At a time when positive energy is most needed, Mouse on Mars are generating it in the form of a new science-fiction album called AAI (Anarchic Artificial Intelligence). The upcoming album features writer and scholar Louis Chude-Sokei, percussionist Dodo NKishi, DJ/producer and programmer Yağmur Uçkunkaya and also saw the duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma collaborate with tech collective Birds on Mars and former Soundcloud programmers Ranny Keddo and Derrek Kindle to create bespoke software capable of modelling speech. Central to AAI is the argument that we must embrace AI and technology as Werner exlains:

“AI is capable of developing qualities that we attach to humans, like empathy, imperfection and distraction, which are a big part of creativity. We need to get past the old paranoia that fears machines as the other, as competitors who will do things faster or better, because that just keeps us stuck in our selfishness, fear and xenophobia. Machines can open up new concepts of life, and expand our definitions of being human.“

Ahead of AAI‘s release on February 26th through Thrill Jockey, Mouse on Mars have shared a second single from it, the bouncy and blissful ‘Artificial Authentic’, featuring Louis Chude-Sokei and Yağmur Uçkunkaya. Here it is.

It seems that every six years, the astral body that is Mouse on Mars comes close enough to earth to drop a full-length album. We are about to witness one of those events with a new album arriving this spring, following 2012’s Parastrophic and 2006’s Varcharz. Entitled Dimensional People, it saw the duo of Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner team up with a stellar cast of contributors, including Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Zach Condon of Beirut, Spank Rock, Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Lisa Hannigan, amongst many more.

The record, and as the press release describes, “reveals them working deep within their own vernacular, digging into fertile terrain of their inexhaustible vault of digital and acoustic experimentation, and charismatically making elemental components new again”. Inspired by Chicago footwork, Dimensional People “is a conceptual puzzle composed around one harmonic spectrum within one rhythmic scheme, mostly in the tempo of 145bpm.”

The album is set for release on April 13th through Thrill Jockey and Mouse on Mars have already shared a first taste of it, ‘Dimensional People Part III’. Take a listen now.

Mouse on Mars have just released a video for ‘Creme Theme’, taken from their recently released five-track EP Spezmodia. The striking and ecstatic visuals go hand in hand with the track’s rave energy. Watch it below.

Spezmodia EP is out now on Monkeytown Records.

Last year saw German avant-garde electronic veterans Mouse On Mars drop two releases. In February the duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma released their 10th studio album Parastrophics. They followed it in November with another album, Wow, which features collaborations with Vietnamese visual and performance artist Dao Anh Khanh and Argentinian punk rock band Las Kellies.
The pair are now offering a bonus cut from the Wow sessions as a free download. According to Mouse On Mars, this previously unreleased track was not included in Wow “because it would have blown the whole album away”. It will blow you away too.

German electronic veterans Mouse On Mars released their tenth full-length album Parastropics earlier this year via Monkeytown Records.

The duo of Jan St Werner and Andi Toma offered up yesterday ‘They Know Your Name’ as the new single off Parastropics. The single is available on a limited 7″ and it includes a brand new rework by Mouse On Mars themselves on the A-side and a remix by Machinedrum on the B-side. You can get it here.

Coinciding with the release, Mouse On Mars have unleashed a video for ‘They Know Your Name’. The video was edited by Pfadfinderei using footage from various biological cell studies. Mouse On Mars explained how it all happened:

“A few weeks ago, our French friend Charles Baroud (Laboratoire d’ Hydrodynamique (LadHyX) / Ecole Polytechnique) told us about his newest experiments: He is now able to color drops and stretch surfaces in a way that the colors don’t leak and the drop keeps its form, even if mixed with other fluids. Those experiments are used for cell biology research, but also create – as a side effect – really esthetic and crazy patterns. When Charles sent us a few clips of his experiments, we immediately thought that those images would match our track “They Know Your Name” perfectly. Charles then bought a high res camera (he, as the boss of his institution, is allowed to do so) and recorded some really cool video clips of the red drop, which we lovingly babtized “Steve Verlaine”. We then asked Berlin based visual artists Pfadfinderei to get this material to swing.”

There’s more thrilling news from the Mouse On Mars world. The pair will drop a new EP entitled Wow on November 2nd. The new effort includes collaborations with Vietnamese visual and performance artist Dao Anh Khanh and Argentinian punk rock band Las Kellies.

Whilst we wait for it to drop, check out the video for ‘They Know Your Name’ below.