Mouse on Mars are either completely unknown or praised to the skies, either reviled or revered. So it goes, in a word, with pioneers, and Mouse on Mars are indeed nothing short of pioneers of electronic music.

As such, they were the first to spread the word abroad about Germany’s booming electronic scene, which had long since emerged from the long shadow of its overlords, the band Kraftwerk. And Mouse on Mars chalked up successes in England, Japan and the US.

There, as in Germany, they surprised us by refusing to conform to the prevailing cliché of nerdy electro-tinkerers. Mouse on Mars did its part to blur the dividing lines between rock and dancefloor, between song and track: all of a sudden, “anything goes” was the watchword of a new generation of music.

Mouse on Mars is one of the few electronic bands to stand the test of time. Constantly reinventing themselves, they have taken electronica to new heights with a unique blend of sound annihilation, fragmented melodies and an impassioned hatred of conformity. For over a decade, Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner have sweated over burning consoles to create a new musical language, only to twist it again into thousands of myriad distortions. Mouse On Mars' sound links them to the club-music scene, as do their many remixes and collaborations with members of the dance-music world. Yet their association with the formalized and utilitarian world of dance music is ironic, as the band’s raison d’etre is to place electronic flies in any aural ointment they choose to muck through. A series of 11 albums and numerous remixes has come off as primarily intent on dashing expectations, from the ambient-house ectoplasms of 1994’s Vulvaland and 1995’s slightly more structured Iaora Tahiti; to the flighty and funny electronics, spluttering horns and acoustic-guitar samples of 2000’s more “organic” Niun Niggung; to the forest of sonic porcupine quills that is Idiology. Radical Connector (2004) further granulated the MoM aesthetic into nine vaguely pop-oriented songs, ever heavier on the beats and increasingly hinging the tunes on the vocals and drumming of longtime collaborator Dodo Nkishi. Varcharz (2006) entirely recorded at Mouse on Mars’ St. Martin Ton Studios in Duesseldorf is their most live sounding and diverse studio album to date. Varcharz is spiked with catchy pop references, anarchic rock derangements and manga-style pathos.

Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner have been more than busy in the intervening years between albums. As well as the release of their live record, Live 04, on their own label Sonig, and a constant barrage of touring, they are collaborating with Mark E. Smith of The Fall as Von Südenfed. Both Toma and St. Werner produce independently for the Sonig label. St. Werner has released solo records under the Lithops and Neuter River moniker and acted as the artistic director of the Amsterdam Institute for Electronic Music, steim. Toma shared his producer talent with Moondog, Junior Boys, The Fall and Stereolab amongst others. Mouse on Mars are currently recording a new studio album and work on an orchestral piece to be premiered in 2011.