John Maus | ||
| Allmusic Biography : When John Maus (not to be confused with the John Maus of Walker Brothers fame) wasnt playing keyboards for Animal Collective, Panda Bear, and Haunted Graffiti, he was writing and recording his own hermetic, experimental, and oftentimes misunderstood compositions. Drawing on artists like David Bowie, Scott Walker, and Joy Division, Maus swollen, distorted, and unabashedly strange debut, 2006s Songs, was more or less reviled by any and all music critics within earshot. CMJ wrote, "It took this Ariel Pink cohort five years to write and record his debut album, and only five minutes to become more annoying than Ariel Pink." Commenting on Maus vocal style, Drowned in Sounds Mike Diver said that while some listeners "...will hear a little Nick Cave in it...others will hear a man crapping out of his mouth." In spite of the harsh criticism (much of which Maus posted, to hilarious effect, on his MySpace profile), Maus continued to generate new material. His second album, Love Is Real, was released on Upset the Rhythm in 2007. Four years later, he returned with We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, which featured some of his most dynamic and nuanced music to date. Compiling B-sides and unheard recordings made between 1999 and 2010, A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material was released in 2012. His next studio album was again self-recorded at home over a span of a few years, but this time after finishing his doctorate (in political philosophy) and building his own custom set of modular synthesizers. The resulting Screen Memories emerged in 2017. With much of his prior work out of print by that point, Ribbon Music assembled the six-LP John Maus Boxset for the spring of 2018. Album number six in the set was 2018s Addendum, which was also released separately. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 6 Title: Songs Released: 2006-03-20 Tracks: 16 Duration: 45:49 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Opening (01:10) 2 Time to Die (03:26) 3 Dont Be a Body (03:13) 4 That Night (01:14) 5 Real Bad Job (02:40) 6 Forever and Ever and Ever (04:17) 7 Maniac (03:36) 8 Just Wait Til Next Year (02:27) 9 Im Only Human (02:43) 10 Less Talk More Action (01:47) 11 Through the Skies for You (03:06) 12 Blowing in the Mind (03:15) 13 Of North of North Stars (02:10) 14 It Takes Time (02:30) 15 The Peace That Earth Cannot Give (02:49) 16 And Heaven Turned to Her Weeping (05:26) |
 | Album: 2 of 6 Title: Love Is Real Released: 2007-11-19 Tracks: 14 Duration: 45:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Heaven Is Real (04:16) 2 Do Your Best (02:45) 3 Rights for Gays (02:38) 4 Love Letters From Hell (02:56) 5 The Silent Chorus (05:00) 6 Navy Seals (02:16) 7 Pure Rockets (03:21) 8 My Whole World Is Coming Apart (03:43) 9 Dont Worship the Devil (03:41) 10 Tenebrae (05:19) 11 Too Much Money (03:24) 12 Green Bouzard (01:00) 13 Old Town (01:58) 14 Times Is Weird (03:41) |
 | Album: 3 of 6 Title: We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves Released: 2011-06-20 Tracks: 11 Duration: 32:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Streetlight (02:53) 2 Quantum Leap (02:53) 3 ... And the Rain (02:47) 4 Hey Moon (04:09) 5 Keep Pushing On (03:34) 6 The Crucifix (01:16) 7 Head for the Country (03:17) 8 Cop Killer (02:42) 9 Matter of Fact (02:17) 10 We Can Breakthrough (02:08) 11 Believer (04:05) |
| We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves : Allmusic album Review : On his third album, John Maus continues his pursuit of immediacy-in-action mixed with a certain calm, developing a further tension that infuses both his music and words. The immediately cheery lead synth sparkle of the opening "Streetlight" contrasts with both the melancholic background tones and his heavily echoed singing, suggesting above all else an uneasy joy in the moment, as if everything were being celebrated under a microscope or through gun sights. For all the 80s-redux claims often pushed in his direction, Maus looming dread is much different from the nuke/AIDS paranoia of the time -- theres a sense of a new kind of rage against a dying of the light, a reaction against entropy. Whenever something starts seems sweetly winsome or romantic, as "...And the Rain" does (in its title alone almost directly referencing the early solo work of John Foxx), something else slides in to cause a darker cloud to bubble up -- in that songs case, it could be the wordless vocal breaks, but thats one addition of many throughout the album. High energy -- or even more literally Hi-NRG -- tracks like "Keep Pushing On" rub up against slower ballads like "Hey Moon," but all throughout Maus maintains his reserved, swathed voice, occasionally matching the music with a quicker pace but otherwise more seeming to soothe here. Even a song titled "We Can Breakthrough" is less charge than steady if strong progression, a sense of an unstoppable force lost in the texture but never fully quashed, voices carried along. As for "Cop Killer" -- an original song, though theres an inevitable association with the Ice-T/Body Count song and controversy of the same name -- the slow beauty of the arrangement and the serene way Maus sings about who should be up "against the wall" makes it its own attractive, unnerving effort. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 6 Title: A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material Released: 2012-07-16 Tracks: 16 Duration: 44:36 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 North Star (02:32) 2 The Law (01:23) 3 Castles in the Grave (02:15) 4 Angel of the Night (02:04) 5 Mental Breakdown (04:37) 6 Bennington (03:13) 7 Big Dumb Man (02:12) 8 No Title (Molly) (03:09) 9 Lost (02:49) 10 All Aboard (02:51) 11 This Is the Beat (02:23) 12 My Hatred Is Magnificent (02:56) 13 The Fear (02:46) 14 Fish With Broken Dreams (02:56) 15 Rock the Bone (02:49) 16 I Dont Eat Human Beings (03:41) |
