Instrumentals

AMG Review of Instrumentals

Sean Cooper
All Music Guide

While previous releases such as Vulvaland and Iaora Tahiti had more or less their share of remarkable moments, Instrumentals was the closest thing yet to the sort of album the best of those moments suggested Mouse on Mars was capable of. Unlike the jittery pop-electronica of Mouse on Mars' only months-previously issued Autoditacker, Instrumentals (released on their newly launched Sonig label) profiled the group's more relaxed, experimental side, working tracks up out of a mush of warm, sputtery electronics and vaguely bouncing rhythms. The album is only about 70 percent new material (it includes Mouse on Mars' contributions to In Memoriam Gilles Deleuze a compilation dedicated to the work of philosopher Gilles Deleuze), but the placement of the two recycled tracks in the context of an album of which the rest matches them in both quality and atmosphere makes Instrumentals undoubtedly Mouse on Mars' most enjoyable and consistent effort.