MICE PARADE

Obrigado Saudade

CD/LP, Fat Cat

Come on in and feel at home. Adam Pierce wants to warm up your living room by giving you a mixture of experimental and ease, of folk and postrock, of ephemeral space-trips and down to earth relaxedness. Everything on “Obrigado Saudade” is easily explainable and discernible, but the overall effect is hardly describable in words, except maybe by pointing at the warm glow that it emits. Winter is already here, outside it is cold and grey – it is high time everyone took care of something warm to cuddle into on long afternoons. Which makes it an ambient album in the best meaning of the word. But there is more to the third album of Mice Parade on Fat Cat records, namely the ability to make experimentalism easily accessible to the listener. So be warned, there is a lot of strange stuff going on on this record, but you might only realize when listening to it for the third time.

Ephemeral, distanced and living in a galaxy completely of their own – but like every galaxy even the one inhabitated by Mice Parade moves and changes. Between the closest neighbouring galaxies of Múm, postrock from Chicago or Mogwai, Mice Parade are still exploring the ways in which music can change, evolve and sound. Fat Cat Records has become a haven for artists trying to explore the fringes of the musical universe without falling into the black holes of extremity and noise or dropping off the corner of the world into the vast void of nothingness and meaninglessness (which makes Fat Cat welcome guests in this website). Let me mention a few names: Animal collective, Black Dice, Sylvain Chauveau, Crescent or Set Fire to Flames, and say that Mice Parade are in a central position in the way these artists circle around the fusion of pop-music and avantgarde. A fusion, that tries to bring meaning into clichés and structures that have been rendered meaningless by mindless mainstream-music and the collective numbness towards musical structures and dynamics. That way, Fat Cat Records has installed the second stage of a musical evolution that once started under the moniker of postrock, but has trapped itself in its own vision by becoming more and more interested in its own loops and loopholes, and lost the connection to the outer, real world.

“Obrigado Saudade” is easier to follow than the first two albums by Mice Parade on Fat Cat, it invites the listener to introspection and to follow the music into its own realm. The doors are open, the sounds are friendly, the grooves laidback and gentle, the atmosphere is one of complete peace and ease. In places where Godspeed You Black Emperor! try to trample you down with the sheer force of a full orchestra or where Sigur Ros try to lift you into a dark space of enigmatic nothingness with siren calls and drawn harmonies, to name the two most prominent participants of this part of the musical universe, Mice Parade are like a shining outpost of civilization radiating with a warm glow that promises a welcoming handshake and a warm meal and fireplace to every stranger passing by. Which gives away the most important difference to the named bands: whereas the others try to grab the listener and drag them into their direction and onto their trip, Mice Parade opens the door and waits for the listener to come in and sit down. There is no activity to get to the people, only the proposition which is open to everyone.

Does this come from the character of Adam Pierce, who is still the main mind behind Mice Parade? He still plays and records most of the instruments in his New York studio, even though he opens more and more to collaborations with other musicians. It is an easy guess, that someone, who plays a dozen or more instruments and records whole albums all on his one, is somewhat of a loner. A person, who sees the advantages of being alone – as opposed to being lonely – in the possibility to create something special, something very individual without a lot of thought on to how the rest of the world will react to the creation. Thus “Obrigado..” has become an almost idiosyncratic effort, never minding the number of other musicians that set in to play various parts.

Among the collaborators are Kristin Anna Valtysdottir, from Múm, who Adam Pierce occasionally drums for (there are really no accidents, all is connected), who sings some almost elve-like vocals on the opening track and a second track. Another well-known guest is Doug Scharin, still one of the best drummers around, who, coming from Chicago, has fallen in and out of the post-rock trap in I guess about a hundred different bands and projects, but always maintained to be on the worthwhile side of things. (My first encounter with Doug Scharin was the genius post-punk-band “June of 44” with Fred Erskine, Sean Meadows and Jeff Mueller, who all come from a punkrock-background but grew into serious musicians, who absolutely eat, drink and breathe music at all times.) “Mystery Brethren”, the second track on this album, is as close to a band-effort as Mice Parade will come to, with synths, guitars, vibes and vocals coming from different players, but not without being reworked for the record by Pierce himself.

All in all, “Obrigado Saudade” is an introspective excursion into the melancholy and pensive solitude of one artist, with definite hints at folk and world music, though never losing the experimental vision that started the whole thing. It is an album, that makes it easy to feel comfortable and at home in, and it does work well on a background-listening-setting, which would be close to slander actually. Because there is so much emotion and experimentation on the album, that close and concentrated listening is a must and pays back by the dozen. The feedbacked guitars mixed with vibes on “Milton Road”, the complex rhythms on “here today”, the estrangeness on “Wave greeting”, this record takes you to a whole lot of places, because, after all, one style or one vision are to little for an album or even a song alone, when there are dozens of ideas that you can play around with.

www.fat-cat.co.uk

11/2003