John Maus: We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves

IN ACADEMIA, pop enigma John Maus comes up in discussion about where hauntology meets 'utopian theory', an area of scholarly pursuit wherein blog intelligentsia will discuss John Maus' much vetted 'heaven', and not strictly in hypothetical terms. Read enough of the stuff and you detect a quite strange inference that this nirvana actually exists — in your 'perception is reality', post-structuralist type way, but still. It's the same reason why Ghost Box label refer to their roster not as an aesthetic but as an imaginary world, or indeed why some like to believe that the original hypno-gods — Gary War, Ariel Pink, R. Stevie Moore and lecturer John Maus — will take their place in this nirvana in good time. The first track on Maus' last LP was entitled 'Heaven Is Real', and it's to the Minnesotan's credit that on We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves you almost believe him. So a wonderland is born, not for the setting for a story, but as a place to live. Such ideology represents the very purest expression of post-irony in music.