Tromatic Reflexxions
The only surprise about Von Südenfed, the collaborative vehicle of Mouse On Mars and The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, is that it didn’t happen sooner, particularly given their connections – Smith’s then-partner, Elena Poulou, had been part of the broader Mouse On Mars community for many years, as a member of Zen-Faschisten. Mouse On Mars’s silvery, detailed productions, prickling with energy and squirming down all kinds of weird wormholes, were perfect for Smith’s oracular pronunciations, and by the stage this collaboration happened – it was released in 2007 – he’d developed a particularly surreal self-edit function; Smith once referred to it as ‘live dubbing’, which is about right. On Tromatic Reflexxions it’s used to particularly potent end, and the opening trilogy of “Fledermaus Can’t Get It”, “The Rhinohead” and “Flooded” is startling, a pure rush that stomps like Mastodon, goes pop at unexpected moments, and then screwballs into the most brilliantly awkward two-step machinations. It’s exhilarating.