octahedron is the recorded equivalent of the mars volta saying ‘if you didn’t get it the first time, we’ll say it again, but slower.’ yet, even if they’re dumbing things down a bit, this is the most interesting they’ve sounded since frances the mute. they’ve withdrawn towards a kind of accessibility here with much slower songs and by employing more conventional song structures. the album even follows a structure, complete with rise, climax and falling action; however, the mars volta’s inaccessibility never really stemmed from their complex structures, or lightning-speed riffs, rather, it was their abandonment of the dub-laden grooves from their first record that made them sound rigid and boring. while they might not be back to their rhythmically-challenging, groovy selves, octahedron proves at the very least that the mars volta are capable of being interesting when they’ve been forced to change and rethink things.
in what sounds to be a project forged in the murkiest of bongwaters, omar rodriguez-lopez has released another noodly solo album, but this time he has enlisted the help of some fellow voltas as well as hella’s zach hill and jon hischke; however, like most of the mars volta’s (and mars volta spin-offs) output since 2005, there are only a few songs on this release that are really worth investing time in.
the main problem here is that this group doesn’t do much to unseat the listener’s expectations of how a meeting between rodriguez-lopez and hill might sound. often chaotic, complex and overwhelming, there are only a select number of times where the band sounds like they’re playing together. hill is an incredible drummer, but does not make an excellent foil to rodriguez-lopez for the simple fact that they sound like they’re playing over top of one another. blaming hill for the lack of synchronicity on the record would be unfair though, after all, he’s more than proven his ability to compliment other performers’ styles as a frequent collaborator with the likes of marnie stern, and more recently, no age. even though cryptomnesia is a rodriguez-lopez solo effort, he rarely seems to be at the helm of things, nor are his contributions the most interesting. in fact, hill and hischke provide the most pivotal moments on cryptomnesia when they are left to their own hellish devices. the standout songs are few and far between here, but when they’re good, they’re very good, which makes it all the more upsetting to hear how terrible the rest of the album is.
