The Mars Volta: Amputechture (2LP) [CLOUDS HILL]

Why you'll love it

Clouds Hill's remastered 2LP set uses a 96 kHz, 24-bit mix and ends every side in a locked groove. Amputechture debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and sold an estimated 400,000 copies by 2009.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Remastered
• Locked grooves on every side
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

Eight songs over four sides, recorded across Los Angeles, El Paso and Melbourne. Amputechture is The Mars Volta at full stretch, with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez writing, arranging and directing the music and Cedric Bixler-Zavala supplying the lyrics and vocal melodies. "Viscera Eyes" was first shared on the band's MySpace page in July 2006.

Rich Costey mixed it, and John Frusciante adds guitar. "Viscera Eyes" grew out of a song Omar wrote back in At the Drive-In, "Day of the Baphomets" reworks a song from the De-Loused in the Comatorium sessions, and "Vicarious Atonement" opens in a slow, eerie drift. Sara Christina Gross plays all the saxophone on "Meccamputechture," "Tetragrammaton" sprawls, and "El Ciervo Vulnerado" closes the album. It's the final album with drummer Jon Theodore and the first with Paul Hinojos. Bassist Juan Alderete recorded the bass solo introduction to "Day of the Baphomets" in a single take.

Jeff Jordan's painting Big Mutant fronts the sleeve, and his Dwarf Dancing sits on the labels. With a locked groove on every side, the record will happily keep playing long after you've wandered off to make tea.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Clouds Hill (cat# CH181), a reissue of the 2006 album.