| A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material : Allmusic album Review : Dark electro-pop maniac John Maus met almost across-the-board critical disdain with his first few albums, building a small but devoted cult following but failing to break through as a more widely accepted outsider artist until 2011s more realized We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves made some critics change their minds about Maus. That albums cold sheen and sometimes oddball updates on obscure 80s synth pop sounds didnt stray too far stylistically from earlier Maus albums, but something about its character was more consistent and digestible than the sometimes scattered feel of his first two records. Where those could feel zany or annoying, Pitiless Censors felt serious and deliberate even in its weirdest moments. Given his slow arc toward consistent presentation of his solo work, a collection of rare or unreleased recordings from between 1999 and 2010 could possibly highlight Maus weakest traits. Luckily, A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material doesnt come off far different from much of Maus recorded output. More than half of the tracks are from a time following his bewilderingly brilliant 2007 album Love Is Real, and tunes like 2010s "Castles in the Grave" and 2008s "My Hatred Is Magnificent" feel like demo predecessors or outtakes to the manic high-energy synth pop that gelled so well on Pitiless Censors. With only a few exceptions, the further back the songs go the more interesting they get, as with 2003s infectious electro-funk romp "The Law" or the theatrical "Big Dumb Man." The early-2000s tracks are incredibly lo-fi, reminding us that Maus got his start as a collaborator with Ariel Pinks early homespun disco as well as the then often goofy Animal Collective. The greatest curiosity on the collection is "Fish with Broken Dreams," a remarkably melodramatic piece from 1999 with over the top yet surprisingly clear vocals and an artificial MIDI orchestra. The song isnt good, per se, but its inclusion is an interesting choice, illuminating just how long Maus has been a genuine freak. A Collection of Rarities gathers the different eras of Maus strange and sometimes beautiful journey, from his tape hiss-saturated keyboard self-help sounds to the coldly uncomfortable late-night neon funk of "Rock the Bone." This compilation wont do anything to make Maus bizarre intentions more clear or his cloudy legacy more cohesive, but for those already converted, its 16 songs will be essential. For everyone else, these deranged soundtracks and head-scratching dance jams are probably the straightest material Maus has to offer, and they straddle the same line between grating and unintentionally brilliant that hes been riding his entire career. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 6 Title: Screen Memories Released: 2017-10-27 Tracks: 12 Duration: 37:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Combine (03:38) 2 Teenage Witch (02:18) 3 Touchdown (03:41) 4 Walls of Silence (02:23) 5 Find Out (02:24) 6 Decide Decide (03:05) 7 Edge of Forever (02:43) 8 The People Are Missing (02:59) 9 Pets (03:36) 10 Sensitive Recollections (02:46) 11 Over Phantom (04:27) 12 Bombs Away (03:57) |
| Screen Memories : Allmusic album Review : Arriving six years after his previous studio album, Screen Memories rejoins Minnesota musician John Maus after he finished his doctorate in political philosophy and set about building his own custom set of modular synthesizers to record it. As evoked by cover art that shows a sparsely furnished room with a snowy cathode-ray tube TV, Maus returns to a cinematic, turn-of-the-80s-inspired synth pop, if a slightly more coherent one with his new setup. Still suggesting an underground music of the Max Headroom universe, his sometimes indiscernible, Ian Curtis-like delivery and a tendency to repeat only a few lines again and again within a song continue to put the spotlight on mood and texture over melody or message. In fact, the albums wordiest entry, "Bombs Away," is the only track not written by Maus here. Its a version of a song by former classmate and collaborator Ariel Pink with Matt Fishbeck, who recorded it together as Holy Shit! (The duo also has a song called "Maus Is Missing.") Like much of Screen Memories, a lively bassline, spacy synths, minor chords, and echoing vocals build an ominous yet driving retro post-punk. "Touchdown" is almost funky underneath glistening synthesizer timbres as it lulls listeners into a dreamy mechanical landscape with repeated variations of "Go for the touchdown/Yeah, the touchdown." The track shifts gears at the halfway point, though ("Forward drive across the line"), with drums switching to double time, followed by movement in chord progressions before it leans back into the La-Z-Boy. This kind of wry humor fits right in on a song that plays like a dark take on Kraftwerk, and on an album that has tracks called "Sensitive Recollections" and "Teenage Witch." With engaging basslines that act as the hooks and the glue to Maus carefully contrived sound, Screen Memories succeeds by basking in its murky splendor. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 6 Title: Addendum Released: 2018 Tracks: 12 Duration: 35:33 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Outer Space (03:45) 2 Dumpster Baby (02:46) 3 Episode (03:49) 4 Drinking Song (01:08) 5 Figured It Out (02:50) 6 Middle Ages (02:42) 7 Mind the Droves (03:31) 8 Privacy (03:18) 9 Running Man (02:44) 10 Second Death (02:00) 11 1987 (03:10) 12 I Want to Live (03:45) |