The headline: Artificial Intelligence Creates First Prog Rock Record
In a related story, when I was in high school in the early 80s I had a good music friend who came up with the concept of "random notes and metrics" using a pair of dice against a matrix of notes and scales. He's involved in a few albums, so he'll remain nameless to protect the guilty. I don't know if he invented that concept, but one wonders if The Mars Volta didn't come up with a similar philosophy using an online random number generator.
For Frances the Mute I joked "Until now I didn't realize one could get four hours of music onto a single disc." And further offered "It's like Led Zeppelin playing the music of Thinking Plague."
Amputechture follows Frances the Mute and largely maintains the patterns above. I'm not really quite sure what to do with these albums. I find them fascinating but not necessarily enjoyable. I can't even imagine playing these songs live - they're not even really songs. It would seem they would need music stands and written charts. It's almost the logical extreme of prog rock. The band must've asked themselves "What if we take Tales from Topographic Oceans... to the next level?" The whole thing seems random and made up as it goes. Which in of itself is not a bad concept, and these guys do on rare occasion catch a groove. Once again, I feel like they're talented hard rockers gone completely off the rails. They're creating an endgame for something that doesn't need it. This is like a $5 CD, so if you're looking for value per notes created, tough to beat mathematically speaking.
Maybe one day these albums will make some kind of sense. Perhaps listening to only one song over and over would help. And then put the CD away for another day. Sounds like a reasonable retirement activity.
Former ownership: 2006 Universal / Gold Standard Laboratories (CD). With lyrical booklet and bizarre WPA era artwork. Acquired in 2006.
2006; 4/4/24 (review)
Until now I didn't realize one could get four hours of music onto a single disc. Or at least it seems like it. I purchased this when it first came out, and haven't heard it since (sound familiar?). All I remember about it was the music was complex and they created a hell of a lot of racket. After just absorbing it again, what I remember shortly thereafter is... it's complex and they create a hell of a lot of racket.
It's not that they aren't qualified musicians - far from it really - it's that the composition style is chaos versus order. And melodies are optional. It's like Led Zeppelin playing the music of Thinking Plague. To be honest, it's the former that I enjoy most about The Mars Volta. They are an excellent hard rock band. Prog? Not so much. The music doesn't ever breathe, constantly being suffocated under a pillow screaming for air. One has to admire the sheer audacity of attempting music such as this, especially for a band that was in the midst of commercial success. It's not like I have a collection full of bands that sound like The Mars Volta. I also have their debut and 3rd album, of which the latter will be reevaluated soon enough. For now, I think Frances the Mute qualifies as "unique", and thus stays with the collection.
Ownership: 2005 Universal / Gold Standard Laboratories (CD). Acquired in 2005.
5//05; 10/16/20 (review)
Other albums I own: De-Loused in the Comatorium; The Bedlam in Goliath
10/16/20 (new entry)
