Named after a plant species that practices camouflage by appearing
like smooth stones, this solo project of Jan St. Werner (Mouse on Mars,
Von Sudenfed, Microstoria) has an equally duplicitous, slippery nature.
But it's not nearly as bland. Propelled by shifting rhythmic patterns,
the songs run into clusters of static and squishy beats that aren't as
much steady electronic melodies as snatches of overheard electronic
conversation. "Rosa in a Light Speed Vessel" amps up with funky
melodies and a rubbery bass line before a sustained chord ominously
pans back and forth like a pilot slowly strafing a target. "Serendippo"
runs on carnivalesque beats that warp into a Luke Vibert-like acid
party. It's polyglot production that feels fun, not forced. -- Patrick
Sisson [3.5 out of 5 stars], Remix
Further collecting the sound experiments Jan St. Werner likes to
work with on his own as Lithops, Mound Magnet, Pt. 2 feels more like a
dog's breakfast of randomness than anything else, but then again that's
part of the charm. There are no surprises per se in the wide-ranging
mix-and-match styles on offer, from mid-20th century vocal harmonies to
exotica and '80s dancefloor, but anyone interested in St. Werner's
general sonic approach to things will enjoy what's here, even if much
of it passes by without leaving a lasting impact. A good example of
that tendency can be heard in "Roctrum," which begins with distortion
glitch that, on the one hand, sounds familiar and even set in its ways,
but is also playful and weird, like a kind of '90s that didn't end.
"Bleasure Pastique," in comparison, has more memorable heft, an utter
'80s homage with stabs of sound and rolling electro-punch beats that
suggest Ronald Reagan's second term in office over his first. The song
title that summarizes the random play at work is "A Generation Without
Context," while the tune itself goes the beat-shuffled randomization
route, low moans arcing in and around the percussion to striking
effect. If on the downside other songs like "Serendippo 4" and
"Baliation" are enjoyable but perhaps too reminiscent of his past work
overall to stand out, all it takes for St. Werner to really leave a
mark is a song like "Rosa in a Light Speed Vessel." Brawling and weird,
it's almost a tribute to Coil in their own high dancefloor phase, all
sorts of sonic twists and whines set against clipped guitar stabs and
beats. - Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
The latest release from Jan St. Werner's solo project is as playful
as his work in Mouse on Mars, but it's a more mischievous kind of play
that borders on unfriendly.
Jan St. Werner is best known as one half of German IDM duo Mouse on
Mars, a project often noted for its sense of playfulness and an
accessibility that has won them many fans from outside of the often
insular experimental electronic scene. With his solo project, Lithops,
St. Werner incorporates Mouse on Mars' famous eclecticism, with tracks
ranging from glitch and noise to funky electro and minimal house, but
while there's still a sense of play, it's less inclusive, more
clique-ish (and not just because of all the clicks). The newest Lithops
release opens with "Roctrum," a twittering composition of jarring
noises and glitches that's never quite abrasive, but still manages to
be annoying. It's not a criminal assault, but more like the taunts of a
schoolyard bully. Not every track is so deliberately difficult, but
even the more conventional electro and techno offerings come off more
as subversions of the form than tributes to it. "Bleasure Pastique"
starts with simple electro funk, but its muffled brassy rhythm and
distorted electronics, while never quite aggressive, aren't
particularly pleasurable either, and "Noo Non M Oon" is little more
than a brief snippet of rhythmic loops underscored by a faintly grating
metallic whine. This sort of approach can make for an aggravating
listen; St. Werner skirts around deliberate confrontation, teasing and
taunting until one longs for a straightforward blast of feedback
instead of mere hints of harshness. Still, there's plenty to enjoy on
Mound Magnet Part 2, and there's an irrepressible sense of joy that
shines through on tracks like "Serendippo 5," which sets a tentative
electronic melody off with exuberant bits of studio effects and
crunchiness in a near-perfect blend of musicality and glitch.
"Fahrtenheit" is similarly hard not to like, starting off with robot
noises and ambience but building into a remarkably organic electro
track adorned with a finely chopped stew of sampled sound effects and
vintage jazz snippets. Lithops is by no means as accessible as St.
Werner's better known material, but there's still plenty here to appeal
to IDM aficionados, if perhaps not the general public. - Matthew
Johnson, Regen
Jan St. Werner is a well-heeled master of the unconventional groove. As
one half of Mouse on Mars (and one third of Von Südenfed), he's been
responsible for some of the more gloriously deranged takes on dance music
to come down the pike in recent years. Of course, his prodigious musical
activities also lean toward the avant-garde and experimental -- he was
recently the artistic director at the Studio for Electro-Instrumental
Music (Steim) in the Netherlands. But even at its most abstract, his music
always has at least one foot on the dance floor. The traces of dub, funk,
and techno may be obscured, but their signature propulsive rhythms are
rarely absent. The tracks on St. Werner's fourth album as Lithops are no
exception: they're eccentric, loose-limbed constructions, heavy on
contorted rhythms, off-kilter beats, and writhing swirls of noise.
Ostensibly a sequel to 2006's Mound Magnet (which remains a horrible
title), Pt. 2 is as jam-packed with ideas as its uneven predecessor, but
it's a friendlier and considerably funkier creature. "A Generation Without
Context," with its kettledrum bass line and anxious, stumbling beats, may
not impel you to jump up and shake what God gave you -- then again, maybe
you need to re-examine what God gave you. - Susanna Bolle, The Boston
Phoenix
Lithops is actually Jan St. Werner who is one half of the ever glitchy
Mouse on Mars and one third of the Mark E. Smith led Vod Sudenfed. On his
own as Lithops, Werner, doesn't stray to far from the Mouse on Mars
blueprint of glitchy, plonky techno except to make things a bit harder,
faster, and erm stronger.
