Mouse On Mars, the Duesseldorf-based duo of Andi Toma and Jan Werner, applied the post-rock aesthetics to post-techno music. The pseudo-psychedelic trance of Vulvaland (1994) was unusual mainly because of its tragic, gloomy mood, but Iaora Tahiti (1995) layered elements of dub, jungle, hip-hop inside a shell of warped ambient/cosmic cliches, thus creating a new kind of futurism, one that was not Kraftwerk's paranoia of machines but a very bodily (and current) neurosis. Autoditacker (1997) consolidated that style in a baroque synthesis of light polyrhythms and bizarre electronics, while Instrumentals (1998) was perhaps the most austere enunciation of their deconstruction technique. The "thickness" of sound effects on Idiology (2001) gave rise to an hallucinated symphony of instrumental colors, while coldly vivisecting a catalog of retro styles.
Mouse On Mars are a duo from Duesseldorf (Andi Toma and Jan Werner) who coined a
pseudo-techno language influenced by the experiments on rhythm carried out by
such German electronic groups as Kraftwerk and Neu.
Vulvaland (Too Pure, 1994) was still insecure and tentative, but
already capable of elaborating post-psychedelic trance in the
kitsch-retro sound of the nine-minute robotic ballet Frosch (also reminiscent of the looping ethno-funky-beats of Talking Heads' Fear Of Music).
The ethnic element is also prevalent in the Afro-Indian polyrhythms of Uah.
But the nebula of Chagrin shifts the emphasis from the rhythm to the surrounding electronics, from hedonism to ambience.
Future Dub is a seven-minute hallucination that blends the ethnic/rhythmic element and the atmospheric/ambient element.
The ominous and subliminal atmospheres of Katang, an eleven-minute magma of wadded beats and languid tones, redefines ambience for the ambient-house generation.
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I Mouse On Mars sono un duo di Duesseldorf (Andi Toma e Jan Werner) che
ha coniato un linguaggio techno influenzato dagli esperimenti ritmici
di gruppi elettronici come Kraftwerk e Neu.
Con Vulvaland (Too Pure, 1994) avevano dato un'opera ancora incerta,
piu` interessante quando elabora trance postpsichedeliche come Frosch
che quando fa il verso alla poltiglia ambientale degli Orb.
Il disco stordisce con le atmosfere
minacciose e solenni di Katang, Future Dub e Chagrin.
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Abbandonando gli eccessi tragici di quel disco, smussando i ritmi, riducendo
le dimensioni dei brani, e curando
gli arrangiamenti degli strumenti non elettronici,
Iaora Tahiti (Too Pure, 1995) stabili` un nuovo sofisticatissimo
standard di stratificazione, uno scivoloso collage di reperti dub, jungle,
hip hop, etnici, ambientali e cosmici.
La melodia rispunta da protagonista, seppure sempre mixata "in fondo",
in sordina, come una nota a pie' di pagina, nell'orgia febbricitante (un po'
Brasiliana) di Saturday Night Worldcup Fieber, e poi rimane in
circolazione per tutto l'album.
I Mouse On Mars compiono un'ardita sintesi di esperimenti sulla forma canzone
che attraversa in verticale la storia del rock:
il drum'b'bass e funk spaziale in levare di Kanu porta tracce dei Gong;
il carillon stonato di Papa Antoine rispunta dai dischi
di Todd Rundgren;
le dissonanze quasi industriali e il grottesco passo reggae di Schunkel
sono parenti della "danza moderna" dei Pere Ubu;
la mini-sinfonia futurista di Schlecktron distorce gli affreschi cosmici
di Klaus Schulze.
Non sono composizioni musicali, sono metafore della composizione musicale.
La musica e` "letterale" soltanto nelle cadenze di palude di
Stereomission e nel vertiginoso drum'n'bass Bib, che
peraltro hanno la brillantezza timbrica della musica da camera.
Ogni brano nasconde un fitto sottobosco di rumori elettronici.
Le soluzioni scelte per erigere tele inestricabili di ritmi sono svariate e
imprevedibili.
Autoditacker (Thrill Jockey, 1997), raccolta di dodici brani di media
lunghezza, e` piu` che altro un atto di vanita`. Werner e Toma non hanno
nulla da aggiungere al disco precedente, ma riescono a trasformare quel nulla
in un circo spettacolare. Il loro techno e` spesso
(Twift Shoeblade, Sui Shop)
gioviale e scherzoso, eccentrico fino alla parodia,
propulso da poliritmi leggeri e da contrappunti buffi dell'elettronica.
Le melodie vengono decostruite in maniera cubista.
Schnick Schnack Meltmade, forse la piu` orecchiabile, viene macellata
in questo laboratorio popolato di androidi e congegni a orologeria (l'inferno
digitale fa pensare a Black Dog).
E se non tutte le gag riescono a divertire, il reggae sornione di Scat
e quel tip tap forsennato di Tux & Damask
lambiscono una forma di cabaret elettronico (cose che peraltro Todd Rundgren
faceva vent'anni fa).
La faccia seria della loro ricerca e` soltanto un'appendice, e raramente si
spinge al di la` di uno svagato tributo al futurismo dei Kraftwerk e dei
Can (Tamagnocchi, Sehnsud).
Data per scontata la qualita` del mix, che peraltro molti produttori
potrebbero almeno eguagliare, rimane ben poco davanti a cui estasiarsi.
L'EP
Cache Coer Naif (Thrill Jockey, 1997), con l'aiuto di Laetitia Sadier
e Mary Hansen degli Stereolab, tenta di vendere a un pubblico piu` ampio il
loro techno da salotto (in particolare la title-track e Lazergum).
