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Recommended by us on 23rd February 2012
...according to our Mike on Thu 23 Feb, 2012.
Believe it or not, this is in fact Mouse On Mars's tenth studio album! These two certainly know how to churn 'em out, although it is in fact their first proper studio offering in six years!. They've released records on a slew of great labels over the years and now it's the turn of Monkeytown to drop one. The trademark ADD electro assault is still present and correct of course, but this time round things seem more focused than previous records I've heard from them. It's still dizzyingly busy, but the pulsating grooves and melodies are never too far from the foreground. It's a similar kind of calculated franticness that makes the new Lindstrom such an enjoyable listen. Head-scratching mutant electro-funk squelches and fat electric bass drum kicks while glitches and manipulated cut-and-paste samples swirl around to quite giddying effect. It's when they take things down a bit like on the pumping dancefloor stomp of 'They Know Your Name' that they're at their most effective here, in fact, with the swoops and bleeps and squelches relegated to a more peripheral role, before the sultry squelch funk drift of 'Syncropticians' that's more Four Tet than Venetian Snares, but even at their most laid back there's too much here to take in without repeated and intensive listening. Staggering attention to detail as always and quite possibly their most enjoyable record to date. Nice to see that these guys are still forging ahead and keeping things fresh.
The triumphant return for Mouse On Mars with 10th studio album! With former releases for labels like Domino, Ipecac, JVC Japan, Thrill Jockey, Too Pure, and the artist's own label Sonig, here's the first full length release for Modeselektor's label Monkeytown.
Over the course of ten albums - not to mention an avalanche of side projects, remixes and collaborations - Jan St Werner and Andi Toma of Mouse On Mars established themselves as two of the most inventive and unpredictable artists in electronic music. But since they delivered the bracing, angular salvo that was Varcharz back in 2006 and their Von
Südenfed collaboration with Mark E. Smith (The Fall) in 2007, there has been an uncharacteristic period of silence.
In 2012, that silence is broken. Mouse On Mars' triumphant return comes in the shape of "Parastrophics", a life-affirming and constantly surprising album which is crammed with ideas, exuberance and sheer kinetic energy. It's like listening to the entire history of pop music - distilled, refined and crystallized into a string of compulsive new shapes, full of glitter, intrigue and addictive detail. Atomised fragments from two lifetimes of listening flare and fade, tiny scraps of memory shrapnel hover, tantalizing and insubstantial, before being whisked away by the next impatient idea.
But despite all that restless curiosity, "Parastrophics" also demonstrates a peerless command of pace. Whereas some previous Mouse On Mars releases have bordered on the frenetic, their latest displays a subtle but persuasive sense of control. Even when tempos climb, 303s squirm and kick / snare patterns snap to brisk attention, there's an elegance to the way that each element slips in and out of the mix which speaks, whisper it, of maturity. Parastrophics is as a playful as ever, but it's never throwaway. The closing track "Seaqz" is a gorgeous slice of space-age mood music, measured in tone despite all its microscopic activity, and it brings into focus the beguiling sense of confidence that suffuses the whole record. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that, after six years away, Mouse On Mars have come back with their best record yet.
1. The Beach Stop 2. Chordblocker, Cinnamon Toasted 3. Metrotopy 4. Wienuss 5. The Know Your Name 6. Syncropticians 7. Cricket 8. iMatch 9. Polaroyced 10. Gearknot Cherry 11. Bruised To Imwimper 12. Baku Hipster 13. Seaqz
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