Mouse on Mars

Mouse On Mars create densely layered tracks with the intended results being grounded between radical experimentalsism and timeless pop appeal. Designed to yield more with repeated listens, songs are minutely detailed. Drum tracks, for example, often contain over twenty different layers: live drums, programmed, digitally processed and various combinations and/or mutations of the aforementioned. Fills and breaks are set, arranged, and placed individually as opposed to being looped. The results are rich, deep, wonderfully varied. Mouse On Mars’ sound links them to the club-music scene, as do their many remixes and collaborations with members of the dance-music world. Yet their association with the formalized and utilitarian world of dance music is ironic, as the band?s raison d?etre is to place electronic flies in any aural ointment they choose to muck through. A series of 10 albums and numerous remixes has come off as primarily intent on dashing expectations, from the ambient-idm ectoplasms of 1994?s Vulvaland and 1995?s more structured Iaora Tahiti; to the flighty and funny electronics, spluttering horns and acoustic-guitar samples of 2000?s more “organic” Niun Niggung; to the forest of sonic porcupine quills that is Idiology. Radical Connector (2004) further granulated the MoM aesthetic into nine vaguely poporiented songs, ever heavier on the beats and increasingly hinging the tunes on the vocals and drumming of longtime collaborator Dodo Nkishi. Veering away from the vocal hooks of Radical Connector, the group’s latest Varcharz is nine tracks (don?t get confused by its stuttering track ID?s) of catchy pop references, anarchic rock interpretations and manga-style pathos. Varcharz emerged partly from the sessions that produced 2004?s kinetic dance party, Radical Connector, but reveals the harder and more experimental side of the group. For this album, Mouse on Mars digested a steady diet of spatial free-jazz and cocaine-fried booty funk to deliver an album reflecting their energetic live sets? sparkling chaos and glorious precision. Andi Toma, Jan St. Werner and Dodo Nkishi have been more than busy in the intervening years between albums. As well as the release of their live record, Live04, on their own label Sonig, and a constant barrage of touring, Toma and Werner were collaborating with Mark E. Smith of The Fall as Von Südenfed. The trio gained worldwide success with their debut album “Tromatic Reflexxions”. The Mom members produce independently for the Sonig label. St. Werner acted as the artistic director of the Amsterdam Institute for Electronic Music, STEIM and has also worked on two new solo records under the Lithops moniker. Toma shared his producer talent with Junior Boys, The Fall and Stereolab amongst others. Mouse on Mars are currently recording a new album due to be released in the beginning of 2011.