Album Review - Mouse On Mars: Parastrophics

Mouse On Mars
Parastrophics
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

I will admit to not being a huge Mouse on Mars fan. Throughout their career, they have been one of those bands I have appreciated much more than I have loved. Something about their almost difficult for difficult sake's approach to post-techno has kept me at a distance; their only saving grace being a sense of humor that always tends to bob its head up and down every so often during their dense tracks. It has been about 6 years since their last release, and the electronic music landscape has changed dramatically. You can tell from the opening tracks of Parastrophics that they have obviously been listening to a lot of the Beat Music acts like Flying Lotus, adopting fractured beats, found sounds, and clipped vocal samples, and also 2-Step/wonky artists like Rustie, utilizing euphoric synths and beats. Mouse on Mars even attempt to mix everything together at some point, succeeding almost despite themselves. Has their slightly updated sound changed my opinion of them? Honestly, not really. They seem less obtuse on this record, but many times I am still held back by some of the more clinical aspects of their tracks. Again, my head wraps around it and I "get it," but my heart just sits there stoically removed from the experience.

Contrary to my usual preference, the tracks that work best on Parastrophics are the more streamlined tracks that one or two ideas to come to fruition, rather than allowing the mix to overwhelm. "They Know Your Name" trades off video game synths and wonky bass over a slapping beat.



"Baku Hipster"'s robotic vocals mesh well with the thundering proto-industrial beats and pinging electronics, beat into submission by some low end bass.



"Seaqz" slams some banging electro down, spurting buzzing synth chords over pounding drum programming.



Somehow "Metrotopy" avoids being overwhelming, even though it mixes some wonky synths with a more beat heavy backing track. There is focus on this track that is missing from the other attempts at stretching their sound. Too often, that reach gets a bit too cumbersome for their own good. "Chordblocker, Cinnamon Toasted," is buried under its own ambition. Psychedelic synths pulse over glitch-hop drums, old 70s organ drones, and some uninspired samples.



"Cricket" sounds like a Speak and Spell burning up and disintegrating in a fire. "Gearknot Cherry" allows the promising beat to get trapped with a messy mix of too many competing elements. Single "Polaroyced" walks the line closely, but ends up succeeding based on force of will alone, its funky undertones coming right to the forefront.



Technically, the album is almost perfect; the doe really know their way around the studio. But for all that technical proficiency, there still lacks that emotional element that would tie everything together. There are seeds here for a quite brilliant album, and more often than not, the songs do in fact work. However, I found myself skipping over too many tracks to get to the ones I wanted to listen to again. I would rather have them try for too much then coast by on the tried and true though, so for that I will give them accolades. I will say, I was never once bored listening to this album, and it has got me interested in hearing where they go from here.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Mux Mool: Planet High School - Album Review

Mux Mool
Planet High School
Rating: Grrrr

Brian Lindgren, better known by his producer moniker, Mux Mool, is a throw anything against the wall and see what sticks type of guy, whose debut Skulltaste was almost too eclectic for its own good. It held my interest, only because it dared you to not like it. But the constant genre hopping could get rather exhausting. His latest LP, Planet High School, doesn't really change that game plan much, but there seems to be a method to the madness this time around, each track working with each other instead of against the grain. The album, while definitely flashy in parts, gives the listener time to get into the flow, each track growing better and better in the mix. By the end of the album, you are totally on board with what he is doing. Does Lindgren limit himself to a few genres this time, making his definitive statement for each? Not really; there is still the restlessness apparent. In describing his sound to a friend of mine, I noted that it sounds like four record collectors running into each other, their albums all getting mixed up, with a little hip-hop, bass music, beat music, old school house, and early 80s robo-funk-R&B thrown in for equal measure. But instead of being an unholy mess, it mixes well together like a Reeses' cup.

