Love him or loathe him, you can't ignore him. Mark E. Smith, Crown Prince of Curmudgeonly, is back. And this time, he's brought his Mouse.
Von Südenfed are a collaboration between Jan St Werner & Andy Toma of Mouse On Mars and Mark E Smith of The Fall. It's not the first time that the trio have worked together: Smith did some vocals on a limited edition Mouse On Mars 12 inch some years back, and the great man has a history of popping up and delivering his, ahem, unique lyrics for everyone from Coldcut to The Inspiral Carpets. But with a full album to come and at least one live date planned for the summer, Von Südenfed seem to be in it for the long haul.
So it's a bit of a shame that Fledermaus Can't Get It starts rather ordinarily, sounding rather like someone's recorded a mouthy tramp as some techno wafted into the studio from a passing SUV. Then the squelchy synth lines kick in, and it all begins to make sense. It's a pretty straightforward electro-stomp at heart (not exactly what I expect from Mouse On Mars), but Smith seems to bring out people's inner problem-child with ease. For all his reputation as a lover of left-field experimentation, MES has always known how to shout hooks, and it's easy to become entangled with Fledermaus' bouncing beat. The forthcoming album, Tromatic Reflexxions, should be... interesting.
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