Varcharz

Mouse On Mars tend to work in big steps, sideways lunges, as though they need each album to act as the antithesis of its predecessor. Varcharz follows Radical Connector, their most pop album, with a set that takes their music in its most rough-as-guts, delirious direction yet. There’s something tremendous (in the sense of ‘great in scale or intensity’) about Varcharz, as though the duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma are pushing large, uncarved blocks of noise around in a deep metallic silo; “Bertney” contrasts this with lurching, abraded rhythms that catch like fingernails in doorways; “Hi Fienilin” is a video game set to perpetual crash. There are moments here where the sheer density of material flung at the listener gets overwhelming, which makes Varcharz one of Mouse On Mars’s most thrilling, if atypical, albums.