Favourite Artists Reviewed - Part 01: Mouse On Mars

Mouse On Mars is a German duo of Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner. They've been making music since 1993, and their first releases appeared in 1994 on British Too Pure label. Although I hate the term "electronica", it fits the best when describing their music, since they try to touch as many styles as possible on their records. I'll just review their 9 studio albums, although they also released a compilation of singles (Rost Pocks) and a live album (Live 04).

VULVALAND [1994]
Tracklist:
01. Frosch
02. Elli Im Wunderland
03. Uah
04. Chagrin
05. Future Dub
06. Die Seele Von Brian Wilson
07. Katang

Mouse On Mars missed the first wave of ambient dance music which has overtaken the UK at the beginning of the 90's, so this album sounds like a wistful homage to that era. Dreamy ambient synths of the first track, Frosch, immediately give us a hint of what to expect. And when the beat comes in, it becomes obvious that Biosphere, FSOL and Aphex Twin had a great impact with their ambient techno stuff on these guys. The next track, Elli Im Wunderland, is a tribalish downtempo track that excels with a really deep bass and a lot of quirky sound effects and vocal samples. Uah starts similar to Frosch, but continues quite differently when the acid is added. I usually don't like when producers decide to use acid under the fluffy synths, but here that acid sounds so liquid and unusual and it just enhances the track. Chagrin is another chiller, this time with a lot of reverb and a pleasant female vocal. Relaxing mood set with Chagrin continues with Future Dub, twin sister of Elli Im Wunderland and Die Seele Von Brian Wilson (The Soul Of Brian Wilson), track with a strong percussion, live drums and (probably) Japanese vocals. Katang, the last track of the album is actually made of two tracks separated with 11 minutes of silence. First track is an ambient techno number with some harsh acid lines and second track is a pounding experimental techno number (similar to Underworld's Born Slippy.NUXX) which sounds nothing like the rest of the album. I really don't know why they decided to end it this way. All in all, this is a great debut album for one of the most versatile EDM bands out there. While they demonstrated a wide variety of styles, including ambient, techno, dub, downtempo, acid..., they managed to maintain the main theme throughout the whole album. Certainly not groundbreaking, but very pleasing album.

Highlights: Frosch, Uah, Future Dub
Rating: 7/10

IAORA TAHITI [1995]
Tracklist:
01. Stereomission
02. Kompod
03. Saturday Night Worldcup Fieber
04. Schunkel
05. Gocard
06. Kanu
07. Bib
08. Schlecktron
09. Preprise
10. Papa, Antoine
11. Omnibuzz
11. Hallo
11. Die Innere Orange

Band's second album indicates a great step away from the sound of their debut album. Mouse On Mars here flirt with even more styles than on Vulvaland, and what's even more important they started to experiment with their sound - something that will mark the later stage of their career. Stereomission starts the album in a chill out tone with some soft beats and a girl talking something in Japanese (I really don't understand their obssesion with Japanese). Then we have Kompod, track that slowly builds the atmosphere with a 4x4 beat and some weird noises and bleeps. Saturday Night Worldcup Fieber perfectly continues this uptempo mood with its dynamicaly programmed beats. Schunkel contains some tribal drumming and spooky atmosphere and feels like you're in the middle of the jungle in midnight. Gocard is again an ambient number, and Kanu is fantastic breakbeat track with all sorts of natural sounds and samples. Bib is a track that was released as a single, and it's understandable why, since it's really different from the rest and sounds like early IDM meets Deep Forest. Schlecktron and Papa, Antoine again invoke a feeling of standing deep in the Amazonian forest, and they are separated with a minute and a half of ambient noise of Preprise. The album ends in a similar tone with Omnibuzz and Hallo, glitchy ambient lullaby. The last track, Die Innere Orange, consists of 10 minutes of pure noise and 2 minutes of freestyle experimentation. Again very strange way to finish an album. This is an organic and warm, but sometimes disturbing and chaotic album that sounds very relaxing at times. Seems like Deep Forest perpetrated the biggest impact on their sound, but we can also hear a little bit of The Orb and FSOL there. It's hard to compare it with Vulvaland, but I'd say this release is slightly weaker.

