Absorption/Transmission

The ocean floor is hidden from your viewing lens
A depth perception languished in the night
All my life, I’ve been sowing the wounds
But the seeds sprout a lachrymal cloud
-Sarcophagi

By 2005’s Frances The Mute, The Mars Volta’s managerial structure was solidly in place: Omar – write, conduct, and produce all music, Cedric – all vocals and lyrics, everyone else – listen to Omar. Omar would teach and record each musician independently of each other to ensure an energetic and complete performance from each individual instrumental voice, even handing-off much of his guitar duties at times to John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who has contributed to some extent on each of The Mars Volta’s four albums.

Frances The Mute would be another concept album, based on a diary the band found in a repossessed car which chronicled it’s former owner’s search for his biological parents, with each song named after a person he had met along the way. While De-Loused was an extremely present album, constantly brimming with energy, purpose, and satisfactions, Frances carefully constructs musical ideas on a journey through expressive freedom and exploratory improvisation. Expanding on many of the qualities introduced by it predecessor, Frances The Mute undoubtedly contributed to the band’s being lazily labeled “overindulgent” by deriders to this day. With the addition of a saxophone/flute/clarinet player equally bolstering the band’s Latin and jazz aesthetics, epic, multi-part tracks with bilingual lyrics further polarized critics of The Mars Volta.

An acoustic performance of “Miranda That Ghost Just Isn’t Holy Anymore,” the album’s penultimate song.

An excerpt from “Cassandra Gemini,” the album’s final song, a 32-minute piece spread over the album’s last eight tracks.

Current Listening: Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot It In People