Minor Cuts And Scrapes In The Bushes Ahead, con Marcel e Jeremy, 8° lp, 2008

"Minor Cuts and Scrapes in the Bushes Ahead" is the newest in a series of selectedly-archival solo releases made available by Omar Rodriguez Lopez of The Mars Volta. Recorded in 2001-2002, shortly after completing the Tremulant EP which would be The Mars Volta's debut, the forgotten album was initially made available only to friends on the then-surfacing minidisc format. Comprised of approximately 10 mostly instrumental tracks, Minor Cuts... occupies some realm between Rodriguez Lopez's familiar rock/jazz/Latin hybrids (The Apocalypse Inside of An Orange) and the more form-less audio canvases of his experimental solo releases (Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus). Travelling from one imagined dreamscape to another, the listener experiences what might be considered a variety of soundtracks to a night's worth of dreams, as well as a few nightmares. The sometimes-menacing juxtaposition of the various collaged sounds provides for surprisingly "visual" audio, while the melodies and fleeing structures remind one that there is indeed some vague, distant element of The Mars Volta present here. "Electrodorphines" pairs haunting Eastern tones and sunbursting Moog flourishes over acoustic guitars and the sound of warfare; "Pawn Shop Blues", the album's most straightforward track, is low-fi funk peppered with the unmistakable anti-soloing Rodriguez Lopez is famous for; brief album closer, "Atrotecism Fenleon", is a rare and exceptional treat: a radiant sixty-second window on the past, featuring the vocals of the late Jeremy Michael Ward. Minor Cuts... often achieves a sense of timelessness, enabling it to compare to some of the most enduring work of artists as varied as Brian Eno, Throbbing Gristle, and John Frusciante.