Customer Reviews

Niun Niggung

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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...

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.

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.

MOM's Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma. have done it again. This was a little bit of change for the two,..introducing the "jazz" vibe. I was surprised to hear the horns when I first bought this CD..but eventually it really grew on me!! These guys never cease to amaze me, their technical knowledge plus thier free form theory in muzak brings the ultimate combination to anything they do. And they do it well. I really like the mode they were in with Lithops(Uni Umit)and MOM Instrumentals..but this album was a nice addition to their amazing dizKograPhEEE! Check out anything they have something to do with, FX Randomize, Lithops, Oval, Microstaria..youll be amazed!

Though this is less accessible than even "Autoditacker" it is BRILLIANT. Think of all those weird abrupt changes of time signature in Aphex Twin used tastefully--things that don't work that sound like they do. The sound is similar to "Autoditacker" only far more interesting with that sliding hi to low fidelity thing that Autechre does on EP7 and the addition of acoustic instruments. The second track even has a hint of ska! This is a fun and innovative record worth your time and money.

With subtle acoustic textures and playful, warm melodies, MOM has created their most adventurous and satisfying music to date. It takes a couple of spins for the record to fully reveal itself, but it's worth the effort. MOM has raised the bar again for electronic music. Don't let these other negative reviews dissuade you. This is great stuff.

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.

This release is an incredible opportunity to convert all your friends who "just don't do the dance music thing." (I know Mouse on Mars has little to do with dancing but let them call it what they will, just get them to listen!) Yes, this cd is an intense collage of "DSP fiddling" and "beat fussing" (which according to the previous reviewer is a BAD thing, hmmmm). Most earlier Mouse on Mars releases actually only hinted at how amazing they could be when they remained focused and diligently constructed complex, layered songs. Niun Niggund actually delivers with a nice mixture of both acoustically and digitally generated sounds which always uncannily seem to hover just on the other side of recognition. All this experimentation could make for nothing more than a self indulgent exercise, though, if it wasn't for the fact that Mouse on mars have such a wonderful playfulness and sense of humor they inject their music with. A near classic of electronic music.

Mouse on Mars' Niun Niggung, released in 1999, stands as one of the central electronic albums of the 1990s and possibly beyond. Leaving the more dense genre-hopping ambience of their earlier albums, MoM have created an album where space plays a larger role in the overall sonic scheme. One gets a sense that they held back a bit and let the space creep in. MoM concentrated on processing and altering audio clips to create new sounds using more advanced software. With the software allowing them more creative freedom and flexibility, the characteristic pops and blips remain on Niun Niggung and enter in and out of the recording at whim, punctuating the intricate rhythms and playful melodies. These qualities give this album an accessible and playful edge without compromising on their individuality and uniqueness. Brilliant!