December 4, 1999

Mouse On Mars : Distroia

It zips, scuttles, dodges and weaves, loops the loop, blithely defies the laws of gravity, dances a merry jig around conventional Earth notions of rhythm and melody

Clown princes of rubber-legged Krautronica, Mouse On Mars lift 'Distroia' off one of 1999's most infectious and inventive albums, their recent 'Niun Niggung'. This life-affirming three-minute splatter of skittering techno-jelly is as much pop as anything
else,
as instantly catchy as Ricky Martin, as sonically adventurous as Aphex Twin, and as addictive as crack-flavoured candyfloss. It
zips,
scuttles, dodges and weaves, loops the loop, blithely defies the laws of gravity, dances a merry jig around conventional Earth notions of rhythm and melody, yet still manages to sound like a brain-soothing radio jingle from the drivetime show on Radio Pluto. 'Distroia' seems to exist in four dimensions and makes almost everything else in this week's NME sound like clapped-out
square-pop
from the boring old 20th century. Let it into your home and you
will
dance like a scalded piglet after an overdose of happy pills.

Stephen Dalton