John's back already. Having waited six years for Screen Memories, enough time to put out a philosophy thesis, Maus is moving on into history with Addendum – which, as the name suggests, rounds off the argument. This work is in fact a useful recycling of homemade recording sessions from Screen Memories. A seeker for sonic truth, John Maus had put together his own synths at his home in Minnesota. Addendum gives us a glimpse of John more or less in situ, testing his contraption.
His great strength lies in capturing his loves, wedged between the eighties, 2018 and the future: post-punk bass on Mind The Droves, Drinking Song and Episode; the almost shoegazey guitars on Privacy written by acolyte Ariel Pink. His obsession with repetitive, degenerated pianos, a standard of his directorial style, is in full effect here, as on Outer Space or Running Man, reminiscent of We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves. But he also confirms his love for pop's buzz: Second Death, 1987, I Want To Live. John Maus shines in this cheering endnote.
