Albums by this artist

Idiology (2001)

Niun Niggung (2000)

Glam (1998)

Mouse On Mars

Niun Niggung

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» MARK T.R. DONOHUE | STAFF WRITER

Mouse On Mars Niun Niggung Thrill Jockey, 2000 RiYL: Aphex Twin, Oval, Orb, Luke Vibert

I listen to a pretty diverse assortment of music, I like to think. Some of the stuff I enjoy is very quote-unquote "difficult," too. I dig Gastr Del Sol, I have all of Sonic Youth's SYR series (on vinyl, natch), and I even think Joan Of Arc have their merits. What I'm driving at here is that it takes quite a lot of weirdness to produce something I just don't get.

Niun Niggung is a remarkable record in that regard. I have listened to it all the way through several times and still just have no idea what's going on. It's not precisely melodic electronica, it's not ambient like The Orb. The closest possible comparison I can thing of is Stereolab minus the drone qualities, minus the vocals, and minus almost all vestiges of listenability.

After the opening track, "Download Sofist," which is a pretty but still weird mix of acoustic guitar sounds, horn sounds, and sounds which have no root in the world of genuine instrumentation whatsoever, Niun Niggung is an endless stream of tracks which have too much rhythm to be wholly "experimental" but too much noise to be considered "popular."

The tunes follow no sense of discernible logic at all. "Mykologics" abandons its neat-o tuba groove seconds after it appears in favor of what seems like an eternity of synthesizer mooing. "Gogonal" sounds like the Digital Underground's "Humpty Dance" with the vocals replaced by the sound of a cork popping. Only "Pinwheel Herman," which could have fit on the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack if only the melodies weren't intentionally out of key, manages to be memorable.

The best thing about Mouse On Mars is their short attention span. Unlike a whole lot of electronic artists, this duo won't leave the same groove repeating forever. They tend to err on the opposite side, in fact, switching gears so rapidly that their songs are hard to follow and harder to get into. Niun Niggung has 13 songs, none of which top five-and-a-half minutes. But this unusual-for-the-genre brevity isn't exactly enough of a plus side to give the record a positive recommendation.

MARK T.R. DONOHUE | Mark T.R. Donohue is a prolific freelance writer whose areas of expertise include Rockies baseball, video games, genre television, English soccer, and pub rock. He lives in Colorado, where he cultivates the largest and creepiest private collection of Alyson Hannigan memorabilia in the Mountain West.