Highlights: Bib, Saturday Night Worldcup Fieber, Hallo
Rating: 6/10

AUTODITACKER [1997]
Tracklist:
01. Sui Shop
02. Juju
03. Twift Shoeblade
04. Tamagnocchi
05. Dark FX
06. Scat
07. Tux & Damask
08. Sehnsud
09. X-Flies
10. Schnick Schnack Meltmade
11. Rondio
12. Maggots Hell Wigs

On their third album MoM incorporate even more live instruments and the result is again something completely different from their previous efforts. Something we've never heard in their music - elements of deep house (longer and warmer synth chords) appear in album opener Sui Shop. However it's not a pure deep house track, it's a track with strange 4x4 beat and some noisy break in the middle. Juju is the first experimental MoM number that sounds like it's made by someone from Warp. Together with 3rd track, Twift Shoeblade, it constitutes what I like to call "organic IDM", sound that somewhat marks this album. Like all sections of these tracks were played live on a drumkit and then digitally manipulated to sound not so standard and usual. The album suddenly changes direction with Tamagnocchi, Dark FX and Scat, which all sound like a soundtrack to some (Japanese) cartoon. Tamagnocchi is the most memorable, since it contains samples of sounds from tamagotchi, that awful digital pet which was highly popular in times when this album came out. We return to the sound of Juju on Tux & Damask, the most dynamic track of the album. Sehnsud is more chilled, but equally complex tune that serves like a great introduction to X-Flies, alienish and spacey track with incredibly warm and pleasant synths and pads. Return to deep house (but this time real deep house) marks Schnick Schnack Meltmade. It's probably the most standard tune here, and if it wasn't for those characteristic MoM noises and glitches, it would sound like something from Om or Naked Music catalogue. Rondio and Maggots Hell Wigs slowly close the album in a more cerebral tone, but with that typical live drums. The latter even offers some dance-worthy moments, which are quite rare on this album. I guess it's a thin line between not having your own sound and trying to squeeze as much styles as possible to a record. And I guess MoM are moving slightly above that line, because although they sound lost sometimes, I still think they know what they're doing and they're doing it purposely. The result is the strongest release so far and undoubtedly the "IDMest" MoM record.

Highlights: Maggots Hell Wigs, X-Flies, Juju
Rating: 8/10

INSTRUMENTALS [1997]
Tracklist:
01. Auto Orchestra
02. Owai
03. Chromantic
04. Pegel Gesetzt
05. Rompatrouille
06. 1001
07. Subnubus

After three albums released on British Too Pure label, MoM opens its own label Sonig and celebrates the opening with Instrumentals. Somewhat strange name for an album, especially since MoM's work is instrumental anyway. Here we start off with Auto Orchestra, typical ambient intro track (which is not so typical for MoM) with some background noise in which not much happens. Illusion of a party track creates Owai, crunchy, crispy and granular electro robotic beauty. Seems like MoM finally met with Kraftwerk. Things start to get even better with emotional and visceral Chromantic, laid back chiller that's perfect for home listening after the work/party or beach listening in sunset. Although it's in the same mood, Pegel Gesetzt sounds completely opposite - cold and spacey. Rompatrouille continues where Pegel Gesetzt ended and sounds like part 2 of its predecessor. Together they would be perfect for playing in observatories or planetariums. Just like the name suggests, 1001 is a pure digital lullaby with loads of granular effects and high pitched shrill sounds. Sometimes unpleasant, but mostly very enjoyable track. The shortest MoM album ends with Subnubus, multi-layered bitter-sweet tune that sounds even more digital than 1001. Unconventional beats and vast collection of chaotic and growling samples and effects perfectly complement simple repeated synth melody on top. Great way to finish an album. This is not too radical approach to ambient music, however it's far from cozy and delightful music FAX or ROD used to serve us in the 90's. MoM, just like every great band, reinvents themselves once again and makes second great album in the same year.

