The Mars Volta - Tremulant EP (EP) - 45RPM

Before De-Loused blew the doors off in 2003, The Mars Volta quietly set the table with Tremulant, a three-track EP released in April 2002 on Gold Standard Laboratories. It is the spark that explains how Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala leapt from the wreckage of At the Drive-In to something stranger and far more elastic. You can hear the core band already locked in: Cedric turning glossolalia into melody, Omar carving jagged shapes, Jon Theodore hitting like a thunderclap, Isaiah Ikey Owens floating eerie organ colours, Jeremy Michael Ward smearing tape loops and radio ghosts, and Eva Gardner anchoring the low end. Across fifteen-odd minutes, they sketch out a whole world and hint at the bigger narrative they would expand later.

Cut That City opens with a tense swell of noise and clipped voices before the band drops in with that thud-and-sprint rhythm Theodore made his calling card. Omar’s guitar spits sparks rather than riffs, while Cedric rides the chaos with lines that sound half prophetic, half fever dream. It is messy in the right way, the sort of mess that suggests rehearsal rooms thick with smoke and scribbled notebooks. The mix leaves edges exposed, so the synth smears and tape edits feel like an extra instrument, not an overlay. You can already hear Ward’s presence shaping the group’s identity, a reminder of how crucial his sound manipulation was to these early recordings.

Concertina plays the straight one, at least by Mars Volta standards. It has a ghostly melody you can almost hum on first pass, with Ikey Owens holding the song together on organ while guitar phrases dance and flicker around him. Cedric’s phrasing is more conversational here, which makes the sudden crescendos hit harder. It is also the clearest signpost to De-Loused in the Comatorium, proof they could do tension and release without losing that restless spark. Plenty of fans still argue it is their most approachable early track, and it is hard to disagree when that final lift arrives.

Eunuch Provocateur sprawls, shifts tempo, eats its own tail, and then finds a second wind in a shadowy coda. It is the most ambitious thing on the EP, closer in spirit to the labyrinths they would wander on Frances the Mute. The last stretch contains those reversed vocal textures that sent message-board detectives into overdrive back in the day, tying into the cryptic lore Cedric would later explore with the Cerpin Taxt story. None of it feels like mystery for mystery’s sake. The puzzle pieces give the noise a heartbeat.

What sells Tremulant is intent. The band is not refining post-hardcore, they are detonating it and salvaging the interesting bits. The production, handled with a raw, room-forward touch, puts you right up against the speakers. You feel Theodore’s kick drum in your ribs, you hear fingers on strings. Alex Newport’s name is often linked to these sessions, and the sonics fit his reputation for capturing bands with teeth bared. It is not glossy, but it is vivid.

If you have got a soft spot for The Mars Volta vinyl, Tremulant is a prize. The original GSL 12 inch does the rounds every so often, and copies vanish from the racks the moment they appear. The EP also resurfaced in the La Realidad De Los Sueños box curated with Clouds Hill years later, which helped a new wave of listeners hear these songs on wax without hunting the collectors’ bins. Search terms like Tremulant EP vinyl are not just SEO bait here, they are weekly wish-list items for anyone trawling Melbourne record store walls or browsing vinyl records Australia wide on a Sunday arvo. If you are trying to buy The Mars Volta records online and you stumble across a clean Tremulant, do not overthink it.

As a listening experience, Tremulant still feels risky. The tempos buck, the guitars squeal, and yet there is a strange tenderness inside it, especially on Concertina. That balance is why the EP endures. It is a lighthouse for the albums to come, and it stands on its own as a nervy little artefact from a band busy rewriting its DNA. Spin it once and you can hear the moment possibility cracked open. Spin it twice and you will start checking for other The Mars Volta albums on vinyl to keep the thread going.