In the years between this collection being first announced until thetime of its release (this past week), almost anybody could haveprobably tracked down the out of print recordings contained herein.With that in mind, I can't deny that I'm somewhat jaded about therelease before even possessing it. Now that it's in my hands, I'mrelieved to finally have it, excited as a longtime fan, but stillsomewhat put off by its posturing as an EP collection, as it neglectssome songs from the original EPs and was arranged in a nonsensicalrandom order. On the surface, Mouse On Mars have always appeared to benonsensical (just pick up any album of theirs and look at the songtitles!). However, the music has always been cold-calculated, withstrong tendencies to avoid the trends that have come and gone sincethey started releasing music back in 1994. For this, the duo of Tomaand St. Werner have perpetually remained ahead of the curve. They couldhave easily jumped on bandwagons of drum 'n bass or glitch, but as thetrends became more minimal, more was added to their sound. They heldtheir ground with music that was always dancable and rich withcaptivating melodies and unique sounds from song to song. Starting in1994 with the FroschEP, the duo are clearly observably unwilling to accept pre-packagedpreset sounds and pre-programmed beats. While appearing on compilationslike Trance Europe ExpressBib EP, with songs like "Selektron," slower than what they were used to doing before, but never dull at any point. By 1997's Cache Coeur NaifEP, the band has kept the beat intact, bottomed it out with arump-shaking intensity, added the vocals of Stereolab's LaetitiaSadier, and found a way to mangle original sounds of guitars and basickeyboards beyond original recognition while still maintaining a sexycatchiness. If this isn't considered intelligent dance music, then Idon't know what to think. With the most recent recording on this discnow six years old, the music has held up amazingly well compared to themusic of many of MoM's contemporaries.Read More
