Search - Mouse on Mars :: Niun Niggung

BY FAR THEIR BEST!!

bowery boy | seattle | 02/02/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is absolutely mOUSE oN mAR'S best and most wonderfully playful release to date.Whereas iaora tahiti was dark and dreamy ambient and autoditacker was cold computer precision, niun nugging is bubbly and poppy, warm and fun. niun nugging does sound like a child's playroom fun of toys gone berserk. Check out the frenetic clambering of steel drums and the fat warped `bouncing ball' snare of diskdusk. I feel like I'm in a weird MoM style Jamaican paradise.The ska-reggae influence, although present in almost all of MoM's releases, is heavily evident on niun nugging and is used to good effect. This due in part to the brass section that shows up on many tracks. yippie and mykologics are two such tracks mixing the accessible with the experimental. You may find yourself doing that weird two step ska dance move as you listen to these tracks.dispothek starts with a childishly simple melody that blips and blops its way into a drifty downtempo groove. It takes you along on a wonderful journey that you don't want to end. Press repeat! pinwheel herman has a wonderfully familar meldoy that pops up a minute into the track, threading its way about for a couple of minutes and then disappearing.wald fx is a perfect close, crisp, cool and absolutely precise. A laidback oh-so-cool beat and of the course the melody. MoM are the masters of creating the perfect melody. Even the harsh, punk synths of distroia come together in a wonderfully melodic way. I'm constantly amazed by some of the sounds that pop up throughout this disc. Some sounds are like bubbly puddles of water thickened by mud, others are like squeezing out the last drops of ketchup from a squeeze bottle. Their music seems so familiar that it instantly feels as if you've heard it before. By far their best. Not necessarily a good starting point for the uninitiated but a wonderfully playful and charming release from MoM. Not quite sure what to make of the cover art though, it that a comb and hairbrush with stray hairs stuck in it???? See what I mean by playful."

HOOKED ON MOUSE ON MARS!!!!

Darrell L. Lee | Jackson, MS | 12/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've gotten so addicted to Mouse on Mars in a short period of time. They have a certain ja nais se quai and allure that I have yet to figure out. Oftentimes their music is listenable and other times I'm like--"Arrgh!!! Turn it off!!!!" Nevertheless, the more and more I listen to these guys the more and more I can appreciate the playful wibbly-wabbly sounds they crank out. Mouse on Mars gives you pure creativity in every form! On the oddly titled "Niun Niggung", these guys distort and reassemble electronica, funk, ambient, drum n' bass and jazz music into stuff you've never heard of before. Whether or not you like a lot of their music, you'll walk away with the notion that what you just heard was strangely beautiful and truly different."

The Maturation Of A Sound

Minnesota Domino | Delray Beach, Florida | 07/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Getting right to the point, I consider this MoM's best album by miles. I don't understand unfavorable comparisons to Iaora Tahiti, though at the same time I can pretty much understand anything else comparing unfavorably to that particular gem. Niggung, however, seems to me to be precisely *that* sound, after years of evolution. The compositions are denser and hit closer to home. While Iaora Tahiti was earth-shattering for me in 1995, Niun Niggung ends up sounding even smarter in the end. It is so much deeper in its subtlety... and statements by others that it is less polished baffle me. Perhaps the sounds aren't quite as "crisp" as they used to be, but I feel this is the result of more polish, more texture. I can only hope MoM gets back to making this kind of music again after their latest couple of misadventures. For the uninitiated, this is headphone music, which will, for the thoroughly initiated, turn into road trip/majestic sunrise music. Give it a chance. If you like experimental-yet-somehow-harmonious electronica, it'll stick eventually."