The Mars Volta AMPUTECHTURE

Personnel: John Frusciante (guitar); Sara Christina Gross (saxophone). Audio Mixer: Rich Costey. Recording information: El Paso, TX; Los Angeles, CA; Melbourne, Australia. Director: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Arranger: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. On its third full-length album, the Mars Volta abandoned the enigmatic conceptual themes of its acclaimed earlier outings, DE-LOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM and FRANCES THE MUTE, but left its fascinatingly bizarre aesthetic intact. The result is a more immediate, though certainly not more conventional, approach, as vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala and guitarist Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez once again take listeners on a tour of surreal rock territory where the sounds of King Crimson, Santana, and Led Zeppelin are welded together into frenetic post-punk-influenced aural sculptures. Featuring significant contributions by multi-instrumentalist Pablo Hinojos-Gonzalez and frequent guest guitarist John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, AMPUTECHTURE is slightly less d