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Avg: 4.0 (27 ratings)
- Date Released: October 13, 1997
- Genre: Electronic
- Style: Electronic Experimental
- Label: Thrill Jockey
More gloopy tone clusters and saggy glissandi from your two favorite Germans.
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We Say...
Mouse on Mars have certainly proved one of the most adaptable acts in the underground pop landscape — a category which describes a band equally rooted in Krautrock and dance music far better than merely "electronic" or "experimental." Though perhaps "adaptable" isn't the word, as Mouse on Mars have never evolved to fit any discernible external influences; they've certainly never done anything like heed the prevailing winds of the pop marketplace. They've simply remained a profoundly mutable project, but always with an immutable core. It's never been possible to pin down Mouse on Mars to a particular sound — not even within the space of a single album. Still, there is a discernible arc in the progression of the band's albums, allowing listeners to tease out distinct phases in which various of Mouse on Mars' interests become particularly clear.
The duo's two mid-period records Glam and Instrumentals, both dating from 1997, might almost be taken as a side project for the group, given the way they constitute a sort of eddy of calm between the group's more exuberant early and recent periods. (This impression is reinforced by the fact that they come closest to the oblique sounds of Microstoria and Lithops, Jan St. Werner's side projects.)
"Auto Orchestra," which opens Instrumentals, sounds like it's scored for a chorus of balloons being erotically fondled, and it sets the tone for this period's weirdly grabass approach, kneading at the underbelly of tones grown soggy with their own resonance. Both of these albums, comprised principally of gloopy tone clusters and saggy glissandi, feel a bit like a butcher harvesting the last and blackest bits of offal from a beast his apprentice has left lazily unfinished. Even the rare uptempo track, like the spry "Owai," seems to find its funk in marrowy ooze and cracking cartilage. -
They Say...
While previous releases such as Vulvaland and Iaora Tahiti had more or less their share of remarkable moments, Instrumentals was the closest thing yet to the sort of album the best of those moments suggested Mouse on Mars was capable of. Unlike the jittery pop-electronica of Mouse on Mars' only months-previously issued Autoditacker, Instrumentals (released on their newly launched Sonig label) profiled the group's more relaxed, experimental side, working tracks up out of a mush of warm, sputtery electronics and vaguely bouncing rhythms. The album is only about 70 percent new material (it includes Mouse on Mars' contributions to In Memoriam Gilles Deleuze a compilation dedicated to the work of philosopher Gilles Deleuze), but the placement of the two recycled tracks in the context of an album of which the rest matches them in both quality and atmosphere makes Instrumentals undoubtedly Mouse on Mars' most enjoyable and consistent effort.
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| 01. |  |
Auto Orchestra |
3:07 |
|
| 02. | |
Owai |
9:20 |
|
| 03. | |
Chromantic |
5:59 |
|
| 04. | |
Pegel Gesetzt |
10:00 |
|
| 05. | |
Rompatroullie |
6:55 |
|
| 06. | |
1001 |
7:08 |
|
| 07. | |
Subnubus |
9:34 |
|
07 Total Tracks, 52:03 Total Length
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