Word: drums
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With the release of its third album, Autoditacker, Mouse on Mars is definitely a creature stirring the indie dance music scene. Released on the Chicago-based Thrilljockey label, Autoditacker wraps you up in swirls of repeated samples and drum loops. This kind of music-making may seem a bit hackneyed given the array of cookie-cutter techno groups out there, and after a first listen it seems easy enough to dismiss Mouse on Mars as just as another purveyor of boring rave music. But subsequent encounters with Autoditacker reveal a genuine musicality that contradicts this initial impression...
Instead of sounding like a random conglomeration of synthesized noises, most tracks on Autoditacker strike you as a unified whole. Only upon closer listening do their constituent parts become apparent. Samples and drum loops build on each other to form an almost seamless wall of sound. Rarely does one sample call attention to itself-except when the composition calls for it-and rarely does any sound seems superfluous. At times, Mouse on Mars samples live acoustic drums, but most of the time they use synthesized sounds percussively, a technique that makes their songs quite arresting. The 12 purely instrumental tracks...
...game soundtracks; the rest consist of playful riffs repeated until they grow mesmerizing, or just irritating. The brilliance behind Doktor Kosmos, which shines through in only three or four songs, is that you don't turn it off sooner. It's the great accomplishment of mindless muzakians and pop drum machine artists everywhere that you find yourself guiltily listening to "Don't Look at Photographs" or "Holiday" one more time...
Case in point is "Honey," the opening track, which not only boasts a buoyant rhythm track, but also shows a charming lack of ego. Mariah's voice slides so smoothly into Puff Daddy's drum machines that she almost erases herself inside her own song. But the song boogies, and so do we. Who loses...
...that Carey began on Daydream--away from pure pop toward a keener-edged R.-and-B.- and hip-hop-influenced sound. To help with the transition, Carey hired producer Sean ("Puffy") Combs, who brought a loping, hip-hop beat to Breakdown; rapper-producer Q-Tip, who selected the chugging drum tracks on Honey; and R.-and-B. singers Dru Hill, who trade soulful solos with Carey on The Beautiful Ones...