Mouse on Mars - AAI

[dr lopez]

aai....dunno

[toaoaoad]

Yeah this album sucks lol 

[onecaseman]

I really don't like this. This duo made Iaora Tahiti, Autoditacker, Instrumentals, Niun Niggung, Idiology, and Radical Connector, all of which I love to death. Varcharz was pretty solid too. Maybe they should have stopped after that. Parastrophics was okay, but felt more like a Hud Mo album than a Mouse On Mars album.

[Extralife]

1 hour ago, onecaseman said:

I really don't like this. This duo made Iaora Tahiti, Autoditacker, Instrumentals, Niun Niggung, Idiology, and Radical Connector, all of which I love to death. Varcharz was pretty solid too. Maybe they should have stopped after that. Parastrophics was okay, but felt more like a Hud Mo album than a Mouse On Mars album.

Yeah. It’s pretty so so...

...and again disappointing after creating some of the classics you listed.

[Hugh Mughnus]

I think there is some really interesting sound design on this. It's not as immediately gratifying as some of their previous releases, but (at least in my opinion) there is some really interesting stuff in here. A much more mature, less dancey, and p psychedelic release compared to modern (2000s+) releases.  

Less of an album, more a collection of sound/vocal experiments. Which I think may have been the point to begin with?

This is one of the more interesting releases I've heard in years tbh. I'm trying to get into a habit of listening to releases with less context, as in, trying to set aside who the artist is, my previous experiences with and expectations of them. I find I'm enjoying music a lot more this way.

Currently my take is that AAI deserves some respect and repeat listens, and not necessarily in sober frames of mind. 

Edited February 28, 2021 by Hugh Mughnus

[Boxus]

this is a weird album. It's underwhelming, but with some highlights and moments I want to come back to. Speech and Ambulation being track 3 really fucks up the flow for me, that track seems so pointless.

[dr lopez]

damn this sucked!

[Extralife]

1 minute ago, dr lopez said:

damn this sucked!

Yeah...wish it was better. It at least motivated me to make a playlist off all their 90s one-offs and remixes that beats the hell out of this.

[YangYing]

wonder how the ratio of daws to hardware was in their previous work and if it has changed with time.. I kinda have the suspicion that the early stuff was more daw based but idk to be honest, would like to know

[toaoaoad]

I'm curious at this point with Jan St Werner cranking out tons of material on his own, either as Lithops or with his own name, what would compel him to do another proper MOM album with Andi (and Dodo), and what Andi's contributions are (I've always wondered this last thing).  Lithops and JSW-eponymous stuff tends to be a lot more abrasive and "experimental", at least in the past decade, so I guess MOM is intended to be more cohesive and poppy. But this is still just a crappy album. Presents itself as having a big meaningful concept but sounds like aimless studio wank, unmemorable and substanceless with some wtf/why? moments. 

Edited March 14, 2021 by toaoaoad

[toaoaoad]

" Hidden in the duo’s hyper-detailed productions is a kind of meta-narrative. Working with AI tech collective Birds on Mars and former Soundcloud programmers Ranny Keddo and Derrek Kindle, the duo collaborated on the creation of bespoke software capable of modelling speech. What appears to be Louis Chude-Sokei narrating through the story is in fact the AI speaking. Text and voice from Chude-Sokei and DJ/producer Yağmur Uçkunkaya were fed into the software as a model, allowing Toma and Werner to control parameters like speed or mood, thereby creating a kind of speech instrument they could control and play as they would a synthesizer. The album’s narrative is quite literally mirrored in the music - the sound of an artificial intelligence growing, learning and speaking. Artwork was provided by the inventor of the computer graphics language Processing, Casey Reas, a further exploration of technology’s application in the context of art.  "

 

It's so sad that such a cool idea ended with such lackluster music. Maybe they had their heads too deep in the project that they couldn't "zoom out" and be able to tell whether the music was actually enjoyable to listen to. There's that question of process/product again. To me it's just another one of those situations where if I didn't read the blurb it could easily just be passed off as crap without a second thought lol 

 

[dr lopez]

rochdale does it better

[dr lopez]

16 hours ago, MIXL2 said:

wonder how the ratio of daws to hardware was in their previous work and if it has changed with time.. I kinda have the suspicion that the early stuff was more daw based but idk to be honest, would like to know

 Doubt it. When did daws get sufficiently good to do MoM stuff? My guess is that the first 3-4 albums are not done on daws. Ideology probably. I dunno i dont know anything i could be totally wrong. 

[YangYing]

19 minutes ago, dr lopez said:

When did daws get sufficiently good to do MoM stuff?

idk, but by 1999-2001 they where good enough to do drukqs and confield right? 

 

in the fact bits they made mom show a ton of hardware, but the end of the 90s the direction was more toward daws wasn't it? that's just the impression I get..

 

either way just curious if their change in sound coincides with a change in workflow (like it has for others..)

[Boxus]

the more fleshed out tracks on the album have grown on me a bit. there are some really solid grooves. it all feels very flat structurally though, like beyond a nice beat and a handful of vocal loops these tracks just aren't doing much. and every time the rambling philosophical AI interludes come on I just have to mash that skip button, they're so boring.

[dr lopez]

this is not unlike holly herndons last album - some nice tracks, and then the AI shapenote singing things which were not very successful. 

Edited March 15, 2021 by dr lopez

[mcbpete]

On 10/31/2020 at 8:20 PM, toaoaoad said:

This sounds promising. Really hope this one doesn't have extensive vocals. They are such brilliant producers, among the best that came of the 90s, but they have this awful tendency to ruin their tracks with bad vocals (and in some cases, entire albums). I don't understand why. 

 

I'm getting vibes from this track from a few years ago, nice to hear more of this direction.

 

This track is soooo ace. Thanks for posting this

[dr lopez]

i listened to this again and it wasn't as bad as I first remember. it still fucking sucks tho

[Extralife]

Yeah, dissatisfied.