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Mouse on Mars | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Düsseldorf, Germany |
Genres | |
Years active | 1993–present |
Labels | Too Pure Ipecac Thrill Jockey Sonig Domino Monkeytown |
Members | Jan St. Werner Andi Toma |
Website | www.mouseonmars.de |
Mouse on Mars is a German electronic music duo formed in 1993 by Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma. Their music is a blend of electronic genres including IDM, dub, krautrock, breakbeat and ambient, featuring heavy use of organic analog synth and cross-frequency modulation. [1] Their music also features live instrumentation including strings, horns, drums, bass, and guitar.
St. Werner, from Cologne, and Toma, from Düsseldorf, are childhood friends who were born on the same day and in the same hospital. [2] They both experimented with electronic music in the mid 1990s. On earlier recordings, their music was primarily krautrock, dub, techno and ambient, and did not feature vocals, but more recent recordings increasingly include vocals from featured guest artists, many of whom have toured with the duo.
Their first album, Vulvaland , was released in 1994 on the British record label Too Pure. Sean Cooper of AllMusic stated that it is "a wibbly, barely digital match of ambient texturology with experimental strains of techno, dub, and Krautrock." [3] Their second album, Iaora Tahiti , has a much more playful feel and encompasses a wider variety of electronic dance genres. Over the years, their sound has increased in warmth, playfulness and what the duo term "fantastic analysis". Their sixth album Niun Niggung (released on Domino Records in 2000), showed live instruments becoming more prominent. Idiology , their seventh album, continued this practice, and on their eighth album, Radical Connector , they took more of an accessible "pop" approach; both also increasingly included vocals, primarily from touring drummer Dodo NKishi. [4]
Mouse on Mars regularly perform live as a three-piece, with Toma & St. Werner augmented by drummer Dodo NKishi. In 2005, they released their first live album, titled Live 04 . [5]
The band released their tenth full album, Parastrophics , almost six years later, in February 2012. It was their first album to be released under Modeselektor's Monkeytown record label. Following this another six years later, the band reunited with Thrill Jockey to release Dimensional People in April 2018.
St. Werner has released solo work under his own name, and as Lithops and Noisemashinetapes. [6] St. Werner also partners with Markus Popp of Oval for Microstoria. St. Werner has also collaborated with the renowned visual artist Rosa Barba. While releasing albums on British indie labels, Mouse on Mars started their own label, Sonig, on which they release their own work and that of other German artists. They have also produced a number of EPs and have recorded music for film soundtracks as well as remixing the work of other musicians.
In 2018 with the release of the Dimensional People release, the band perform under the name of Dimensional People Ensemble, an ensemble of drums, horns, strings, vocals, and electronic instruments, played by robotics and humanoids. [7] [8]
Mouse on Mars collaborated in the studio and toured with Stereolab in the mid 1990s – the results can be heard on Stereolab's Dots and Loops album and the associated Miss Modular single, and Mouse on Mars' Cache Cœur Naïf EP. St. Werner and Lætitia Sadier have also performed karaoke duets. [9]
The duo collaborated with Mark E. Smith of The Fall, firstly on the Wipe That Sound EP in 2004, and then forming the band Von Südenfed in 2007. Their album is called Tromatic Reflexxions . [10]
A mini album was released November 2012, titled WOW . The album marked the duo's first recorded collaboration with the vocalist Dao Anh Khanh, producer Eric D. Clarke and the punk band, Las Kellies. [11]
Stereolab are an Anglo-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's sound features influences from krautrock and 1960s French pop music, often incorporating a repetitive motorik beat with the use of vintage electronic keyboards and female vocals sung in English and French. Their lyrics have political and philosophical themes influenced by the Surrealist and Situationist art movements. While performing, they play in a more feedback-driven and guitar-oriented style. From the mid-1990s, the band began to draw from funk, jazz and Brazilian music.
