Mexican prog/acid rock trio Romulus stream their highly anticipated debut full-length album »Jabberwocky«

Tecate, Mexico based prog/acid rock trio Romulus has released their highly anticipated debut full-length album »Jabberwocky« on August 10th, 2024.

Stream »Jabberwocky« now on all digital platforms!

Tracklist:
01. The Wings Will Swallow This Puzzled Nights
02. Fire Thoughts
03. Where No Crooked Man Lives
04. Hazels
05. Ritualistic
06. Hypostyles
07. Blueprints For Rage
08. In Purple Dawns I Melt
09. Diablo
10. The Night Rider
11. Jabberwocky

Finally, after trials and tribulations, Romulus released their highly anticipated first album. Recorded, mixed and produced between February-April 2024, Romulus finally achieved the sonic landscapes they were so desperately looking for. From the ominous introduction of »The Wings Will Swallow This Puzzled Nights«, Romulus sets the vibe for what’s to come: a chaotic but cleverly thought, Mars Volta fueled labyrinth of mind warping riffs, menacing basslines and powerful and refined drum work. But how did all this music come to life? After many failed attempts to capture the unstable, wild, relentlessly improvisational energy this motherfuckers emanate in their live shows and with only one clear thing on their mind (that one thing being: “we want to be like The Mars Volta”), Romulus decided to record everything live by themselves. Throughout this process many problems threatened the album’s creation.

“Being the underdogs of the rotten, uncreative and stale musical scene of our hometown; envy was at the front of many unfortunate events. No one really understood the ideas we were trying to portray with our music. Everyone was playing the same indie/garage type rock; ripping off The Strokes and Surf Curse riffs. And then we come with this weird, chaotic, hyper complicated, heavy prog/psychedelic music. The reactions were mixed. After the shock wore off, truth rose to the surface. We were being called pretentious, egotistical, show offs. We ended up being crucified and exiled from our hometowns music scene. We had nowhere to play”. Remembers Saeed about the music scene from Tecate, B.C, Mexico.

“Despite all this, what at first seemed like a curse, turned out to be a blessing, for this forced us to start playing and get involved in the music scene of nearby cities; and gladly this time music wasn’t stagnant. We met many people who helped us grow as a band immeasurably, pushing us out of our comfort zone and making us come out with new ways to make our music reach new horizons.”

“One time we were in El Paso, TX due to some personal reasons. We ended up visiting a local bar where we found Martin Ludi and Gabriel Ravera from The Curse Of Sahara and after a few drinks they invited us to the Evil Fidelity Studios located in the countryside. After witnessing one of the »Hell On Earth« sessions; where they played, to our surprise, »The Sky«; we engaged in a conversation about how they managed to find the right sound for their music and capture their raw energy. “Use what you’ve got,” said Martin Ludi. These words stuck with us. He then offered us to record something right there and we came back the next day and recorded 7 songs, including a cover of »Cygnus… Vismund Cygnus«. By the way, the sound engineer for this was Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. After leaving the studio the whole place caught fire (we don’t know how) and everything was lost, except for a demo of »The Wings« and »Where No Crooked Man Lives«. I guess that’s what you get when recording in the middle of nowhere with a Puerto Rican prog legend…” says Pablo about the first attempt to record »Jabberwocky«.

“After all this, back in our hometown and armed with only two mics; a shure sm57 and a yamaha ead 10, we locked in and recorded »Jabberwocky« in two months. This time, to make sure no unforeseen event prevented us from making the album, no one else was involved. No help from anyone, no advice from anyone, no fucking anything from anyone; just us 3 with common goal in mind.”

»Jabberwocky« narrates the story of a man named Tsudr, sentenced to die by the guillotine, whose life is saved just when the blade is to cut his head off by divine intervention. Time stops and Tsudr is thrown in a dark puzzle-like forest being swallowed by giant demonical wings. The only way out is revealed by a talking bonfire which instructs Tsudr on building a mountain. Throughout his attempts on building this mountain, Tsudr is being hunted by members of a cult.

Music written and executed by Romulus.
Vocals and lyrics written by Saeed Romo.
Mixed and produced by Saeed Romo at Beyond The Circular Studios.
Mastered by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez at Beyond The Circular Studios.
Assisted by Marcelo Fernandez.
Artwork by Villalpando.

Romulus is:
Pablo Treviño – Bass
Carlos Emilio – Drums
Saeed Romo – Guitar, Keys & Vocals

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well