Highlights: Chromantic, Owai, Subnubus
Rating: 7.5/10

GLAM [1998]
Tracklist:
01. Port Dusk
02. Grindscore
03. Snap Bar
04. Tankpark
05. Mood Leck Backlash
06. Rerelease Hysteresis
07. Pool, Smooth And Hidder
08. Flim
09. Triplet Metal Plate
10. Hi Court Low Cut
11. Funky Tiste
12. Starroom
13. Litamin
14. Heizchase Nailway
15. Glim

MoM relentlessly continues to produce and release new material, so this is already their 5 album in just 4 years. But Glam is not an ordinary album, it was supposed to be the soundtrack for the Hollywood movie of the same name, but the studio rejected both movie and its soundtrack. Fortunately, MoM decided to release the material anyway via their label Sonig. And right after the intro of the first track Port Dusk, we can clearly hear the distinction in both production and sound between this and their previous efforts. The track sounds almost like some primitive version of BT's This Binary Universe. Crackles and dubbed out metallic sounds that started to appear in the second part of Port Dusk keep going through Grindscore, so it feels like these two tracks are de facto one track. Snap Bar is little more sophisticated cut that sounds pretty Autechreish, but not so artificial. Tankpark and Mood Leck Backlash are again two tracks that sound like one. Both are easy listening tunes with playful sounds in the background, almost like they let some kid play with the knobs of an instrument that produces these sounds. Rerelease Hysteresis could easily be mistaken for something from Burial's Untrue, since its darkness and atmospherics depict the same pictures we see while listening to previously mentioned masterpiece. Pool, Smooth And Hidder is the first interlude that actually sounds like a regular soundtrack tune. I can easily see this tune in the background of some underwater scene. Flim unfortunately doesn't sound like Aphex Twin's Flim, but it's a nice experimental tune, just like its successor Triplet Metal Plate. Actually these two tracks are crème de la crème of electronic abstract music, together with some Pan Sonic, Autechre and Chris Clark material. After that, it's time for some more chilling, and Hi Court Low Cut provides us just that. Dubby, tranquilizing and even tear-inducing piece. Too bad it's so short. Funky Tiste starts in the same vein and it's one of those tracks that just build and build, but never reach its peak. Starroom is an interlude that samples water dripping and a track that leads us to one of the most beautiful chill out tunes ever. Litamin is, again unfortunately, too short melancholy beauty, perfectly suitable for a sundown scene of this non-existing movie. It's also impeccable outro for every kind of set, since it exquisitely portraits departure or some other pesimistic event. Heizchase Nailway doesn't differ too much from its beautiful predecessor, and we finally wake up from asleep that caused previous couple of tracks on Glim, interesting energetic abstract electro closer. Not too great departure from the sound of Instrumentals. Again very chilling album with almost non-existing beat, but with one noticable difference: Glam contains twice as much track which results in a few of short interludes that are either uninteresting or very good. And that shortness just doesn't allow those which are very good to evolve into something even more interesting.

Highlights: Litamin, Glim, Snap Bar
Rating: 7.5/10

NIUN NIGGUNG [1999]
Tracklist:
01. Download Sofist
02. Yippie
03. Pinwheel Herman
04. Super Sonig Fadeout
05. Booosc
06. Diskdusk
07. Gogonal
08. Albion Rose
09. Mompou
10. Distroia
11. Wald F.X.
12. Circloid Bricklett Sprüngli
13. Untitled

