Mouse On Mars Preview

Mouse On Mars
Empty Bottle, Chicago
Tuesday, November 7, 2006

With Varcharz (Ipecac) German electronic duo Mouse On Mars maintain their near gapless record of rewarding albums, a rarity in a genre so tied to trend, technology, and commercial apathy.

Forgiving the 12-part “ReTphase” freakout, Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner go about their business with relative ease, masking Varcharz‘s painstaking assembly — in the works for three years — with a simmering urgency. Bearing little resemblence to their homegrown (meaning Krautrock), 12-year-old debut, Vulvaland, Toma and St. Werner eskew ambient textures for synthetic feedback and jungle beats that seem in touch with everything from post rock to grime to Aphex Twin. Twenty-first century robot funk rumbles through “Fish Bord” before careering off into the atonal, quasi-extreme metal orgasm of “Düül” (which also gets major props for having two umlauted u’s in a row). Abrasiveness finds its way into every track, even the infinitely beeping “Skik,” culminating in the free jazz pastiche, “One Day, Not Today.”

Holy Fuck and Lithops open.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly