2008-08-01
DE - Scheer Klangbad Festival

2008-08-02
DE - Dortmund Juicy Beats Festival

2008-09-11
E - Zaragoza Balcon de Musicas

2008-09-12
IT - Turin Cinema Augusto

2008-09-13
DE - Berlin Maria am Ufer

Mouse On Mars

Mouse on Mars is one of the few electronic bands to stand the test of time. Constantly reinventing themselves, they have taken electronica to new heights with a unique blend of sound annihilation, fragmented melodies and an impassioned hatred of conformity. For over a decade, Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner have sweated over burning consoles to create a new musical language, only to twist it again into thousands of myriad distortions.
Mouse On Mars' sound links them to the club-music scene, as do their many remixes and collaborations with members of the dance-music world. Yet their association with the formalized and utilitarian world of dance music is ironic, as the band’s raison d’etre is to place electronic flies in any aural ointment they choose to muck through. A series of 11 albums and numerous remixes has come off as primarily intent on dashing expectations, from the ambient-house ectoplasms of 1994’s Vulvaland and 1995’s slightly more structured Iaora Tahiti; to the flighty and funny electronics, spluttering horns and acoustic-guitar samples of 2000’s more “organic” Niun Niggung; to the forest of sonic porcupine quills that is Idiology. Radical Connector (2004) further granulated the MoM aesthetic into nine vaguely pop-oriented songs, ever heavier on the beats and increasingly hinging the tunes on the vocals and drumming of longtime collaborator Dodo Nkishi.
After recording five albums for Thrill Jockey Records, they teamed up with Ipecac Recordings for the release of Varcharz (2006). Entirely recorded at Mouse on Mars’ St. Martin Ton Studios in Duesseldorf, Varcharz is their most live sounding and diverse studio album to date. Varcharz is nine tracks (don’t get confused by its stuttering track ID’s) of energetic impulses, heavy riffing from grained sounds and canned percussion, and slamming bottom end insanity provided by notorious sequenced bass and kick drum jolts. Varcharz is also spiked with catchy pop references, anarchic rock interpretations and manga-style pathos.

Mouse on Mars’ Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner have been more than busy in the intervening years between albums. As well as the release of their live record, Live 04, on their own label Sonig, and a constant barrage of touring, they are collaborating with Mark E. Smith of The Fall as Von Südenfed. Both Toma and St. Werner produce independently for the Sonig label. St. Werner has also worked on two new solo records under the Lithops moniker and acted as the artistic director of the Amsterdam Institute for Electronic Music, steim.

For booking request please contact the booking agency KKT.

Mouse On Mars

reviews

Mouse on Mars formed in 1993 when Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner (of Köln and Düsseldorf, respectively) met at a health food store.

Mouse on Mars rock like hell.

Bring your dancing shoes.

Mouse On Mars' sound links them to the club-music scene, as do their many remixes and collaborations with members of the dance and experimental music world.

numerous remixes...worked on remixes for the High Llamas, Cibo Matto, Pram, Anne Clark, the Pastels, Towa Tei, Oval, Ratatat, Against Me, The Presets and others.

Never has Mouse On Mars written a more danceable track with such irresistible drive. Expect to see dance floors from Tokyo to Santiago de Chile full to overflowing. OR With Radical Connector Mouse On Mars is taking an important step forward – both in terms of musical vision and international standing.

that definition of Varcharz has nothing to do with the album title
that trivia section should be deleted. someone is just being a big nerd. check the Ipecac records site. they pretty much explain what the title 'Varcharz' is all about.
www.ipecac.com/bio.
"The title, Varcharz, is intentionally mistaken to sound like “war charts”, but in fact, it is the phonetic mangling in English of the German word “wortschatz” which means “vocabulary”."

they made music for an ill-fated Tony Danza film

sonig is an independent music label for experimental, electronic and non genre specific music. the artist roster is international and features bands, solo artists and art related music projects.

Their music is funny

After a concert, I feel like I've been on a cure. It's a super-efficient, high-speed cure that is like a psychoanalysis session and a beauty farm and some adrenaline shock therapy.

Mouse on Mars formed in 1993 when Andi Toma (Dusseldorf) and Jan St. Werner (Cologne) met at a speed metal festival.

Mouse on Mars provides positive proof that it is possible to write and perform sophisticated music as part of a theoretical framework.

Bring your thinking cap.

their association with the formalized and utilitarian world of dance music is ironic, as the band’s raison d’etre is to place electronic flies in any aural ointment they choose to muck through.

remixes are rare...doku / fiction: Mouse On Mars reviewed and remixed as non-remix remixes

the group's somewhat challenging complexity and steadfast refusal to pander make widespread popularity unlikely.

Their sound seems to have taken a large veer away from the stylistics of their last two efforts on their newest album Varcharz which has a firmly experimental electronic foundation. The term Varchar is a technical term describing a data type in the database language, SQL. The abbreviation means "variable character (field)".

have recorded music for film soundtracks

Mouse on Mars started their own label, Sonig, on which they release their own work and that of other German artists.

Their music is challenging

Their studio is called St. Martin Tonstudio, Düsseldorf

Mouse On Mars

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