John Maus

yah, thanks. i was curious if she actually sang (later) on the maus album track, or if her vocals were solely samples.

Couldn't tell you

Reviews are calling it a duet

I haven't even read much on this album but lol @ the critical reception of this vs. his earlier shit

plz listen to my new album on spotify

"Mr. Le Bateau Ivre, will you take 'We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves', to be your man, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; and promise to be faithful until death parts you?"

"Hey Moon! Believer! I do!"

Keeps on opening up, this beaut. Way more than his previous album even, which I did not think was possible. Album of the year. I'm calling it.

I listened to this once very recently, and found it unlistenable for the most part. is it a grower?

*caveat: since discovering that King Creosote/Jon Hopkins collab nearly all new music sounds relatively unlistenable to me, so i might just be biased.

I think it's rather unlikely for an album to be a 'grower' for you if your first verdict was unlistenable.

i will give it another go, but it just sounded like Ariel Pink with more synths. Maybe I'm missing the point.

I must admit I’m not really feeling Pitiless Censors.

I understand what he’s trying to do – the notion of some scavenger from the future, stumbling upon this ancient, decaying mass called “eighties synthpop” and trying to wind it up back into life (at least I think that’s what he’s going for) – but alas the songs have no tunes, the overabundant echo (presumably there to mask vocal technical deficiencies) renders all of them lyrically incomprehensible, and the overall feeling is one of a Peter Murphy solo demo circa 1988.

People like DAM Funk and Oneohtrix Point Seven hover around the same territory but pull it off with much more style, humour and genuine boué.

Marcello, my first take was much like yours, but then the melodies started to emerge from the reverbed morass after a few listens, and I began to be able to understand snippets of the vocals. Then a bit more, and then more. I actually find it to be highly tuneful, almost irritatingly so given how frequently I've had songs from the record in my head recently. For me, it's the definition of a grower (but it didn't take long to grow). I feel Oneohtrix is mining totally different territory, FWIW.

Yes, I am aware that I could just as well be talking about the Jesus and Mary Chain in 1985 as far as reverbed morass is concerned! Well, I'll give it a few months and see if it grows on me.

the overall feeling is one of a Peter Murphy solo demo circa 1988.

Ah, no wonder I love it!

Marcello summed it up perfectly for me. I'm getting to the end of my tether with things that have been so deliberately FX'd till all you hear is a smudge of a song. It worked for a while, and don't get me wrong, I love a bit of AC and Ariel Pink and it's good when people get creative with unorthodox production, but this is turning into a default aesthetic for so many underground artists. Just punching the "chillwave" button is a lazy excuse for poor execution. It's like that Baths album, which again I find unlistenable because it's been smothered with extreme compression and reverb.

I feel you on that, but it doesn't destroy the record for me. I firmly believe, however, that this would be an unimpeachably great record even if it were recorded with the starkest clarity.

Reviews are calling it a duet
― Trip Maker, Saturday, 23 July 2011 22:35 (6 days ago) Bookmark

Re: the Molly Nilsson - the liner notes on the CD say that the song "contains samples" of the song.

I'm not getting jm either but that molly nilsson cover/remix/whatev is gorg mostly due to molly nilsson I'm guessing

sounds to me like he just sang over the original track and sweetened it up a bit

It's like that Baths album, which again I find unlistenable because it's been smothered with extreme compression and reverb

the baths album is going for something totally different imo. the compression is of the rhythmic sidechain/flylo variety, and there is a ton of detail and clarity in the beats.

now I want to listen to that baths album

sidechaining? sign me up

Just punching the "chillwave" button is a lazy excuse for poor execution

fwiw maus has been making great records very similar to this one since at least 2006, long before chillwave was a thing... doesn't this album fall more into the minimal wave revival stuff like xeno and oaklander way more than chillwave anyway?

i mean idk how theyre selling it these days but i got into the last maus album at about the same time as i was buying every blank dogs 7" i could get my hands on. seems funny that critics are just now hopping on board and having to contextualize this stuff for 2011

Just punching the "chillwave" button is a lazy excuse for poor execution

I'm sorry DL but just saying it is "chillwave" is a lazy excuse for being unable to explain why you dislike it. I mean, fair enough you don't like it, but John Maus = Chillwave? Seriously? No way.

doesn't this album fall more into the minimal wave revival stuff like xeno and oaklander way more than chillwave anyway?

OTM... Less po-facedly serious and industrial-ish than lots of the Wierd Records stuff, but there's echoes of Martial Canterel, etc.

Fair enough folks, I know I certainly haven't listened to it quite enough - these are very much initial reactions about both baths and jm - reactions compared to what I'm hearing a lot of right now. Tbf I need to sit down with this properly before passing sweeping judgements on what might be very good indeed.

I wouldn't call John Maus "chillwave" either, no way no how, but son of a gun, I'll be danged if I didn't include this album on an iTunes playlist of mine called - you guessed it - "chillwave"...alongside the likes of Ariel Pink, Toro y Moi, Washed Out, Ford & Lopatin, etc...I mean, sure, not all "chillwave", but they really seem to get along well...so, there's that.

You don't know how happy it makes me that the days of the record store are coming to an end. $20 for an LP? Do you remember going to the record store and not getting what you want because there was no other place to get it? Now we can get it all for free, and I think that's wonderful. There was always something really depressing to me about record stores and music equipment stores. There's something oppressive about them, like the guy who looks you up and down and looks at what you're buying. You're bound up in exchange with the snobby clerk. So I'm glad they all have little "closed" signs on their doors now.

Remind me to punch this clown in the throat if I ever see him

is that an interview quote?

p-fork interview here: http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/8003-john-maus/

i don't think he could have come off any worse if he'd tried...i have no interest in "chillwave", but even less-so having spent any time reading that brief interview.

FWIW, I wasn't saying he was necessarily chillwave, just his music is one of many that exhibit those purposefully muddy/lo-fi production jobs that kind of don't feel necessary.

*reminds If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport to punch John Maus in the throat if he ever sees him*

i knew ilm could be insufferable but lately this thread takes the cake

musician has opinion about record stores that incites esteemed ilxor If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport to violence, feebs hit wrists to chest every time the word "chillwave" is invoked because they are retarded.

stay classy Matt P

fuck you bitch

Matt P, go check out the "S/D: IDM" thread to feel warm about ILM again... I'm only mildly kidding; the discussion going on there is U&K.

Remind me to punch this clown in the throat if I ever see him

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 15:59 (1 hour ago)

dude's fuckin huge, I would train a bit first

imo just go to his live show, it's him punching himself in the throat over an over

lol Cal Arts

buzza

yeah that's a good thread. xp

sorry i called you a bitch jon. turns out im the one who needs to chillwave out.

buzza

Well, Yglesias is a fan. At least of the title.

so i am going to see him tonight

i have been led to expect *crazy things*

is this going to be like bauhaus + soul junk or what

also tropic of cancer is opening but they are not really my thing (death to false techno)

can we please mandate that the right John Maus thread is the one where Whiney calls him a "worthless VHS idiot"

i love this guy and think that thread is dumb.

and i know none of his backstory which seems to make people annoyed, cos i have a life.