This is the fifth Mouse On Mars full- length I've reviewed for Pitchfork (if you don't include the Cache Coeur Naif EP and Jan St. Werner's very Mouse- like album under the Lithops moniker), and with each one my praise grows more lavish, my demands on the reader become more intense. (Like, "If you don't buy a turntable tonight you will miss out on the vinyl- only releases and your life will lose all meaning.") Of course, with each album, my critical objectivity goes further out the window. Hey, what the hell, right? These guys have changed the way that I hear music, and I want to share them with the world. Alright, then-- just this last one and then I'll shut up for a while.

For those completely unfamiliar with Mouse On Mars... uh, I don't really want to go into it again. Oh, hell, alright. They're two guys from Germany making exceptionally well- crafted electronic sounds that veer from ear- grabbing dance beats to the most reflective drones out there. While their music is created almost entirely with machines, it remains more organic than a hippie's vegetable drawer and more human than a crate full of Pat Metheny's acoustic work. The hallmarks of their sound include comforting 98.6 degree bass lines, crisp sonic detail, subtle but memorable melodies, and an infallible logic to the song structure that yields very few duds.

Instrumentals is their third new album in just over two years, and like its follow-up, Glam, it's a vinyl- only release on the duo's own Sonig label. Instrumentals has a lot in common with Glam, actually-- it's just slightly further down the ambient end of the scale, with no flat- out pop songs like Glam's bouncy title track. It also sports lots of beautiful noises and Eno-esque bubble bath drones to link one song seamlessly to the next. Compared to Mouse On Mars' fine early work (which was uniformly upbeat and delicate, and owed a lot to ambient house and dub), their newer material draws from a much broader, richer, and more complex emotional palate. And it's all fantastic.

Suffice to say that they're making some of the smartest, most inventive records today, electronic or otherwise. And you don't have to think that music started with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson to love them. See you when they put another record out.

-Mark Richard-San