You might expect sombre singer song writer musings but Maus greets us with tinkling faux Baroque arpeggiations of Streetlight that is quickly enveloped in a fog of dreamy synth textures that moves to an insistent wonky disco beat. Most will file this under lo-fi chillwave, but as the record progresses it sounds more like Maus has a time machine and has traveled back thirty odd years to create the most irresistible retro-futurist synth pop. Phil Oakey and Neil Tennant obviously never heard John Maus’s tunes when they sang This Used To Be The Future a couple of years ago.
Deploying an icy pallet of celestial sounds across this album to create a wonderland of synthetic sound, finely crafted into twinkling pop gems, Maus sounds as though he has listened to a lot of John Foxx. Maus drops into the mix a strange alienated dread of his baritone that places the fear of Big Brother into a more contemporary context. Quantum Leap and …And The Rain washes over like vintage The Human League as Maus channels a softer interpretation of Ian Curtis on vocals. Hey Moon is a charming lullaby with sinister shadows that finds Maus duetting with Molly Nilsson who penned the song. Recalling Ice T’s Bodycount (who were consequentially censored), Cop Killer is an icy slice of Jan Hammer-esque keys that drifts into weird Lynchian nightmare.
Retro electro pop never sounded so original.
BY THE SIDEMAN
