Mouse on Mars: Lichter
Infinite Greyscale

Though Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner have been operating under the Mouse on Mars guise since 1993, the duo sounds fully engaged on this single-sided ten-inch for Infinite Greyscale and its showrunners Paul McDevitt and Cornelius Quabeck. Pressed on neon-pink vinyl with a screen-printed B-side (in an edition of 300), Lichter might well be as wild and experimental as anything else in the group's catalogue, but what prevents the thirteen-minute track from splintering apart is a bass-throbbing dub groove that acts as a stabilizing counterpoint to an unrelenting barrage of electronic flourishes (sounds presumably generated by the trigger robots provided by Sonic Robots' Moritz Simon Geist); no doubt much of the percussive thrust on the track also can be attributed to the involvement of long-time Mouse on Mars associate Dodo NKishi.

Opening in krautrock mode, the pulsating behemoth gradually gathers steam, building on its initial lurch with layers of metallic noise and synthetic treatments, and deftly shape-shifting at strategic junctures without ever losing momentum. That trademark Mouse on Mars sensibility is present every step of the way, as is the duo's penchant for take-no-prisoners experimentation (apparently the duo used a feedback software called 'smrph' to generate the track's layers). Supposedly the first installment in a projected series of electroacoustic dub compositions by the group, the anything-but-lackluster Lichter bodes well for what's to come from this ever-adventurous duo.

August 2016