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Our Review

Inside an unexpected package, along with a cryptic note that said only "You need to hear this" I find the strange stylings of deep-voiced Karl Mohr. I don't seek out electronica, because I often find it monotonous and uninteresting. But this little prejudice does not apply to the imaginative work of Karl Mohr.

Mohr's arrangements are deceptive. He wants you to put your trust in his earnest vocals, and then he gooses you with his dissonant riffs. Sometimes, he works this the other way around, playing sweet, synthetic loops and punctuating these with atonal vocals in the range of a Leo Kottke and with the haunting lilt of a David Bowie. His highly layered music is an almost disorienting blend of sweet sincerity and wry irony, heavy on the wry.

The puzzle of Christmas music is to make its well-known themes sound completely original. Using eerie electronic loops and understated vocal expressiveness, Karl Mohr certainly does that. Achieving unexpected pathos with an almost country-style, sweet-and-sour treatment of White Christmas. Applying the deep-creep voice to Frosty The Snow Man to conjure an image of Frosty as Freddy Kruger. And performing the de rigeur You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch with a throaty disgust Thurl Ravenscroft would appreciate.

You need to hear this.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2003)

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From the liner notes:

"Canadian composer/producer Karl Mohr presents moody, electronic songs with heavy beats and provocative lyrics. With a vocal style often compared to Nick Cave or Tom Waits, the rich, lumbering techno and house tracks are tainted with dark sonic poison and given their context through the bassy growl of Mohr's voice."

-- Karl Mohr's Website

Karl Mohr

Magic Christmas

Artist link

Track List