KING WHO PRESENTS:
THE LATEST SOUNDS TO SEEK OUT
MOUSE ON MARS
NIUN NIGGUNG & GLAM
in the last few years there has been a growing wave
of music that is not rock or jazz of dance
but has strong elements of all three
most of my friends who strongly believe that the
best music is song orientated do not like this music
i dont really know what to call it
it has the non-vocal aspect of be-bop jazz
the wide ranging sounds of rock and
the electronic base of dance music
but its really none of these at all
and the music i like best in this genre all seems
to be coming from germany
this leads many critics to compare it to the 70's wave
called krautrock
the leaders of that loose circle were
can, kraftwerk, neu and faust
at least those are my favorites
and they are all great
i think the comparison is just coincidence
tons of bands from all over the world are inspired by
those 70's heros
mouse on mars has emerged as my favorite
here we have two of their albums
the earlier being glam
when i think about glam in music
i think about style and flash
and power chords and goofy lyrics
fun yes
but mouse on mars no
this album comes at me in two ways
if i listen to it quietly on a boom box before i go to bed
it sounds all minimal and almost ambient
like those brian eno "music for..." series
but when you turn it up on a big stereo
the sound moves all over the place
and fills the room completely
there are some great repetitive rhythms
and a place to really lose yourself in the music
but the roots of the rhythm are not in r'n'b etc
its found more in classical composers like
bach, wagner, mozart etc
the layers are very thick and you can listen to it
many different ways
it always seems to change in sound with my moods too
the newer album is niun niggung
released last year in germany and this year in the usa
the usa version has a few different songs
and totally new artwork
this album is more melody orientated
it some how brings to mind the sonny rollins album alfie
i dont really know why
but there are horns on some songs
and the tunes are quite catchy
the sound is lighter too
definitely more fun
i have heard a song from this album on the radio
and it just leap out of the speakers compared to other
more conventional songs
i would suspect that this band is going to go the same
route as most of those other german bands i dig so much
and that is into obscurity
but its out there for you to go buy and really enjoy
in comparison to most other indie rock that is popular in the last decade
like sonic youth and tortoise
well this music is just a lot more fun
but its not goofy either
the sound quality is top rate
but it does lean in an experimental mode
its not martin denny but could be mortin subotnick
to see more graphics from the niun niggung record go here
and to see more graphics from the glam record go here
go back to RECORD OF THE WEEK
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