Faust are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf Meifert, Jean-Hervé Péron (b.1949), Rudolf Sosna and Gunther Wüsthoff, working with engineer Kurt Graupner. Their work was oriented around dissonance, improvisation, and experimental electronic approaches, and would influence subsequent ambient and industrial music. They are considered a central act of West Germany's 1970s krautrock movement.
Pram are an English post-rock band formed in Birmingham in 1988 by singer-keyboardist Rosie Cuckston, guitarist Matt Eaton, drummer Andy Weir and bassist Samantha Owen.
Dots and Loops is the fifth studio album by English-French rock band Stereolab. It was released on 22 September 1997 and was issued by Duophonic Records and Elektra Records. The band co-produced the album with John McEntire and Andi Toma, and recording took place at their respective studios in Chicago and Düsseldorf. It was their first album to be recorded straight to Digital Audio Tape and produced with Pro Tools. The album explores jazz and electronic sounds, and is influenced by bossa nova and 1960s pop music. Its lyrics address matters such as consumerism, the "spectacle", materialism, and human interaction.
Timothy John Gane is an English songwriter and guitarist who co-founded Stereolab with his then-partner Lætitia Sadier.
Lætitia Sadier, sometimes known as Seaya Sadier, is a French musician best known as a founding member of the London-based avant-pop band Stereolab. She was born in the east of Paris and spent time in the US as a child. In 1996, while Stereolab was still active, she formed the side project Monade. In 2009 – the same year Stereolab became inactive – she ended the Monade project and began to perform solo work under her own name; her current band is known as the Lætitia Sadier Source Ensemble. She has frequently performed guest vocals and collaborations with other artists.
Iaora Tahiti is the second studio album by German electronica duo Mouse on Mars. It was released in 1995.
Niun Niggung is a studio album by German electronica duo Mouse on Mars. It was released in 1999. It peaked at number 76 on the German Albums Chart.
Idiology is a studio album by German electronica duo Mouse on Mars. It was released in 2001.
Radical Connector is a studio album by German electronica duo Mouse on Mars. It was released in 2004. It features vocal contributions from Dodo Nkishi and Niobe.
Vulvaland is the debut studio album by German electronica duo Mouse on Mars. It was released in 1994.
Von Südenfed was a collaboration between Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner, and Mark E. Smith, leader and vocalist of the Fall.
Parastrophics is a studio album by German electronica duo Mouse on Mars. It was released by Monkeytown Records in 2012.
WOW is an EP by German electronic music duo Mouse on Mars. It was released on Monkeytown Records in 2012.
Nicolas Baudoux known by his stage name DJ Elephant Power, is a Belgian turntablist and producer. With the Cologne label Sonig, he has released various albums. He created his own label Elephant Power Records in 2013.
Cache Cœur Naïf is an EP by German electronica band Mouse on Mars. It was released in 1997 on Too Pure Records, Thrill Jockey Records and Rough Trade Records. It was recorded in collaboration with British band Stereolab, which had also co-created their album Dots and Loops and the Miss Modular EP with Mouse on Mars.
Dimensional People is the eleventh studio album by German electronica group Mouse on Mars. The 2018 album aims to be one orchestra piece letting musicians express freely instrumentally or vocally and features more than 50 collaborators including Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Spank Rock and Zach Condon of Beirut.
Pickly Dred Rhizzoms is an EP by German electronica band Mouse on Mars. It was released on 3 May 1999 by Sonig and Thrill Jockey. It features experiments with glitch and techno further present on band's previous and next albums Autoditacker, Glam and Niun Niggung. EP uses more acoustic instrumentation, polyrythms and breakbeats.
Electrically Possessed is a compilation album by the English-French band Stereolab, released on 26 February 2021 under Duophonic Records and Warp Records. It collects the band's rarities, and is the fourth of their "Switched-On" compilation series. The track "Dimension M2" was released following the compilation's announcement, followed by "Household Names", taken from the mini album The First of the Microbe Hunters.