Bar Steven Wilson, there can be few harder-working men in prog than The Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, whose consistently high quality output is continually fired at us at an astonishing rate. Anywhere is Bixler-Zavala’s latest project, a collaborative effort with Mike Watt of Minutemen, fIREHOSE and The Stooges.
After the disappointing return of his once-brilliant punk band At The Drive-In this summer, it’s clear Cedric’s heart lays here, at the more abstruse end of the musical spectrum. In contrast to The Mars Volta’s frantic approach, Anywhere offer a more thoughtful, contemplative experience.
Unusually for the men involved, shades of other artists are detectable: Rosa Rugosa is a delicate, lacy thing that sets Kate Bush down in a Tex-Mex desert and leaves her mind to wander. The title track blossoms into a Kid A-era Radiohead exercise in beautiful nihilism, the singer’s Yorke-echoing falsetto lamenting,_ ‘I’m not anywhere’_ with a genuine sadness.
Their warm, acoustic wild west guitars lead into dusty, terrain with strange, wonderful noises leaping out at at you. Anywhere seems like a good place to be.
