Released just on time to celebrate ten years of services
to society from German techno pranksters Mouse On Mars,
this album collects for the first time the duo’s
early EPs. Formed in 1993 by Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner,
from Köln and Düsseldorf respectively, to
a common interest for early Krautrock experimentations
from Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk, Mouse On Mars has become
one of the essential Teutonic bands of the last decade,
relentlessly reshaping the musical landscape by ways
of unconventional uses of technology. Originally excelling
in producing sharp electronic dance-fuelled records
firmly rooted in the excellence of the Detroit scene,
the duo increasingly developed a sound feeding on a
range of influences going from traditional rock instrumentation
to jazz, dub and hip-hop. Introduced to Too Pure by
ambient-guitar/electronic purveyors Seefeel, Mouse On
Mars released a series of visionary EPs and albums,
before they eventually set up their own label, Sonig,
in 1997.
Rost Pocks compiles tracks taken from the Frosch,
Bib and Twift EPs, together with three
songs lifted from their 1997 collaboration with art-popsters
extraordinaire Stereolab,
Cache Coeur Naif, the two tracks from the 12’
remix Saturday Night World Cup Fieber, and
Maus Mobil, until now only made available on
the Trance Europe Express 3 compilation. These
tracks, fitting around the three albums Mouse On Mars
produced for Too Pure, present part of the journey that
took the duo to last year’s challenging Idiology.
From the pretty straightforward dance inspiration of
the Frosch EP, released in prelude to their
first album, Vulvaland, to the atypical pop
of Cache Coeur Naif, Rost Pocks pays
tribute to the compulsive singularity of the Mouse On
Mars sound. Despite the apparent simplicity of the majority
of these fifteen tracks, the constant shift of focus
of the compositions between linear beat structures and
complex arrangements gives an interesting insight into
the work of the pair. Of the many incarnations of the
MoM, the most ear-catching here are found on the Bib
& Cache Coeur Naif tracks, which, although
radically different in form, find Toma and Werner executing
similar style contortions.
As the band prepares for more eccentric excursions,
with an album due out later on this year, this excellent
collection is a perfect reminder of what the Mouse are
all about. Clever, fun and unpredictable, the band have
made a mark on the music scene and can nowadays claim
to be as influential as the Krautrock pioneers who influenced
them in the first place.
3.5/5 |
