A MISSING CHROMOSOME

-1. Cut That City (Tremulant EP) 5:42 -2. Concertina (Tremulant EP) 4:54 -3. Eunuch Provocateur (Tremulant EP) 8:48 -4. A Plague Upon Your Hissing (DITC Outtake) 4:40 -5. Ambuletz (DITC UK Import) 7:03 -6. The Bible And The Breathalyzer (L'via L'viaquez Single B-side) 5:17 -7. Frances The Mute (The Widow Single B-side) 14:36

It is a nice addition to have in any The Mars Volta completionist collection.

Cut that City is the opener for the TREMULANT EP, and it is a nice track that is heavily fused with effects and odd times.

Concertina is the second track on the TREMULANT EP, beginning with four powerful chords before calming down for the verse and picking back up for the chorus. It is beautiful, but nothing extremely special.

Eunuch Provocateur, the final track on the TREMULANT EP, begins with soem ambient guitar work and escalates to a high point where it pauses for the words "Have mommy or daddy ever had to spank you?" to be said backwards--which is a strange, creepy easter egg. Then it explodes into a very nice combination of pyschotic drumming and guitar frenzy work. I really love this song, and it is the best off of the EP. Near the end there is some almost electronic-esque drumming over which the same voice that said the first backwards quote now sings "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" backwards. Again a creep little easter egg.

A Plague Upon Your Hissing, a DE-LOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM outtake track is a true gem. It shows teh band exploring more what their sound was like on FRANCES THE MUTE with more dissonance and vocal breaks. It is a constantly moving track and I wonder why it was cut from the album, it is a wonderful track. At any rate I'm glad they released it, and I'd recommend any Mars Volta fan to try and download it somewhere.

Ambuletz, another DITC outake, but released in UK as part of the album, is a very creep track filled with effects. At the same time it manages to be beautiful in it's own right. Some people will hate this track, whereas others will love it. One thing I will say is that it holds no competition with "Take the Veil" as a closer, even though it is a brialliant track.

The Bible and the Breathalyzer, taken from the L'VIA SINGLE, is a mysterious track that is really nothing but a statemental poem read over some ambience, there for it is very chilling and disturbed feeling. Nothing great, but not exactly a weak spot either.

Frances the Mute (single), taken from THE WIDOW Single and meant to be part of the album itself, is an amazing track that every Mars Volta fan should get a copy of. It feels like part of teh album and measures up with every other song on teh album. Beginning with some hammers/low bells/ambience, it soon explodes in typical TMV fashion to show one of the best hooks I've ever heard this band create. Then there is the middle segment which is comprised of spanish-esque guitar riffs below a mumbling Cedric, speaking about Frances' murder--creepy as ever. Then it explodes near the end exclaiming "This never happened" before repeating, with effects over top of it, the beginning theme of "Cygnus...VIsmund Cygnus" (Sarcophagi) before it stops. It was meant to be either the first or last track on the album. and serves well either place.

This is the perfect compilation for compeltionists that don't want to go buy all of those singles just for a re-worked live song. I'd highly recommend it to anyone that can find it, as it is rather rare.

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