The inimitable John Maus returns with his fourth full-length album,åÊScreen Memories,åÊ Screen MemoriesåÊopening track ‰ÛÏThe Combine‰۝ in which Maus intones with an apocalyptic stateliness,å?ÛÏIt‰۪s going to dust us all to nothing, man. I see the combine coming.‰۝å?ÛÏThe Combine‰۝ sweeps through with a bracing baroque charm, all towering spires of glistening augmentation, swirling counterpoint and sonorous vocals Screen MemoriesåÊwas written, recorded, and engineered by Maus over the last few years in his home in Minnesota, known genially as the Funny Farm.åÊ It‰۪s a solitary place situated in the corn plains of the rural American Midwest. The landscape is as majestic as it is austere and inevitably some of the sub-zero winter temperatures creep into the songs, as do the buzzing wasps of summer.
