IDM Mailing Archive

sorry, little behind, catching up with my idm reading... rich baker wrote:

quoted 3 lines Yeah it seems. Was everyone happy with the MoM drums?

>Yeah it seems. Was everyone happy with the MoM drums? >[...] Sounds good for three songs, then I'd wish >they'd change up the drum style.

Caught them at Irving Plaza in New York. I thought the Mouse on Mars drums were a mixed bag. On the one hand, the band managed to acheive a live psychedlic jam-band kind of energy, which made it much more fun to see in a rock venue than the usual guy with a powerbook IDM show. Part of this was also Andi Toma (?) playing bass guitar for much of the set as well. The problem was that the set seemed to nonetheless rely on sequenced material, and, if I'm right in my guess, the drummer was compelled to play along with a tempo click for the whole set. The result was a sort of measured, session-cat-sounding playing, a bit polite, dynamically reigned in, and, of course, there was no play to the tempo, it was always metronomic. Or, worse than metronomic, which a drum machine can do perfectly, if the drummer at any point got a little excited and got ahead of the tempo, he had to slow down again to get in the groove, which is somewhat apologetic sounding. I don't know whether it was the way the drums were mixed (the toms sounded kinda fat and overly present in away you'd never hear on a Mouse on Mars record) but they did seem to be a little too busy overall. I remember one song had a drum machine as the main percussion and it sounded a lot crisper, leaner and more Mouse On Mars-sounding. Anyway, I'm really sympathetic to their effort to try and make a live show that works live. I think if that's the direction they're going in, they should get another player or two and make it completely live. Part of the pleasure of the set was seeing how pieces that had been completely sequenced on their recordings were both identifiable and effective in new arrangements with live players. I mean, it would be great to see them with another synth player and a horn section and lose the sequencer entirely. But, you know, there goes the tour budget. I'd have to add that the sound at Irving Plaza, which had worked fine for Trans Am's guitar band sound, often sounded muddy and miserable for Mouse on Mars. Kurt --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org