“Maus is tapping a synth-Goth seam not really mined since Klaus Dinger went off his rocker in the mid 80s with La! Neu.”
“Maus is tapping a synth-Goth seam not really mined since Klaus Dinger went off his rocker in the mid 80s with La! Neu.”
John Maus – Love is Real
http://www.southern.net/ http://www.konkurrent.nl/ http://www.upsettherhythm.com/
What to make of this? I honestly don’t know. I do like it though. Even the cover. It’s a strange LP in many ways, its unrelenting weirdness is wrapped up in the most farouche of synth pop: bands like Flock of Seagulls, or Moroder and Oakey or even Freur (no, I can’t do that squiggle) spring to mind. Maus is tapping a synth-Goth seam not really mined since Klaus Dinger went off his rocker in the mid 80s with La! Neu.
Apparently, according to his record company, John Maus is a maniac on a bloody crusade; a tortured evangelist on a mercenary quest to rid our world of villainous defilers of The Gospel of True Love. He may well be, but that doesn’t really equate with what I am listening to. He comes across as quite a shy character, if his music is anything to go by. It does feel as if you are intruding into a very private world.
There are moments when the music is mutates into a very pleasant doomy synth swirl, Do Your Best and Rights for Gays are almost True Gothick at times… The beats are very much reminiscent of stuff like the Associates’ Tell Me Easter’s on Friday. Elsewhere, the rockier stuff sounds very much like New Order, Navy Seals being a great lost NO instrumental. But I’m not complaining at all. And no-one does synth weird like this lad. Listen to the last three or four tracks to truly hear a mind unravelling…
It’s bonkers, derivative as hell, but bloody good and in its own way, pretty unique.
Words: Richard Foster