In 2014 I created a tribute mix for the music of Mouse and No Name (also known as Auto-Psy and Erase Head, or "The Michelson Sisters"). It spread around the internet quite quickly, was re-posted by many famous DJs and producers (and other people), and is by far my most listened-to mix - all plays combined, it has something like 18,000 plays in total.
As the point of my tribute mixes is to put music from the past that is often overlooked or pushed aside in favor of other (and probably lesser) music into view again, I hope with that mix I maybe succeeded a bit.
But the output of these marvelous producers is more vast than what could be featured in one mix.
So it was due time to do a follow-up to the original mix, many years later, that focused on other output by these two - who are, in my opinion, two of the best, most creative, and most awe-aspiring producers ever!
To give a bit of background and info to Mouse and No Name for those who might not be familiar with them yet (but how could that be possible?) I included the text I wrote for my original mix, too:
i have always been intrigued by the music of stella and poka michelson. to me, it is some of the most complex, complicated, intelligent music ever made. levels and levels of beats; noize; ambiance; abstraction; is built on top of each other. they're so far away from the "dumb gabber" and "speedcore" most people think of when the word 'hardcore' is mentioned. is this hardcore? is that even techno? it is more like art - real art, abstract, maybe it would belong more to a gallery, a museum, than to a party were people dance - if museums wouldn't be so boring!
i can't find many artists that could compare to this. the sheer level of complexity is overwhelming. some of the best somatic responses productions could compare - in complexity and experimentation of sounds. or the most intricate construction of underground PCP via acardipane. yet, maybe it is not right to compare this music - as it plays in its own universe. frantic noise, shrill, alien screams - often driven home by a powerful bassdrums, and killer punctured beats and hits. for some reason, i never compared this so much with other music, but to other forms of art, movies, pictures. this would fit well to dystopian cyberpunk picture, an onslaught of screeching robots pacing through a destroyed, wrecked industrial wasteland.
there are so many things i am missing in most hardcore that are in the michelsons' productions; changes of beats, tempo, complex track structures with many twists, beginnings, endings, turnarounds. lengthy intros of weird noises, laughter, ambient drones. some michelson records fetch high sums at collectors at this time, and rightfully so.
while many other of their contemporary artists around their decades became quite "famous" by now, known also to the dreaded "gabber" and "breakcore" crowd, the michelson sisters still seem to be kind of a secret hint, with a cult following. yet, they are already legends, in their regard, in their own way.
Tracklisting:
01. No Name - Control
02. Auto-Psy - Ovoide
03. Erase Head - Dead
04. No Name - Latex
05. Auto-Psy - If
06. Auto-Psy - Andropose
07. Erase Head - Terzog
08. No Name - Message
09. Auto-Psy - Clear
10. Auto-Psy - T4
11. No Name - 0.Vin I
12. Mouse - Davakint
13. No Name - 001100010
14. Mouse - Boîte À Musique
15. Mouse - Temporis
16. Mouse - Vitrine
17. Mouse - Untitled 1
18. Mouse - Otoctone
19. No Name - Reaktion
https://soundcloud.com/dustor-sheean/low-entropy-tribute-mix-to-mouse-and-no-name-part-2
