at a glance...

Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Year Formed: 1994

Personnel:
Andi Toma -sounds, processing, composing, arranging, producing
Jan St. Werner -sounds, processing, composing, arranging, producing
With:
Dodo Nkishi -drums
Harald "Sack" Ziegler -french horn, brass arrangements
Scott White -cello, violin
Markus Dirk -bass trumpet
F.X. Randomiz -digital sound processing, sample support
Perry White -bass clarinet, flute
Matty Arouse -fiddle, broom bass

Related bands:
Lithops, Microstoria, Four Square Logos, High Llamas

Notes:
Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner first met when Toma mixed a single by Werner's old band Four Square Logos. The two clicked and have been making records, film soundtracks, and remixes together ever since. Other releases include: 1994's Vulvaland, 1995's Iaora Tahiti, Autoditacker and Cache Coeur Naif (both released in '97). They also contributed to 1999's Illuminati, an album of Pastels remixes.

Niun Niggung may exude a warm electronic glow, but don't call this electronic music; Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner use the machines, the machines don't use them. Which explains the warmth that radiates from even their twitchiest hard-drive-generated moments; they want this stuff to sit easily in your ear, the better to mess with your mind. Because Mouse On Mars do want to be subversive, whether by sending up breakbeat music on the mad (and madly catchy) "Distroia" or painting a lush guitar and brass portrait of endless summer on "Download Sofist" only to make it collapse like a Hollywood set knocked down by a clumsy carpentry crew.

Previous Mouse On Mars records have had a little too high of a daffy disco content for my taste, but this time they stitch together blurred sounds and bouncy beats so artfully that I can't help but come back for more.

If you like Mouse On Mars, check out:
The Pastels Illuminati
Various Artists Sonig Comp.
Stereolab Dots And Loops
To Rococo Rot The Amateur View
Oval Systemisch
Lithops Uni Umit

-- Bill Meyer

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