TREMULANT EP

I have a whole lot of trouble rating this album a 3 out of 5. I feel it's a very strong release, and there's very little to complain about. That being said, this album is not nearly as progressive as De-loused in the Comatorium or Frances the Mute.

The opening track, "Cut that City", starts with a few minutes of ambient electronic noise. This noise is far from the uninteresting and absolutely un-musical noise of Frances the Mute. In fact, I rather enjoy listening to it. Also, knowing the group, it's no suprise when the intro chorus suddenly breaks through this nice mellow noise in an almost shocking entrance. The chorus is certainly the strangest part of the tune, and the most progressive. I'm not quite sure what time signature it's in, but it's a weird one. My only complaint in this track is that the vocals aren't as spot-on as they are in the next two studio releases, but overall, it's still a great track. 8/10.

Concertina - a ballad, and while it's not necessarily progressive, it's definitely better than your average pop ballad. The interesting prog elements come in during the bridge, which is sort of dissonant. The verses and chorus sound kind of typical for any alt-rock band. Again, the vocals aren't too strong, but definitely listenable. 6.5-7/10

Eunuch Provocateur: Definitely the most progressive track on the album. The metal roots are apparent during the chorus as is the latin roots during the verse, and the spacey-progressive roots are apparent during the bridge. I rather enjoy this track for the unparalleled guitar riff during the verse, which is very odd but very funky and catchy. I also like the mini-solo on guitar during the intro. My only complaint on this track is the boring outro, which is just a drum machine beat and some backwards speech. The "Summer Demo" version of this tune is much better - you can find it on any file-sharing network, and it's legal, so don't worry. 9/10

That being said, these three songs still aren't very progressive compared to The Mars Volta's later work. They all follow fairly typical song patterns, and the actual music of each track is all under 5 minutes for each. However, it's still a more solid musical release than Frances the Mute, though it doesn't compare to De-loused in the Comatorium. If you're a De-loused fan, buy this to hear some more interesting music in the same vein.