The beginning of the record starts out more subdued. Drawing from DJ Shadow's crate digging experimentalism and Boards of Canada's elegant pastoral IDM, "Brothers" is a stunning down-tempo track full of hip-hop beats, and atmospheric keyboards.



"Live at 7-11" continues the low-key vibe, featuring a funky organ and lush synth underbase, before a late beat music breakdown that wouldn't be out of place on any current Brainfeeder release.



Just as things seem to be staying a little too sleepy with the languid beats of "Palace Chalice" and "Ruin Everything," Lindgren starts notching things up, adding faster tempos and more intricate layers into the mix. "The Butterfly Technique" adds crisp drums, piano rolls, and clipped vocal samples into a heavenly mesh with 80's R&B synths and bells. The late song drum freakout is stunning.



"Raw Gore" feels like the lovechild of Cameo/The Gap Band and Flying Lotus. The shuffling drum programming driving the 80s robo-synths into a fury.



"Cash For Gold" is the best Daft Punk song that Justice has been trying to make for years.



Which all leads to the amazing track "Get Yer Alphabets (Guns)" which throws together deep electro, beat music, and dubstep into the blender and comes out with pure ear candy. The inventiveness of this track alone makes the album worth getting.



People may be put off by all the genre hopping on Planet High School, however, this, for me, is what makes the record so special. If you tire of one track, there is not going to be another track like it and you can move on to something different. Some have said they wish Lindgren would focus on one type of sound, but I think that does a disservice to how people listen to music these days. I don't listen to one type of music. I fluidly jump back and forth between electronic acts, guitar driven indie, R&B, pop, and hip-hop, so much so, there is bleed-through with all of them. I say, keep doing what you are doing, it sure the hell is working for me.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.

Shlohmo: Bad Vibes - Album Review

Shlohmo
Bad Vibes
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

The 'beat music" field is getting quite crowded these days with artists trying to emulate the fractured beats of the genre's most famous musician Flying Lotus. With so many people jockeying for position, it can be difficult to stand out amongst them all. Some try for even more dense productions, each one competing to be the most abstract. Others, like L.A. producer Shlohmo head into more ambient areas, using traditional instruments such as guitars, rather than exclusively electronics. His second album Bad Vibes is a stylistically diverse collection of tracks that flow from ambient washes of sound, through head bobbing beat-centric numbers, all the way through touches of shoegaze. Though Shlohmo doesn't completely come out from under the Flying Lotus shadow, there is enough originality and inventiveness here to mark Shlohmo as a talent to look out for.

There are several tracks initially that carry the stuttering, wobbly beats of classic Flying Lotus tracks. "Places" and first single "Just Us" are practically Flying Lotus by the numbers; off kilter beats and twinkling, jazzy synths punctuating deeply treated vocal samples.





If Bad Vibes was just more of the same, it would be less interesting and quite frankly disposable. When Shlohmo goes off the track, so to speak, is where he shines. The unexpected pops up in "It Was Whatever," with nature sounds blanketing clicking percussion amid harp-esque guitar, creating a quite lovely midtempo number.



Likewise, "Parties" allows its moments of melancholy to seep into your consciousness, the fluttering beats held together by haunting guitars.



And it all comes beautifully together with the minimal and gorgeously building track "Same Time" with its lovely use of clanking, industrial like percussion, mourning bassline, and effect heavy guitars that border on Slowdive territory.



Shlohmo's shoegaze influences come out on several key tracks. From the buzzed out and reverbed guitars of "I Can't See You I'm Dead,"



to the droned out menace of "Trapped In A Burning House,"



and the effect heavy guitars of "Sink," which are swapped over for fuzzy washes of analog synths.



Bad Vibes is a consistently surprising record, where multiple listens reward the listener by finding new, small details that catch your ear each time. The too reverential nods to Flying Lotus and other beat music artists kept me from truly finding this a brilliant album, however, his excursions down untrod paths definitely makes me interesting in seeing where he goes with his sound.

Rating Guide

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.