This is the first MoM album released for British label Domino. It was later licenced for American market via Thrill Jockey with slightly different tracklist, and a couple of new tracks. I'll review here the original British edition. And that edition starts radically different from their other releases, with mellow guitar flavoured Download Sofist that doesn't really imply what to expect from the rest of the album. So the second track Yippie comes off as a surprise, since we definitely don't expect something so fast and fluid after something so slow and sluggish. The track sounds very frivolous, almost like a parody of some sort. One of the funnest tracks MoM has ever made. On Pinwheel Herman they reached their pinnacle concerning the number of samples injected in one song. With Super Sonig Fadeout, we return to serious business. Not too serious however, since the mentioned track is a funky little tune filled with buzzes, clicks, whirrs and all sorts of effects and weird sounds. It's also the first track in which MoM used the vocoder. Booosc calms down the mood, with some awesome dreamy synths and a lot of percussion. Again we hear an awesome FX work, which has become pretty much MoM's trademark by now. In Diskdusk only 4x4 beat sounds normal, everything else is completely mental. Like it was inspired by AFX's Come To Daddy or some other fucked up record. Electro madness that partially dominates on this album is back in energetic and groovy Gogonal. Albion Rose dumbs down the whole album by couple of percents with its clowny sound. The track could be used in some children's computer game since it sounds just like that - childish and pretty stupid. The same could also be applied for its follow-up Mompou, short beatless interlude with the similar atmosphere, but with much more noise. Scary and twisted Distroia, just like Diskdusk is complete mess of a track. Here we finally hear some acid, something which was featured regularly on their first albums. Calm after the storm comes in the form of loungy Wald F.X., but that's just a delusion, since the distortion and booming beats return for the last time with Circloid Bricklett Sprüngli. At the end of the track you'll lost your eardrums, since the first 10 seconds of the untitled track are just loud noise. After 10 minutes of silence, we can hear some random banging on drums which last for another 4 minutes and that's the end. Seems like MoM didn't take themselves too seriously on this album. The result is the album that can be divided in just 4 parts: chill out intros and interludes, cartoonish and silly tracks, scary tracks and electro tracks. The last ones are in fact the only interesting thing here, and everything else is kinda redundant. Seems like this tempo of releasing an album every year finally started to hurt MoM.

Highlights: Super Sonig Fadeout, Distroia, Gogonal
Rating: 6/10

IDIOLOGY [2001]
Tracklist:
01. Actionist Respoke
02. Subsequence
03. Presence
04. The Illking
05. Catching Butterflies With Hands
06. Doit
07. First: Break
08. Introduce
09. Unity Concepts
10. Paradical
11. Fantastic Analysis

MoM had finally taken a two year pause between the two albums, so I had somewhat bigger expectations from this one, especially since their last one didn't really satisfy me as much as their earlier material. Also, with this album they returned to their own Sonig label. First track, Actionist Respoke, sounds like something left from Niun Niggung, more accurately something left from funky electro part of that album. The atmosphere doesn't change too much with Subsequence, organic and jazzy track which is too fast for lounge bars and too slow for the dance floors. Presence kicks off with some pretty normal vocals (we haven't heard that kind of singing on any MoM track, so this comes as a surprise), but soon the mood changes almost completely and we start to witness some ambinet/glitch madness ala Oval. The Illking is a short stringy piece, intensified with some brass instruments and just a tad of electronics towards the end. MoM's ability to produce a track that is sorrowful and cold/mechanic at the same time is presented again on Catching Butterflies With Hands. They've also included tons of live instruments, including trumpet, violin, cello etc. on it. After the rich 4x4 Doit that contains some Underworld-like vocals, we can finally hear a track that is similar to Autechre's Gantz Graf. I thought GG was unique, but I was obviously wrong. First: Break is even year older than GG, which is even more fascinationg. The whole track sounds like you're being electrocuted for 5 minutes, but after that you still want more. Luckily the next track is Introduce, which starts in a similar vein before turning to acid breakbeat monster that sounds like something from Analord series. Unity Concepts is the first (of the two successive) interlude, completely non-music track composed of some pseudo-philosophical gibberish. Second one, Paradical, is a short stringy piece that sounds like a reprise of The Illking. With the warm guitar driven sounds of Fantastic Analysis we say goodbye to this album. MoM used even more live instruments on this release. Not that I don't like them, but they don't really enrich the sound here. There are some great ideas, but most of this album sounds tiring and sterile. Seems like MoM's creativity is oozing with every new album they release.

