Albums by this artist

Idiology (2001)

Niun Niggung (2000)

Glam (1998)

Mouse On Mars

Idiology

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» PIERO SCARUFFI | STAFF WRITER

Mouse On Mars Idiology Thrill Jockey, 2001 RiYL: Oval, Aphex Twin, Chris Clark, Luke Vibert

Mars On Mouse's 2000 album Niun Niggung marked a turn towards a poppier and sunnier style with tracks such as "Download Sofist," but in reality, still swam in dissonance. What appeared to return to a more bodily form of music (as in the robotic nonsense of "Mykologics") actually retained Mouse on Mars' trademark textures and cacophony.

As such, Idiology is the first Mouse On Mars album to truly surprise. While the band has established a standard (and a cliche) of music that one has learned to expect, appreciate, and (if you are a musician) imitate, the hip-hop beat of "Actionist Respoke," the piano and violin sonata "Subsequence," the dissonant chamber music of "Paradical," the mutant reggae of "Doit," and the general "thickness" of sound effects (an almost hallucinatory symphony of instrumental colors), represent a radical departure from the cliche, if not from the standard.

"Catching Butterflies With Hands" is a post-modern index of retro styles, from the jazz horns to the disco strings to the garagey keyboards to the lounge guitar, all vivisected and cut up. "Fantastic Analysis" is no less kitschy, but in a Martian way. Best of all is "Presence," a piano and voice ballad in a melancholy style that smells of Robert Wyatt's spirit.

Mouse On Mars' approach has become Babelic in two ways: by incorporating so many "live" instruments, and by revisiting so many musical genres.

PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.