De Facto

In an extremely tenuous link to the last post, I recently managed to get a hold of an album, "Megaton Shotblast", by Texan outfit De Facto. Why am I mentioning this? Because they are the band who were more influential in forming prog-rock supremos The Mars Volta than their prior band, At The Drive-In.Formed as a side project while At The Drive-In were still going strong (that split causing the well-documented Mars Volta/Sparta divide), De Facto make an interesting sound: mixing up dub influences, with jazz, salsa, electronica and the tiniest smattering of prog. The album is the obvious pre-cursor to the long instrumental sections found on both Mars Volta albums (as well as their live shows, where 20 minutes is not too long for a solo), as the vocals are near non-existent.If you're a Mars Volta fan, it's well worth it, but not necessarily if you're just an At The Drive-In fan; this is self-indulgence at it's most powerful and worst, if you don't like lengthy solos.

02:21:54 December 8, 2005, Thursday (PST) Source: Solitude

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