John Maus | | atractivoquenobello

History

31 December 2011

news

One last release before this year ends in a few hours… for those of us who’ve just woken up. How can we have missed Molly Nilsson‘s new album?!

“History” was released a couple of weeks ago on her own label Dark Skies Association. A great new piece of diy synth-pop taking us back to the best of the 80s pop through her spacial and echoic sounds.

We started 2011 with an amazing wintery Swedish pill… “Sparks” by Cascine’s World Tour (watch out for a new release early next year), and we have to finish it with another delicate Scandinavian pop artist (Swedish but Berlin-Based); a 4th album that may go unnoticed but hopefully 2012 will rescue as a nostalgic gem.

Molly Nilsson «In Real Life» by Eugene Kh

Cosmology

5 July 2011

reviews

Suddenly, everyone has to be smart to make music. If it isn’t Lady Gaga and her Tisch School of the Arts, it’s Anna Calvi and her classical training. Now, as the UK student population continues the fight for free higher education for all, up pops PhD candidate John Maus with his degrees in music and philosophy and a third installment of cosmic cyber punk We Must Become The Pitiless Censors of Ourselves.

In inspiring all manner of essayistic music reviews across the web, critics have been focussing more on the Minessotan’s political science thesis than his work with Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti and Animal Collective, not to mention his music. So to recap, John Maus has been traipsing about in the philosophical chaos of his customised pop universe for over 20 years. That’s if you believe his wikipedia page, meaning he’s been doing it since he was 11.

What we do know for sure though, is he’s released two previous albums, after working with the now-eminent ‘glo-fi’ god Pink and generating a devoted underground following among the droll masses of creative outsiders. This latest album is yet another to float to the surface of contemporary culture –thanks to the splash being made by the aforementioned US art rockers.

Continue reading Cosmology

Head for the Country

1 July 2011

news

Believer

29 April 2011

news

Last week the great pipol @ Upsettherythm gave us a wonderful Easter present, not a chocolate egg (we already had one of those) but “Believer” an amazing single from John Maus’ third album ‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’ released next June.

Jennifer Juniper Stratford’s directs this rather flipping video for ‘Believer’, which features John Maus for the first time alongside his hero “Jack Chan”. John is seen in profile singing about “people fighting all across the world” whilst some serious rare, analog video effects transport us through the waves of an alien landscape. The scenes of Jackie are taken from his wonderful film ‘Shaolin Wooden Men’ and it’s also worthy to note that JJ Stratford (Telefantasy Studios) is also the mastermind behind the impressive Multinauts sci-fi saga too.

The mp3 is free to donwload from Soundcloud, and if you’re lucky enough to live in the U.S, then you should know that John’s is preparing an upcoming tour.

JOHN MAUS – Believer (free mp3) by Upset the Rhythm