Ok, Daft Punk/Kanye references aside, Elevations Above Sea Level is a
brash and harsh electronic experiment which sees Lithops devleoping songs
by what would seem like bashing to Roland 808's together and then crushing
a few Korgs for good measure. It's Aphex Twin in a good mood if he were
run through the German techno processing plant.
The songs on Elevations Above Sea Level are the sort of things that will
test the limits of your speakers and your neighbors patience and that's
why this is a great release. This is an album of powerful machines
attacking lines of beats and atonal keyboard stabs to attempt to make
something organic out of them. The results aren't always what you would
call catchy, but there are glimpses of melody scattered in between the
computerized knife fights. "Rosa In A Light Speed Vessel," for example, is
actually quite a catchy little minimal techno stormer and almost seems
like a Von Sudenfed outtake. It's bouncy bass line keeps the song moving
while guitars and keyboards sound like they're being pulled apart by
T-1000's. It's violently happily and melodically pleasing stuff that's
quite danceable.
Most of the other tunes on Elevations Above Sea Level however, sound like
the internet superhighway clogged with 1,000,000,000 streaming accidents
and a lot of frustration. These are the sorts of things that would
probably give most people migraines and cause them to go insane. It's not
pleasant stuff, but harsh, cold, and brutal machinations of the apocalypse
despite such pleasing titles as, "Caribbean Circuitry."
If you ever wanted to know what computers said to each other, Elevations
Above Sea Level is what their conversations sound like. Lithops has
stumbled upon something here and if can only translate what it all means,
he stands to rake in a fortune. Intriguing, loud, illogical, and slightly
annoying Lithops' Elevations Above Sea Level is the sound of a dark future
coming to light. - Paul Popp, First Coast News
Jan St. Werner has been in the public eye in the last year or so for
Von Suedenfed, the collaboration he and his Mouse on Mars partner Andi
Toma have with the Fall's Mark E. Smith. But St. Werner keeps busy and
often has several projects going on simultaneously. Musically, the man
never stays still; even when he's issuing a sequel, it still feels like
the first time. Case in point is his new solo album under his Lithops
guise. Though it shares the title Mound Magnet with its predecessor, (this is Part 2, subtitled Elevations Above Sea
Level),
the feel on the tracks I've heard is looser, sillier, comparatively
melodic, and more focused on the driving 4/4. The epic "Rosa in a Light
Speed Vessel" has a propulsive beat at its core and everything but the
kitchen sink is swirling around it in a cyclone of sound-- stomping
guitar chords, sea-sick synth moans, what might be a gradually
pitch-shifted sample of a bi-plane's engine. It's a track that makes
you feel like you're one step behind it for its entire duration, not
quite able to figure out what's going on one moment as it has already
moved on to the next. - Mark Richardson, Pitchfork
Besides this Lithops solo project, Jan St. Werner spends time in Mouse
on Mars, Microstoria, and Von Südenfed in addition to few other even
more obscure monikers. While the aforementioned projects are "bands,"
perhaps in an unconventional sense, Lithops is his chance to act
completely on his own and while traces of those other projects are
evident, this is a wonderfully unmanageable beast all on its own.
While Microstoria and Mouse on Mars stayed closer to "conventional"
electronic music, the more recent Von Südenfed project has shown a
greater tendency for experimentation, but keeping within a still-danceable
framework, even despite Mark E. Smith's trademark vocals on that project.
With Lithops, however, St. Warner has gone balls out in experimentation:
while he still isn't afraid to build a track around a crunchy electro
beat, it is sonically much more all over the place. "Roctrum" and
"Concretemess and Absaction" both have a steady recognizable beat behind
them, but the other pieces of the tracks are all over the place, like a
malfunctioning sampler spitting out its 16 bit death rattles throughout.
St. Warner does make some other bows to conventionality, mostly old school
electro in the form of "Noo Non M Oon" and "Bleasure Pastique," the latter
meshes the analog beats with subtle melodies and lo-fi Game Boy synth
tones in a way that one could probably breakdance to it if they were so
inclined (but they'd probably look like an ass doing so). The lo-fi
electronic elements come up on the brief, bitcrushed passage of "Every
Detail's Matter" and the ancient Atari engine revs of "Baliation" that mix
quite well with the violent noise blasts and IDM synth elements.
Perhaps the most interesting are the tracks that come flying completely
out of left field in terms of color and tone. The Allophons remix of
"Mound Magnet Pt. 1" is stripped down to be 1940s era vocal samples
layered with guitar loops that make for a much more controlled and mellow
work than most of the preceding tracks. Both of the "Serendippo" tracks
(4 and 5) diverge the most, with the former resembling a Middle Eastern
melodic structure slapped on top of a waltz rhythm that somehow works, and
the latter is a completely different work of disembodied voices swirling
from another dimension over digital anvil percussion clanks and found
sound collage.
In a genre that has been so heavily mined for experimentation due to the
ability to utilize and exploit any and all technological innovations,
Lithops' has created something that, while not groundbreakingly new, takes
a new and wildly flailing approach to the genre and style that is all over
the map in terms of style and structure, but obviously being directed by
the more than able hands of a true artist. Don't expect to dance to it
down at the club, but listen intently and be rewarded. - Creaig Dunton, Brainwashed
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