Una musica piu` astratta contraddistingue i sette
Instrumentals (Sonig, 1998 - Thrill Jockey, 2000).
Pegel Gesetzt e Chromatic fluttuano al confine con
l'ambientale, mentre Rampatroullie e
2001 sono due dei loro esercizi piu` austeri di melodismo cubista.
Glam (Tokuma, 1998 - Thrill Jockey, 2003) e` la colonna sonora per un film immaginario,
ed e` un lavoro ancor piu` sperimentale (Port Dusk).
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Werner is also half of Microstoria
(the other half being Markus Popp of Oval),
sotto la cui sigla si dedica a esperimenti d'elettronica.
a monicker under which Werner devotes himself to electronic experiments.
Werner is also responsible for the ever more abstract albums Uni Umit (Sonig, 1997) and
Didot (Eat Raw, 1998), credited to Lithops, that were followed
by the two ambient suites of the EP Sequenced Twinset (Sonig, 1999).
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Werner e` anche meta` dei Microstoria
(l'altra meta` essendo Markus Popp degli
Oval),
sotto la cui sigla si dedica a esperimenti d'elettronica.
Werner e` anche autore di Uni Umit (Sonig, 1997) e
Didot (Eat Raw, 1998), accreditati a Lithops.
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Hot on the heel of Pickly Dead Rizzoms (Sonig, 1999), an EP that
included their most straightforward dances track yet
(Stuffed Funk, Shamp Hare Rama), Mars On Mouse's album
Niun Niggung (Sonig, 1999 - Thrill Jockey, 2000)
marked a turn towards a poppier and lighter style, while,
in reality, still grounded in harsh dissonance.
A dadaistic sense of humour seems to permeate the proceedings.
The guitar and distortion sonata of Download Sofist ends with a pseudo-jazz fanfare.
The dissonant bubbling electronics and industrial beats of Yippie paint a colorful vignette of robotic life.
Albion Rose indulges in a melancholy horn-driven melody, overflowing with noisy detours (a` la Frank Zappa's orchestral music).
The album clearly returned to a more bodily form of music:
the funky ballet of Pinwheel Herman,
the polyrhythmic jungle of Super Sonig Fadeout,
the pounding semi-melodic techno music of Diskdusk,
the exuberant hiccuping fibrillation of Gogonal,
and, best of all,
the gargantuan distorted industrial music of Distroia.
However, it also continues (albeit on a much smaller scale)
Mouse on Mars' work trademark textures and cacophony:
the glitchy mini-sonata Wald FX,
the electronic pastiche of Booosc,
the abstract soundsculpting of Mompou.
It is an entertaining, while transitional, work.
Niun Niggung was an amusing detour.
But Idiology (Thrill Jockey, 2001) was the real manifesto of the new
phase: Mouse On Mars opted for upbeat, lively, extroverted
"songs" built out of polyrhythmic complexity
and assorted electronic effects.
Actionist Respoke, fueled by swirling hip-hop beats, engages in a
process of cubist vivisection of the vocals.
First Break is a wild robotic/industrial nonsense, a catalog of
impossible beats.
Catching Butterflies With Hands is a post-modernist index of
retro-styles, from jazzy horns to disco strings to
garagey keyboards to loungey guitars, all terribly maimed and recombined.
Toma and Werner are at the peak of their art as producers.
Subsequence is centered upon the evolving patterns of a jazzy piano
and a neoclassical violin, although the main sound is the thick funky rhythm.
Everything is out of order in Paradical, a vaguely Chinese-sounding
chamber piece, the melody is warped, the rhythm is irregular.
The closing Fantastic Analysis is a slow guitar-based shuffle that
builds up to a string-based climax while toying with blues guitar and jazz
piano.
Everything mutates all the time. A loop rarely remains the same for more than
a few seconds.
Whether it comes with experience or it represents a new challenging frontier
at this point in their career, the duo is also streamlining the compositional
method.
For example, Presence is fundamentally a ballad in the melancholy style
of Robert Wyatt, and is followed by the
symphonic interlude The Illking.
Doit is mutant reggae reminiscent of sinth-pop novelties of the 1980s.
Mouse On Mars' approach has become "Babelic" in two ways: by incorporating so
many "live" instruments, and by revisiting so many musical genres.
The album is an hallucinated symphony of instrumental colors.
Agit Itter It It (Thrill Jockey, 2002) collects oddities and remixes.
Rost Pocks (Matador, 2003) collects five EPs: Frosch, Bib, Saturday Night Worldcup Fieber, Cache Couer Naif, and Twift.
Werner sacrificed his proverbial minimalism in favor of an unusual complexity
of tones and patterns on Lithops' angst-ridden and jazzy Scrypt (Sonig, 2003),
Queries (Sonig, 2006) and Mound Magnet (Thrill Jockey, 2006).
Radical Connector (Thrill Jockey, 2004) is, de facto, a collaboration
with drummer Dodo Nkishi. Far from being "radical", it is a casual romp that
juxtaposes some novelty numbers (Wipe That Sound, Mine Is Yours)
and some abstract numbers (Evoke An Object). All in all, it is largely
disposable.
Despite having been recorded during the same sessions,
Varcharz (Ipecac, 2006) is the opposite of its predecessor: an artsy,
brainy, glitchy sequence of shapeless studies on sound manipulation.
Rather than an album of music, it serves as a manual of techniques for
future albums. They appropriate and recontextualize
garage-rock (Hi Fienilin),
video-games (Bertney),
drum'n'bass (Chartnok), etc.
Von Sudenfed is a collaboration between the Fall's Mark Smith and
Mouse On Mars that resulted in
Tromatic Reflexxions (2007).
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