Niun Niggung

Niun Niggung nonchalantly jumps over all sound construction sites in modern music history. Between the first lunar landing and the day after tomorrow’s pop music, post-organics and new avant-garde have rarely enjoyed such a good time together. Sounds without bounds! Battered evergreens to fall in love with! Details without regrets! As with its predecessor, Autoditacker, this terrifyingly progressive innovation centrifuge grows on you every time you hear it. "Diskdusk" with its elegant futurism, the wuppingly superflupping "Gogonal, " and of course the special edition of "Distroia" the wildest hit ever to emerge from the soundmines of the St. Martin studios are all the result of mercilessly erected findings of the past few years' sound research. An outrageously mature performance that always sounds different, yet always like Mouse On Mars. Forget about your pigeonholes! To think that all this is possible without glue or a false bottom! Between just now and Niun Niggung, Jan Werner (bicycle) and Andi Toma (jeep) were frequently, often and extensively on the road in their atom- powered flying absorber. They toured all over Europe as a band with drummer Dodo, and as a duo they visited the US and Japan with Stereolab, Oval and Microstoria. In between the two sound grafters from Cologne and Düsseldorf carved their imperialist super label Sonig from chewed-up vinyl treasures by Lithops, Wang inc., Vert, and F.X.Randomiz. In the breaks between their self-exploitation there's always amazing scrubbing for the world-famous A- Musik sphere, bucketloads of remixes and other merry yarns for which many would gamble away their left arm. One thing is for certain: Mouse On Mars have paved the way for a continuously growing gang of German and international sound villains to weave analogue and digital, electronic and non-electronic sounds in a totally new, organic fabric. Not without reason have great swarms of independent and other tinkerers, post-, kraut- and general rockers, poppers, techno types and avant-garde scoundrels included this darn modern stuff in their daily menu.

Only a band as creative as Mouse on Mars can release a disappointing album that's still very nearly great ...

From the first few seconds of Mouse on Mars' sixth full-length, it appeared that Germany's most inventive duo had deserted the bubble'n'squeak electronica they'd trademarked and instead gone the way of instrument-driven post-rockers like Tortoise or Kreidler.