Search - Mark Mothersbaugh :: Muzik for Insomniaks Vol. 1

Musak for potato heads

delibessleep | Flora-bama | 02/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I didn't realise this was such an incredibly rare recording...I bought mine (with some hesitance) the year of release...I think it was 1985...I got the cassette version from Japan that came with the deck of cards...each card has Mark holding up a piece of paper with the name of the card. With each suit, Mark is wearing a different suit and changed his coif...in the corners are embossed numbers and suit type...clever, and just the sort of thing one would expect from him.



As for the music...well, it isn't for everyone. Most of it has an almost Koto like sound to it (imagine 6 electric kotos playing a robotic melody.) There are other sounds as well...electrified chimes and violins...heavy electric cello for the bass sounds...A similair sound to this album can be found at the end of every episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse, where the distributor's credits run...again, not very accessible, but if you can remember the show, Mark did all the music.



Nothing remotely Devo in this...except for the premise of De-evoloved music, which rides high in almost everything Devo and Mark have recorded. If you are interested in complex melodies with very odd instrumentation and very sharpish sounding "plucks"...this is your album. If not...I suggest Brian Eno or Harold Budd. For what it is, It is excellent."

Exactly what it is!

popoff2 | Dallas, TX United States | 05/12/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you like background music of your favorite DEVO songs, then of course, this is exactly what it is! If you are fortunate to have gotten Vol 1 and Vol 2 for free by inheritance (as I have), then that is the best way. Only DEVO fans who are hard core collectors would be willing to shell out the dough that these CDs are going for on the used market. The music is purely computer generated, low key, and so intricate you can hardly recognize the popular DEVO hits. You can only recognize the song by looking at the playlist and then saying "Oh yeah! I hear it now!" The music is whimsical, quirky and original-sounding and an obvious precursor to the Rushmore and Bottlerocket soundtracks. As I said, only a DEVO fan such as myself would be excited about this music as it contains the pure whimsy of putting into MUZAK form the oft-crude songs such as "Mongoloid" and "Whip It" Play it in your office and you will always get a reaction! A unique experience."