Niun Niggung

Mouse On Mars | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 8, 2000)
• Original Release Date: February 8, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Thrill Jockey
• ASIN: B00003XA9U
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #376,288 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BY FAR THEIR BEST!!, February 1, 2002

By 

bowery boy (seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Niun Niggung (Audio CD)

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Electronic Masterpiece, June 7, 2000

By 

Joerg Colberg (Northampton, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Niun Niggung (Audio CD)

When this CD was released in Germany, Mouse On Mars said in an interview that their record company was forcing them to release their music. If this weren't the case, they'd work on their music forever and it wouldn't get released. I don't know whether this story is true. Given what Kraftwerk do, who haven't released a proper album in ages, it might be true. Niun Niggung doesn't really sound unfinished, though. It is another great Mouse On Mars album and given their output so far I like it best. It features some great displays of crazy electronica, and I doubt Mouse On Mars could get any better (they might - I have to wait for the next album). I have no idea how they programme all these weird syncopated and broken beats which lie underneath the funny-sounding melodic lines. A friend of mine tried to convince me that I had to buy a synthesizer myself and do some music with him but given what Mouse On Mars do I guess I should just continue working as a programmer...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh ideas while maintaining their distinct sound., January 8, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (St. John's, NF, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Niun Niggung (Audio CD)

Mouse on Mars still kick out some fresh ideas, but it doesn't take long into this release to realize it could only be the great sounds from Mouse on Mars. They have thrown in some horns on Niun Niggung, but they don't overstay their welcome. The overall sound is less polished, less crisp, and more bassy are slightly muffled. This is not a good thing as they are known for their crisp production. You still get your funky boogie tracks a la 'Gogonal' and the fun 'Yippie', and what you also get for the first time is moody horn-bred instrumentals which are nowhere else in Mouse on Mars' catalog. An interesting release, and deserving of attention (after all it is Mouse on Mars), but they've done better (see Iaora Tahiti) and it's not the place to start for these intelligent music creators.