creative powerhouse dichotomy. They're all about Octahedron vs. older stuff like Bedlam in Goliath and the pervasive thought throughout is that what Omar wanted for this record (Octahedron) is to bask in the types of songs that for me define the volta (the poetic shift) in the process or the arrangement of the tracks if you will. For those who don't know - the volta - in poetry is the break or shift in meaning/movement into another thought or idea or interpretation of the poem. It's telling that this is part of the name Omar and Cedric have chosen. There is a definitive break in the tracklistings of all the albums. Sometimes more than once. In De-Loused for me it was Televators. Frances the Mute - Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore. This is gratifying for me because even though I love the uptempo salsa infused songs/tracks - the songs where they slow down are sometimes where you get to see most of the talent, the creativity, the imagination.

Miranda for example - I could listen to that song for the rest of my life (which I will), but it starts with the sound of night time and maybe wind, birds chirping in the background. Slowly other effects come in, there's a sound of a coyote (perhaps) and then there's the sound of a record player that's finished playing and is just rotating the vinyl with the needle mutedly skipping along. The coyote gets louder and you can hear Cedric making whining sounds, the wind comes through again. In a word, it's ominous. And you wait....and wait in this environment - is there some sort of wind instrument? Yes. Omar's guitar comes in and and the sounds get reversed and forwarded - and here's more trumpet. It sounds like a melody to play at the end of a cowboy western when the hero is about to go to battle. And Cedric says something completely nonsensical "I've always wanted to eat glass with you again" in the most heartbreaking voice you've ever heard in your life - and you want to cry, but you're lulled in the wings of his voice. It's so tender - he's caressing the song with his throat. "And when Miranda sang, everyone turned away, used to the noose they obey." Cedric's voice and the violin (I think) which has now joined the chorus are both incredibly fragile and weeping - completely juxtaposed with the content of the bordering on grotesque lyrics. The tempo picks up, as does the trumpet, the climax comes and goes, ends with a crescendo, goosebumps appear and we're left with the trumpet doing it's little thing - jazzy, with a hint of sad violin. The ghost of Jeremy Michael Ward can be heard in the way the sound effects are used.

This is the type of song Omar wanted to do a whole album full of - and he succeeded, that was his basis, his prototype, and he built on it. It's always gratifying when an artist heads in the direction that you (not necessarily expect) but are ready for. I'm glad he and Cedric don't try to re-create what they've done before, and I love the open-ness that I've learned from hearing albums of theirs that are continually changing, evolving, expanding. Grateful is how I feel that they're together in my era - so that I can experience them firsthand.