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Mouse On Mars, "Live 04"
With their live shows, Mouse On Mars defy any and all accusations andprejudiced expectations of electronic music in performance. However, asa musical token, this live collection is more of a "greatest hitsrevisited" than an essential live archive.
What makes Mouse On Mars so unique and brilliant live is their usage oflive instrumentation in the electronic music frame. Live drums andvocals are provided by Dodo, set between the banks of keyboards andsequencers of Jan and Andi, with Andi taking up bass guitar a largeportion of the time. Often with video projections displayed behindthem, they make their set a true show: something to be expected fromgoing to see a conventional live band as opposed to somebody simplystaring at a computer screen. All their live highlights are captured onLive 04, with hits like "DiskDusk," and "Actionist Respoke,"which can always get a crowd electrified and moving alongside classicoldies like "Frosch," which echo the days of (relevant) Orbital, to thebrilliant tracks "Mine Is Yours," and "Wipe That Sound" from lastyear's Radical Connector.
The recordings are meticulously produced, using the best qualitycontrol to get the right balance of the various sounds that all go intoa live Mouse On Mars set. The disc is compiled from different shows andstrung together as a full live recording, but it's honestly nosubstitute for actually being there. I can't stress enough that a MouseOn Mars show needs to be experienced in person for every current (andpotential) fan of the band. I'll conceed that having this document ishelpful for the group to sell in person when people always wander overto the merch table afterwards and want to take a memory of the showhome with them, but on its own, while I love Mouse On Mars live, and love these songs, I prefer the original studiorecordings.
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