Highlights: First: Break, Catching Butterflies With Hands, Fantastic Analysis
Rating: 5.5/10

RADICAL CONNECTOR [2004]
Tracklist:
01. Mine Is In Yours
02. Wipe That Sound
03. Spaceship
04. Send Me Shivers
05. Blood Comes
06. The End
07. Detected Beats
08. All The Old Powers
09. Evoke An Object

After the longest silence in their career (3 years since their last album), MoM is back with a 9 track album filled with vocals and live instrumentation. I've heard some people call them "pop electronic" band, but I've never understood why until I heard this album. Pretty much every track follows the same format: poppy vocals, live percussion, abstract hip hop-like beats plus some electro effects thrown in to satisfy the needs of today's market. However, there are tracks that contain some great vocal manipulation, like Blood Comes and All The Old Powers, tracks that are uptempo and optimistic, like Send Me Shivers and Evoke An Object and tracks that sound very jazzy and intelligent, like The End and Detected Beats. So you can say it's quite versatile, but nowhere near the old stuff. It's clear that MoM is born again - this time as an electronic pop band which offers sophisticated, complex and sonically dense, but fun pop sound to those who are sick of traditional pop. Those who are looking for something different (like me) will remain fairly disappointed. I can understand the use of vocals on a few tracks (especially on those where the vocals are cut-up and rearranged), but to put them in every single song is just an exaggeration. Seems like MoM is not fully back yet.

Highlights: Spaceship, Send Me Shivers, Evoke An Object
Rating: 6/10

VARCHARZ [2006]
Tracklist:
01. Chartnok
02. I Go Ego Why Go We Go
03. Düül
04. Inocular Part 1
05. Inocular Part 2
06. Skik
07. Hi Fienilin
08. Bertney
09.-20. Retphase (Part 1-Part 12)
21. One Day, Not Today
22. Ignition Segments

Varcharz is the latest autonomous MoM creation (they also released Tromatic Reflexxions in 2007 in collaboration with Mark E. Smith of The Fall under the Von Südenfed pseudonym), and it's interesting too see if they can reinvent themselves again. It would be fantastic if they can, since their last reincarnation wasn't that successful. First track Chartnok immediately reveals that something different is in the air, something rawer, faster and more cerebral than the stuff from Radical Connector. Like Squarepusher or Chris Clark had something to do with it. I Go Ego Why Go We Go with its lazy Prefuse 73 hip hop beats and farty bassline (which doesn't sound so bad here) calms dawn the atmosphere for a little while, but when hectic heavy metal-ish Düül kicks in, things get back to chaotic road. Inocular (which is divided into 2 parts) is a noise cut that sounds not so interesting in the first half, but incredibly powerful and intense in the second. So even people who usually don't like this type of music might enjoy this cut. Nostalgic flashback of the 80's strikes us with Skik, fun little electro/chiptune track that sounds like a main theme from some Commodore 64 game. Hi Fienilin is a shrill mixture of pounding big beat, electro and noise, and it's beautiful in its rawness. Vintage synths hit us again on very Orbital-esque Bertney, which is very similar to stuff from In Sides, especially to The Girl With The Sun In Her Head. Retphases (Part 1-12) are actually one track composed of 12 short and noisy independent parts. One Day, Not Today is a pure noise album closer, that will only please hardcore noise fans. Japanese version contains one bonus track, Ignition Segments, which doesn't sound too different from the rest of the album. I'm usually not a big fan of the noise music (of any kind), but here that noise sounds amazing. I'm glad MoM 100% changed their direction, and can't wait for the next album. This situation reminds me a bit of already mentioned Orbital, who also released a series of mediocre/bad albums in the later part of their career, and then said goodbye with materpiece that is Blue Album. I just hope Varcharz is not MoM's way of saying goodbye.

Highlights: Chartnok, Bertney, Inocular
Rating: 7.5/10