MAUS HAUS
Lark Marvels
(Pretty Blue Presents; 2008)
Holy Synths Batman! I mean Mausman. I mean... Maus Haus! I hadn't even heard of the band Maus Haus until about a week ago, when I encountered them at the Wiretap Music one-year anniversary show. And then next thing I know, it's their debut LP release show!
In this day of mainstream supergroups, I like to think of Maus Haus as a Bay Area underground indie supergroup. An oxymoron, indeed, but it’s warranted. This is a group of six talented musicians with an impressive resume: Jason Kick, from The Lovely Public; Sean Marby from Pope of Yes; Tom Hurlbut from Battlehooch; along with Joshua Rampage, Aaron Weiss , and Joseph Genden.
If you decided to get the vinyl version then you must agree, the A in side A stands for Amazing! Because when the record starts spinning to the tune of "Rigid Breakfast," I can't think of a better song for Maus Haus to introduce themselves and say, "Hello, my band is amazing." Within the first ten seconds of my first listen they got me smiling, and I suddenly couldn't wait to hear what was in store from the rest of Lark Marvels. The whole first half of the album is just a back to back to back dosing of the stuff that dreams are made of. They have such wonderful syncopation, percussion, vocal harmonies, retro-pop-laden riffs, and glitchy synth bliss. At times the layers of sound pile up so high, the weight can almost crush you whole – just for the song to fall back into an electronic downtempo interlude, followed by a catchy childlike vocal hook, often leaving me in awe.
Halfway through the album the quality of songs definitely drops a little, starting with "Cold in August," which doesn't seem to belong on the album. Perhaps the term "B side" is just hewing to its own reality? The songs become a bit more experimental, often having pretty forgettable vocal melodies and developing increasingly complex structures, taking you that much further down the rabbit hole. It just has an overall different feel than side A, I suppose is the gripe. But it ends pretty strongly with the song "Dead Keys Drop."
Lark Marvels is an album filled with enough intricacies and changes to keep you entertained spin after spin, but it’s intriguing and accessible from the first listen as well. As a whole I think listening to Lark Marvels is kind of like being lost in a labyrinth. At each new corner you find something new and unexpected, never leading you out of the maze but making the adventure that much more memorable and interesting.
Maus Haus are definitely a band that not only loves the synth, but knows how to use them well. Their blending of synthetic and organic sounds, which is simply magical at times, leads to what I think is one of the better albums I've heard this year. They are pushing music to the next level with all 12 of their arms, and I can foresee great things coming from these guys in the future. You can check them this Wednesday, October 29th, at their Album release show at the Rickshaw Stop.
Holy Synths Batman! I mean Mausman. I mean... 