The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
- Duration: 76:57
- Updated: 27 Feb 2015
Omar Rodríguez-López wrote all the music for Frances the Mute while on tour for De-Loused in the Comatorium. Some musical motifs presented on the tour as jams found their place on the album. "Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus" includes two sections ("Facilis Descenus Averni" and "Con Safo") that first appeared as breakdowns in "Drunkship of Lanterns" (as heard on Live EP) and "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" respectively, and several parts of "Cassandra Gemini" previously appeared in "Cicatriz ESP" performances (as heard on Scabdates). The album was initially to be titled Sarcophagus.
Rodríguez-López arranged and produced the recording sessions himself. Rather than bring his ideas to the band as a whole and working them out at group rehearsals, he met individually with each player to practice each part one-on-one. "We'll sit there and play it forever and slow—real slow—to understand what's happening. It's easy to play something fast and loud, but to play it soft and slow takes a certain amount of discipline. Then once we understand the part, everyone's free to elaborate—their personalities come out and it's not my part anymore; they get into and give it that swing that I can't give it." Rodríguez-López took the additional step of recording the band member separately before layering the various tracks to create each song. Drummer Jon Theodore was the first to record his parts, and he spent time arranging and mapping out the songs with Omar and in the process figuring out what the rhythmic structures would be stated on the recording process. "This is the first time I've ever been so methodical about recording. Normally I would go into the situation with as good an idea as I could, whether that was from performing the songs on tour or having a general road map. But this was the first instance where I considered every single hit all the way through, every figure up to and including every change. There were no question marks. So when I was tracking with the metronome it was just a question of right or wrong." An exception of such recording method was the middle section of "Cassandra Gemini", edited from a lengthy jam session.
Tracking this way had a mixed reception in the band; Theodore and bassist Juan Alderete responded well to the individualistic approach while keyboard player Ikey Owens didn't like it at all. But, as Rodríguez-López said, "People filling in ideas can become tedious and counterproductive. You find yourself working backwards. When you're in the studio 'what ifs' are your biggest enemy, so my general rule is, if it's something you can't live with—if a sentence begins with 'I can't' or 'I will not'—then we examine it. But if it's 'maybe we should' or 'I think that' then it's like, hey man, full steam ahead. Not that there isn't a lot of refinement to what we do—obviously there is— but I consider it a balance of raw energy and refinement."
Original track listing
All lyrics written by Cedric Bixler-Zavala, all music composed by Omar Rodríguez-López.
01.Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus
*Sarcophagi
*Umbilical Syllables
*Facilis Descenus Averni
*Con Safo
02.The Widow
03.L' Via L' Viaquez
04.Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore
05.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 1)
06.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 2)
07.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 3)
08.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 4)
09.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 5)
10.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 6)
11.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 7)
12.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 8)
Personnel
The Mars Volta
Omar Rodríguez-López – guitars, synthesizers, field recordings, production
Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals
Jon Theodore – drums
Isaiah "Ikey" Owens – keyboards
Juan Alderete de la Peña – bass
Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez – percussion, keyboards
Additional musicians
Flea – trumpet on "The Widow" and "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore"
John Frusciante – first two guitar solos on "L' Via L' Viaquez"
Larry Harlow – piano, treated clavinet on "L' Via L' Viaquez" and "Cassandra Gemini"
Lenny Castro – added percussion (all tracks)
Adrián Terrazas-González – tenor sax, flute on "Cassandra Gemini"
Salvador (Chava) Hernandez – trumpet
Wayne Bergeron – trumpet
Randy Jones – tuba
Roger Manning – piano
Nicholas Lane – trombone
William Reichenbach – bass trombone
David Campbell – string, brass, piano, and percussion arrangements
Larry Corbett – cello
Suzie Katayama – cello
Violins:
Fernano Moreno
Erick Hernandez
Diego Casillas
Ernesto Molina
Joel Derouin
Roberto Cani
Mario De Leon
Peter Kent
Josefina Vergara
"The Coquí of Puerto Rico"
http://www.themarsvolta.com/
http://wn.com/The_Mars_Volta_-_Frances_the_Mute
Omar Rodríguez-López wrote all the music for Frances the Mute while on tour for De-Loused in the Comatorium. Some musical motifs presented on the tour as jams found their place on the album. "Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus" includes two sections ("Facilis Descenus Averni" and "Con Safo") that first appeared as breakdowns in "Drunkship of Lanterns" (as heard on Live EP) and "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" respectively, and several parts of "Cassandra Gemini" previously appeared in "Cicatriz ESP" performances (as heard on Scabdates). The album was initially to be titled Sarcophagus.
