Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo shares many similarities with A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume I in that both are atmospheric, mostly instrumental filmic albums. However, unlike the latter, Se Dice isn’t technically a soundtrack; the liner notes advise that this album is an emotional response to “El Bùfalo de la Noche”, a film that ORL both scored and performed in. I’m not sure if this soundtrack is available anywhere outside of the film, though apparently some elements from this piece appear on the Mars Volta album Amputechture.
Se Dice is structured around two main pieces: the titular track and “Please Heat This Eventually”, along with the interstitial moments that support them and a few more traditional album tracks. Personnel is very broadly the same as the first iteration of the ORL Group (at the time touring under the moniker the Omar Rodríguez-López Quintet): Adrián Terrazas González on woodwinds, Marcel Rodríguez-López on drums/percussion and synthesisers, bassist Juan Alderete de la Peña, occasional guest vocals from Cedric Bixler-Zavala and even bonus Jon Theodore drumming on the final track. Also present are ORL collaborative chums Money Mark and John Frusciante, so quite understandably, there are strong Mars Volta from another pant leg of the Trousers of Time-vibes.
As this is only his third studio solo release, there are many historical contemporaneous reviews and sexy, important fan thoughts. For the most part, Sputnikmusic wasn’t overly impressed with the amount of ambient sound in the lengthy intros and interludes, and found the instrumental jams ‘boring and repetitious’. But I also found high praise from fans on Progarchives and Rate Your Music who were impressed by the ballsy, experimental playfulness and the depth of emotion present.
Normally, I take umbrage with songs where the lyrics are audible but incomprehensible, and “Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo” disagreed with a few fans for this very reason. Instead, I took to it almost instantly, from the misleading intro’s soft plinkyness. Yes, the vocals are overlaid with a persistent buzz but are drenched with emotion; with CBZ, the words themselves often don’t matter and are likely to be tuneful gibberish and subject to personal interpretation, like the details of the concept behind Frances the Mute. The song pulses in concentric waves, with Money Mark’s piano crashing through the chaos effectively by folding in on itself in soft plumes. False outros also usually annoy me, but when they are followed by ORL shred, I make an exception, and although Bec cannot live on shred alone, it is often very tempting.
The other main track “Please Heat This Eventually” is a truncated version of the joint EP featuring Damo Suzuki of Can on vocals. Where that was a sprawling twenty-five minutes split into six movements, this instrumental version is just under half that length. Typical of this era, noodly woodwind is prominent, and its repetitiousness is an exercise in stamina, if nothing else. But everyone gets their moment in the sun, and although at point it nearly becomes A Bit Too Much, it’s rather fun. If you laid on some CBZ vocals, it could easily pass as an Amputechture b-side or an outtake from The Bedlam in Goliath.
And that’s exactly what you get with “Rapid Fire Tollbooth”, an earlier version of “Goliath”. This iteration has swapped frenetic energy and falsetto gymnastics for vibes that give sleazy, late-night jazz lounge. The lyrics retain the cadence but are modified with some delightful slants and the kind of poetic logic I adore (I cut off the hand that was promised to me / and then we’ll shake on it). It all builds towards the kind of guitar solo that sustains me – from 3:17 you’re going to want to turn the volume up as high as possible and let your ears blister.
Much in the way The Dude’s rug tied the room together, the main tracks are connected with excellent aural glue; the ponderous bass on “Luxury Of Infancy”, the spacey comfort of “Thermometer Drinking The Bussness Of Turnstiles”, some classic MRL beats and never unwelcome John Frusciante on “If Gravity Lulls, I Can Hear The World Pant”, and the shakers and salsa grooves of “Boiling Death Request A Body To Rest Its Head On”. Like many other fans, I also enjoyed engaging in some Mars Volta archeology during “Lurking About In A Cold Sweat (Held Together By Venom)”, which either borrowed from or gave to the unreleased Mars Volta song fans named “Clouds”, and was the opening track from The Ramrod Tapes. The album concludes in an explosion of punky sass, with CBZ again providing vocals on “La Tiranía De La Tradiciòn”. He’s deployed his bratty, At The Drive-In vocals for a song which is admittedly piercing and often difficult, but fun at its core.
Practically speaking, Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo is a Mars Volta record; one that psychically straddles Amputechture and The Bedlam in Goliath. When I listen to it, it acts as a kind of time machine back to when I jumped onboard as a card carrying stan during the band’s midlife point between their initial rebirth out of At The Drive-In via De Facto, and when it all blew up in an awful storm of mercurial egos and cult-brainwashed trauma. But apart from being a nostalgia soundtrack, it just plain rocks, and I can’t give a heartier stamp of approval than that.
Track listing:
The Lukewarm
Luxury Of Infancy
Rapid Fire Tollbooth
Thermometer Drinking The Bussness Of Turnstiles
Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo
If Gravity Lulls, I Can Hear The World Pant
Please Heat This Eventually
Lurking About In A Cold Sweat (Held Together By Venom)
Boiling Death Request A Body To Rest Its Head On
La Tiranía De La Tradiciòn