Instrumentals cover

Instrumentals

Released

Instrumentals, the first release on Mouse On Mars’s own label, Sonig, pulled together material they’d recorded during the mid-‘90s, including three tracks that had previously appeared on various artists compilations. The material here goes deeper than prior albums like Vulvaland and Iaora Tahiti, more content to slowly tease out variations on a theme, as though each track is a prismatic object they’re exploring from many different angles and positions. “Die Pegel Gesetzt” is full of burred, purring electronics, as though an entire insect orchestra is scurrying through the song’s undergrowth, while “Owai” is a glistened glide, with twitching nerve-endings exposed and bristling on its surface. There’s something autotelic about the whole affair, maybe even slightly hermetic, Mouse On Mars at their most inward-looking and introverted.

Jon Dale

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