Mouse On Mars Pt 1.

Ah.
Mouse On Mars.
When first getting into electronica, I came across a review of these guys, and their miniature cinematic pieces. At the time I was into less adventurous stuff, and so when I got my first exposure through Idiology, I was, shall we say, not really ready.
But for some reason, a few weeks later I picked up the (ridiculously expensive in NZ) copy of Autoditacker from my local record store, despite my misgivings about the 'house' tracks (at the time I couldn't stand music that had kick drum on every beat or kick-hat-kick-hat bitz-bunce-bitz-bunce).
Now it's a bit of a different story. So I shall give some time to MoM, because they are a fantastic group, who should be thought of the way Autechre and Aphex Twin are.

So:
It all starts with the oddly-named Vulvaland, which came out in 94 on Too Pure. This album is probably more different from the rest of their output than any other. It's almost ambient, with long, warm drone tracks, that don't squiggle and fidget the way MoM usually do. There are hints and suggestions of what was to follow, but on the whole it doesn't make a lot of sense to judge it in comparison to the others, as it is so different. So, in and of itself, this is a very nice album, it sometimes comes across as a less sinister version of Gas, or a cartoon version of Fennesz. Chagrin is the highlight for me, hazy chords, dubbed out sonar pings, and a vocals singing something about grand chagrin. It's quite obvious that there's a strong dub influence on this album, but it becomes that sort of hazy european electronic dub that is exemplified by the Basic Channel stuff.

Iaora Tahiti - I didn't really get this one for a long time, really it was only listening to it now that I saw what the fuss was about. In a lot of ways it is still a bridge album between Vulvaland and Autoditacker, the hazy structure and obvious dub inflection of the first album is still really prominent, but at the same time, the group are fooling around with rhythm a bit more, and there is a greater tendancy towards tighter structure. Some of it seems too close to the 'chillout' style that was going around at the time (the beats are very even, and there isn't a lot to surprise you), but there's definitely some odd stuff going on in the background.