Mouse on Mars

To be honest it's also what's driven me away, I'm with the above poster on buying practically everything over the last decade or so, but in my case I'm ready for a change. All I ask is one handraiser, one well-arranged piece of mayhem that can hold my attention for more than half a minute or so, and since we're talking about an album, no more of the filler that made idiology such a disappointment by the third or fourth listen.

Who are the vocalists?

I loved the first two tracks on 'Idiology'... it came out so quickly after 'Niun', and so many of the tracks were so crazy / sloppy that I just took that album as a fun transitional blowing-off-of-steam from (which they obviously slaved over) and I didn't hold it against them.

This new one though, it's a statement...

blowing-off-of-stream from the previous record (which they obviously slaved over)

Got the new one today. reactions from those who have it already? "Instrumentals" bores me a bit tbh, but "Rost Pocks" & "Idiology" are fab. One of those acts where I'm actually wary of hearing more of their records in case they don't match up to the same standard.

Mmmm "Send Me Shivers" is doing it for me at the moment :)

Subtly processed female vocals = big weakness of mine, I don't really enjoy Sophie Rimheden though, but adore Ellen Allien. Should I really be buying disco records?

MoM are as bad as Autechre for zero-critical-agreement on what is their best work. I'll probably try 'Glam' next I think.

This one is such a dissapointment. I think I'm going to sell it.

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Rost Pocks
Idiology
Instrumentals
Vulvaland
Niun Niggung

find/download - 'Untitled States Of'

Destroy

Radical Connector

(Yet to hear 'Autoditacker'& not too bothered tbh, want to hear 'Glam' eventually. Probably sleeping on Iaora Tahiti unfairly).

Radical Connector is one of the best records of the last 10 years. Thank fuck it doesn't sound like you think it should.

I love MOM usually, I just happened to find it a predictable and sonically boring record.

I'm intrigued you have such a strong reaction though. Care to defend it some more? I'd be interested to read another perspective on it, I didn't find the reviews at the time hugely englightening.

I'm sorry I don't know your history :-/ I can understand your ire if that's what you thought I was saying.

I don't think it was a huge change of direction was it? It just didn't work for me very well YMMV obviously. 'Predictable' only in regards to their previous work. From anyone else, far from it.

I just heard that mp3 and the structures reminded me vaguely of Idiology + playfully odd hip-hop over the top. It sounded 'fun' and inventive (and funky) similar to how I'd expected RC might have been. I hadn't imagined any specific sound or linear 'progression' like that, they don't do much of that do they? :-)

and Sonny, I'm pretty certain there are plenty of worse directions they could have gone.
freak folk fer instance ? jeez, so melodramatic.

pity MoM, such asinine 'fans'.

I only meant the final product sounded un-comfortable (stilted, forced, 'meta', the most 'IDM' (in a bad way) record they've done).

I'm sure they had a blast making it but it didn't come across in the finished product for me. Which is most untypical.

Maybe I am projecting, who really knows? I didn't however come here to continue slagging it off in some "me right/you wrong" fashion.

That said, I'm obviously not stimulating much in the way of meaningful conversation about it either so I guess I'll leave it!

Thanks for the reply upthread btw. What is your 'history' here in a nutshell, or a link? curious.

But all this seemed to mean was smoothing away the most jarring, spastic edges in their music, incorporate more 'pop' conventional funk rhythms & plain verse-chorus-verse structures. Even the best tracks like the one with Niobe on just didn't go anywhere, compared to their usual ever-shifting tunes.

As for previous work there are vocals on - Actionist Respoke, Doit, Die Seele Von Brian Wilson, Cache Coeur Naif, Schnick-schnack for starters.

Or to put it another way, compare/contrast with Delay's Luomo project, which went for the sensuous feel of house first and only later added the strong 4/4 whomp. Mouse on Mars go straight for the whomp but don't seem too concerned with or even aware of how the music should feel. I'm not sure if this makes the album bad or just odd; it's one of those albums which I feel quite conflicted about while listening to it.

Fandango and Tim pretty much nail what falters with the new record. Their ability to shift genres was one of the things that drew me to them, but what kept me coming back was the way they always maintained that [x] element that makes them sound like them. Radical Connector sounds like MoM doing pastiche, for the first time in their career, rather than really inhabiting a genre.

Brad: Yes, it is honestly my opinion that this was the worst direction they could have gone in. I like it O.K., but it just seemed like a very boring thing to do in 2004 -- as if their pandering to the pitchfork set who just discovered that it's okay to like pop music. I was disappointed because I think those people are dense and I think one of my favorite groups can do better than them. Something folkier would have been great, despite any trends, because the folk elements in Niun Niggung and Idiology were interesting and distinctly their own -- which realy illustrates how they used to lead trends but fell behind with the last album.

But I guess you have your own opinion about what works for them, even if you're a dick about it.

i also am one who feels this is their worst record, and feel "conflicted" listening to it for some unapparent reason. I can say that live, they had their vocalist/drummer centre stage pounding away, smiling, and i was just hankering for more knob twiddling and scattered beats/waves/whatever from the other dude. after idiology i bought radical connector without a thought, and i've not listened to it since. the new single (i heard after buying) i find extremely annoying. but it's only an opinion (personal reasons are unavoidable!) brad, and i dig that any of their albums can and are favourites to different people.

saying that, i'll take Instrumentals over anything else they've done.

-- Brad Laner (b...), April 30th, 2005.

Tne minute I first heard a MoM track I thought myself a fan cos I just loved the music. After that I several albums and they were all awesome, especially Idiology. When I heard RC it was the kind of gentle letdown that comes from a good release following back-to-back mindblowing albums. It was like playing Mortal Kombat III for the first time, thinking "Yes, this is cool, but sweet Jesus on a bicycle MK II was so much better than MK I - and so much better than the new stuff.

I like RC but I don't listen to it much anymore. If it wasn't MoM i probably wouldn't give it much of a chance anyways.

I thought it was fun, especially so to hear AGF in hip-hop producer mode even if it does (perhaps, inevitably) end up coming out a little tigerbeat6-ish.

with Connector they backgrounded the densely detailed squirky pure electronics that occupied the soloist position on previous records, and put all the detail work into the manipulation & editing of the vocals.

vocals are demanding, they have to be much louder than anything else in the mix to sound right, and when the focus is on them it kind of keeps the music from disruptively shifting around as much as earlier MoM -- Connector is much more straightforward. For me, the vocals are simply not to my taste & I miss the left turns; that's my problem. The jam at the end of "Spaceship" really grew on me & I'm still buying their next record on sight.

These guys were fantastic tonight at O2 London. So fun..

Ugh seriously is this band ever going to tour the US again? The last time they played, Ratatat and Junior Boys were opening for them

and when are they going to release new material? any idea what they're up to??

man, autoditacker really needed some time to marinate with me. listened to it tonight and i have to say it's probably as good as the first two.

THERE IS A NEW ALBUM