2002's TREMULANT EP had much to accomplish within its three tracks and 19 minutes: to define the group's ambitions and their possibilities, to sketch out a limitless horizon for their future adventures. The EP's genre-emulsifying sprawl, segueing from splenetic punk-salsa pell-mell to meditative, dubbed-out drum machine symphonies with unerring confidence, announced The Mars Volta's visionary new sound, an embryonic version of everything that would follow.