As is always the case with the core duo of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, it is wise to expect the unexpected. Noctourniquet is the pair’s first album in three years, an enormous gulf for an act that typically unleash records on an annual basis.
The extended break has proven healthy, providing a stylistic upheaval to their catastrophic witches’ brew that streamlines their sound while sacrificing none of the high-brow, mad-cap artistry that has come to define them.
Opener “The Whip Hand” provides the catalyst for their musical sea change, with Rodriguez-Lopez’s usually wooly guitar squall underplayed for a bludgeoning synth-bass. The guitarist/producer’s restraint and maturity are further demonstrated on some of their most daring genre mutations yet. Electronica courses through “In Absentia” while the ragged blues of “The Malkin Jewel” prioritises both Bixler-Zavala’s psychedelic howls and Deantoni Park’s knuckle-white drumming.
Depending on your view it’s either a thrilling return-to-form or the best introduction for Mars Volta virgins yet.
