Wednesday, September 16, 2009

John Maus "Love is Real"



John Maus started playing keyboards along with Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. However, he later decided to begin a solo career. He showed to Panda Bear [Noah Lennox, who's also in Animal Collective) his music and he enjoyed it. Later, Maus started producing albums and his label is currently Upset the Rhythm (mostly psychedelic pop music, I'd say). He also works at the University of Hawai at Manoa as a political philosophy and theory instructor.
You can say his music is experimental or some sort of psychedelic pop, with influences from DIY techniques. He has released countless underground cd's (I have a CD-R he released when he went to play here at Galeria Zé dos Bois, in Lisbon).
This album entitled "Love is Real" was released in 2007 and is his second album. I love its overall mood and how John's deep voice fits along with his synths and other digital touches. He knows hot to give his music purity and wisdom: his lyrics show us a melancholic side that simultaneously describes a serious caring and love for other persons. It is as John Maus brings us a nostalgic 80s music, with reverb and echoing sounds, that can be compared in some ways to Joy Division's ethereal "Closer".
Pitchfork only gave this album 6.4 out of 10.0. Rate your music gave it 3.68 out of 5.00, I think (112 reviews were made to obtain this single result). Drowned in sound has also given them a good review (I think they don't have numerical reviews).
So, if you want to hear this philosopher's music simply click right here. Hope you like it.

I'll leave here a video of "Tenebrae" a soft mellow song from this album:

And I'll also deposit a short lousy video of him playing in Z.D.B. (Galeria Zé dos Bois, in Lisbon):

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