John Maus
Biography
John Maus lives and works in Austin, Minnesota. He is the only person with a PhD in Continental Philosophy to have ever made an album (probably). Although first drawn to our attention as a core member of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and keyboard player with Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, Maus has proved himself an extraordinary musician with a distinctive sound in his own right.
Co-conspirator and collaborator Ariel Pink perhaps has the definitive insight into the talents of the man: “John Maus is a maniac on a bloody crusade; a tortured evangelist on a mercenary quest to rid our world of villainous defilers of The Gospel of True Love. By turns shockingly infectious and disarmingly unpredictable, his music conflates a perplexing marriage of Moroder’s Never Ending Story and classical 12-tone renegades of 20th century past, harking THE NEW path which resurrects romance from its post-modern shackles, and reignites the promise of a better world.”
His brand new album Love Is Real is an apocalyptic journey through the nostalgic streets of our home towns deep into the recesses of the human heart. It is a map of self discovery, rejection and escapism captured across 14 songs of melancholic baroque pop music. Similar in style to his debut Songs from last year, the album is a mixture of exploratory synthesiser theatrics, tensely-strung bass lines and insistent drum machine clicks and pops, all set off by John’s deeply resonant reverb-drenched vocal. Love Is Real is a more reflective and realised effort than Songs however, focusing its attentions on impulsive song writing and inspired musicianship, replacing the reminiscent feel of the first record with genuine poignancy.