"It is rather like the feeling of being put inside a microwave oven which is then programmed to cook you at the lowest possible setting. Slow, slow. So that you get to feel the gradual excitation of the water molecules of yourself, their heat and spastic dance becoming all that you are so that your own greater movements mimic their miniscule epileptic shimmy faster and faster and faster around the black star unto a great final blotting out of all mind. It's that good. You get the original singles/e.p.s, plus the 4 "No New York" tracks (including the has-to-be-heard-to-be-believed "Puerto Rican Ghost") and some live stuff -- some of the extra stuff is mildly filleresque. The "Mars Live" CD on ROIR/Danceteria is also highly recommended -- the version of "Helen Fordsdale" there is one of the most frightening things I have ever heard -- as is the "Don King" follow-up (also reissued by the nice folks at Atavistic)and Mark Cunningham's current work with Raeo."
No Wave Legends Collected
slappy | somewhere else | 12/16/1998
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Along with DNA, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, and the Contortions, Mars were the pioneering No Wave folks featured on the legendary 1978 Eno-produced lp "No New York." Four of the tracks on 78 Reissue appeared on NNY (Helen Forsdale, Tunnell, Hairwaves, PR Ghost). The music is a wonderful scramble of new wave, Branca-esque noise and free jazz. Incendiary, exciting, unforgettable."
A Hellish Heaven
Jeremy Webber | New York | 05/23/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"after listening and accepting sonic youth as my favorite band, i began to look into their influences. well mars popped up and i had a hard time hearing their songs. i only heard one, but i liked it, and took a chance. well it payed off. this cd is lush in its own way. with the beat of the song carrying off in many directions at once, 78+ is just like one noisy dream. and the noise is what makes this album so scary and so good. just sit back and let this stuff soak in. im 13 and i like this stuff, other people should be able to too. buy it."
Amazingly strange and intense
Justin | New Jersey | 03/15/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"ah, i've been meaning to get this for a long time, a compilation album from the darkest and grandest of the no wave bands, Mars. opening with 3-E, a fast weird song with the strangest pounding drums you'll likely hear, the album progresses through the slow and subtle to the baraging and pulverising. 11,000 volts is almost as spacey and warped as you can get, while helen forsdale, my favorite song, is just as weird as you can possible imagine. in fact, i'd be willing to tell you that helen fordale is one of the best songs of the seventies, but how to describe it...
mars is just so difficult to put to words; as much an avant garde ensemble as they were a rock or new york styled punk band, they always felt more complex to me than the other big no wave bands, there's something deep going on here. there really is a lot of variety here, more than i would have though, from brooding dirges, near rock songs, and clacking noisey songs.
well this collection is mostly worth it for the no new york tracks and their first 7", though some of the other songs are pretty warped and good too, like outside africa and cats. overall, i don't really know if this is better or worse than that other Mars compilation record that was more recently put out, but i do know that Mars was one hell of a grand trip, and my favorite no wave band."