Rodríguez-López arranged and produced the recording sessions himself. Rather than bring his ideas to the band as a whole and working them out at group rehearsals, he met individually with each player to practice each part one-on-one. "We'll sit there and play it forever and slow—real slow—to understand what's happening. It's easy to play something fast and loud, but to play it soft and slow takes a certain amount of discipline. Then once we understand the part, everyone's free to elaborate—their personalities come out and it's not my part anymore; they get into and give it that swing that I can't give it." Rodríguez-López took the additional step of recording the band member separately before layering the various tracks to create each song. Drummer Jon Theodore was the first to record his parts, and he spent time arranging and mapping out the songs with Omar and in the process figuring out what the rhythmic structures would be stated on the recording process. "This is the first time I've ever been so methodical about recording. Normally I would go into the situation with as good an idea as I could, whether that was from performing the songs on tour or having a general road map. But this was the first instance where I considered every single hit all the way through, every figure up to and including every change. There were no question marks. So when I was tracking with the metronome it was just a question of right or wrong." An exception of such recording method was the middle section of "Cassandra Gemini", edited from a lengthy jam session.
Tracking this way had a mixed reception in the band; Theodore and bassist Juan Alderete responded well to the individualistic approach while keyboard player Ikey Owens didn't like it at all. But, as Rodríguez-López said, "People filling in ideas can become tedious and counterproductive. You find yourself working backwards. When you're in the studio 'what ifs' are your biggest enemy, so my general rule is, if it's something you can't live with—if a sentence begins with 'I can't' or 'I will not'—then we examine it. But if it's 'maybe we should' or 'I think that' then it's like, hey man, full steam ahead. Not that there isn't a lot of refinement to what we do—obviously there is— but I consider it a balance of raw energy and refinement."
Original track listing
All lyrics written by Cedric Bixler-Zavala, all music composed by Omar Rodríguez-López.
01.Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus
*Sarcophagi
*Umbilical Syllables
*Facilis Descenus Averni
*Con Safo
02.The Widow
03.L' Via L' Viaquez
04.Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore
05.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 1)
06.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 2)
07.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 3)
08.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 4)
09.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 5)
10.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 6)
11.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 7)
12.Cassandra Gemini (Pt. 8)
Personnel
The Mars Volta
Omar Rodríguez-López – guitars, synthesizers, field recordings, production
Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals
Jon Theodore – drums
Isaiah "Ikey" Owens – keyboards
Juan Alderete de la Peña – bass
Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez – percussion, keyboards
Additional musicians
Flea – trumpet on "The Widow" and "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore"
John Frusciante – first two guitar solos on "L' Via L' Viaquez"
Larry Harlow – piano, treated clavinet on "L' Via L' Viaquez" and "Cassandra Gemini"
Lenny Castro – added percussion (all tracks)
Adrián Terrazas-González – tenor sax, flute on "Cassandra Gemini"
Salvador (Chava) Hernandez – trumpet
Wayne Bergeron – trumpet
Randy Jones – tuba
Roger Manning – piano
Nicholas Lane – trombone
William Reichenbach – bass trombone
David Campbell – string, brass, piano, and percussion arrangements
Larry Corbett – cello
Suzie Katayama – cello
Violins:
Fernano Moreno
Erick Hernandez
Diego Casillas
Ernesto Molina
Joel Derouin
Roberto Cani
Mario De Leon
Peter Kent
Josefina Vergara
"The Coquí of Puerto Rico"
http://www.themarsvolta.com/
- published: 27 Feb 2015
- views: 2