Soft machine

>> Marumari's binary-code biota

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

The low-key, left-handed laptop pop of Marumari, aka American boy Josh Presseisen, strikes an exquisite balance between the natural and the digital, the ridiculous and the sublime. Check his latest album Supermogadon for proof. The Mirror buzzed him for thoughts on Antarctica, pod people, glass heads and, uh, Kenny G.



Mirror: I know this stuff comes out of your PC at home, but what goes in? What inspires you?

Marumari: For a lot of the stuff on Supermogadon, I find samples that are interesting at places like Napster. Basically, I'd look up things that I thought were funny or goofy, and take parts of the songs that I thought were good. On "Baby M," there's a bunch of Kenny G samples. Yeah, it's true, but you wouldn't realize it unless I told you. "Rocket Summer" has pieces of Hall & Oates, Michael Jackson, the video game Defender, all sorts of different things. Any one of those first six tracks, I could tell you a zillion samples that are in there.

M: Judging by the album jacket and graphics on your Web site, you seem to have a fondness for that '70s post-hippie organic sci-fi vibe, Roger Dean and all that. The still from the "Baby M" video has you holding this glowing lightbulb thing, surrounded by these little pod children on some desert planet--

MM: The theme is this sci-fi thing where I'm this Han Solo/James Bond type figure, and I go around in this rocket. I go to another planet and sort of rescue these people from this giant monster, and then I give them a present and it's this glass head. That glass head is the theme of the album. I'll bring the video up when I play there--then you'll understand the whole thing.

M: You did all the digital animation yourself, right?

MM: That's my real, 9-to-5 job, 3-D animation. I do architectural visualization, fly-throughs of buildings and things like that. I also do some broadcast work. The last thing was that show Nova, for a feature on Antarctica.

M: You seem most comfortable animating organic things.

MM: Exactly. I like to stay with the organic stuff because I'm always very against the whole minimalist, machine-age thing that's happening right now, because a lot of it is so emotionless that it just gets to me. I try to stick with things I like, and that's sci-fi, fantasy, things with lots of colours and vivid images.

With Jetone at Jingxi on Monday, Aug. 13, 10pm, $8