Momus

[holyzombiejesus]

He's good, isn't he?

I've only started this as I just received the following email, via my Discogs account..

I'm the reissues project manager for Omnian Music Group, which includes the record labels Captured Tracks and Manufactured Recordings.

I noticed that you have the Momus "Nicky" EP in your want list, and I wanted to let you know that Manufactured is reissuing this EP as a component of a deluxe "Circus Maximus" reissue on 2xLP and CD very soon. The release will include "Circus Maximus", as well as three of the earliest Momus EPs: "The Beast With Three Backs" EP, the "Murderers, The Hope of Women" EP, as well as the "Jacky" EP.

That's good too, isn't it?

I like the earlier Cherry Red stuff and the Creation stuff up until Hippopotamomus. That CD of reworked songs, Slender Sherbert, is a good 'un too. The stuff I've heard after that was awful though. Ta-ra!

[Brundle-Fly]

Momus is one of my favourite ever artistes. After discovering his music in the eighties and remaining very loyal,  I lost my way around Folktronic (2001) and the ensuing defiantly left field albums. Thus, I have never properly returned to the camp.  The Scott Walker Syndrome?

I've watched a few Momus clips on YouTube from recent years (loved his instant cover version of David Bowie 's:Where Are We Now? ) and I might have to re-investigate now.

Sorry, I'm a lazy sod, so I'm cutting and pasting what I rather sloppily expressed four years ago in the...

Oscillations' Directory of Best and Coolest People In Music

62#- Momus AKA Nicholas Currie

Edinburgh's answer to Serge Gainsbourg?

Yet another prolific artiste who's thirty-odd year career has taken him from a post-punk, indie troubadour to synth-pop pervert to lo-fi, electronica music hall oddball to a full on cyberspaceman avant gardener.

Here is a man who had his Creation 1991 album, Hippopotamomus receive a rare, derisory '0 out of 10' album review in the 'Malady Mawker*' A worthy accolade, indeed!

(*Ha. Inky rivalry pun. Ask your Dad - Ed) 

http://imomus.com/index28.html

Momus also got sued for libel by transexual French electronica pioneer, Wendy Carlos (formerly Walter Carlos, A Clockwork Orange OST) for writing a song about the composer travelling back in time to have sex with her/himself. Currie raised funds for court costs by releasing a double album, 'Stars Forever' compiled of personal song dedications to individual fans who had paid £1000 for the privilege.

If you're a Serge G, Donavan, Josef K, Felt, Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell, Jacque Brel, Pulp fan, you'll do no wrong than investigate his many fabulous albums between 1983 - 1999

After that musical period, you're on your own. It all goes a bit left turn after the next left, then do a left at the traffic lights  left-field after that.

He's always fascinating though. Witty, erudite, perverse and utterly infuriating and I would have it any other way.

(Tunes again please. Mr Currie)!

Anyway, what do I know? IT'S MOMUS!

He currently resides in Osaka, Japan, recently recorded an album about YouTube videos and lost his eye in 1997 thus always sporting a natty eyepatch*.


*This detail alone surely secures him a place on this illustrious list?



http://www.imomus.com

[marquis_de_sad]

Spooky, I was thinking about starting a Momus thread today yesterday (it took ages writing this post), after googling and finding there hadn't been one on before.

Momus is great. I used to read his blog every day, and even though it became fairly repetitive it was usually worth a read. It was eclectic and personal in the best way.

His music is all over the place. My favourite era is probably when he was on Creation. These albums tend to have a better focus and the late 80s early 90s electronic sound sits well with his literary sex-pest lyrics. Later, he both iconoclastically turned his back on the album as out of date (he still put out albums, but no longer as something to be listened through, instead they were like files on a computer that one selected tracks from) and moved into other media: blogging, art, journalism, fiction.

Some stand-outs of this era: Murderers, the Hope of Women, Closer To You, The Angels Are Voyeurs, The Homosexual, Bishonen, A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17-24), The Guitar Lesson,  The Cabriolet (maybe my favourite), Bluestocking, Marquis of Sadness, Ventriloquists and Dolls, Song in Contravention, Summer Holiday 1999, Afterglow, Voyager, Platinum, Rhetoric, Suicide Pact, Christmas on Earth.

Post Creation, his albums become much longer, more tracks, less focus. He gets really interesting in this era for me once he starts to get into youtube and collage videos. Those later songs work best as videos and the images he selects are very simple yet striking.

Stand out tracks:

At The End Of History, Space Jews, Complicated, Coming in a Girl's Mouth (perfect example of lyrics that could have been a blog post, years later), Spooky Kabuki, Is It Because I'm a Pirate?, Sempreverde (probably his best 'experimental' song), Nervous Heartbeat, The Birdcatcher, Dracula (can't find this on youtube), Hypnoprism, Datapanik.

A lot of this stuff is very mixed, stylistically, so if you don't like one track the next might be nothing like it. He made a number of more avant grade and conceptual albums in the 00s and apparently shed a few fans, but really a lot of his songs of this era are just as tuneful as anything he put out on Creation. For me, he's best when he mixes the two approaches.

Listening to his work for the first time in a while has been fun. I haven't listened to his last two albums — Thunderclown and Bibliotek — but they both look good so maybe I will later.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

He's started writing books as well. Unamerica is a jolly little wheeze, and the line about Tilda Swinton made me lol.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Little Red Songbook is a good place to start. Sister Ray used to have a pile of cheap copies on their counter.

[marquis_de_sad]

He's started writing books as well. Unamerica is a jolly little wheeze, and the line about Tilda Swinton made me lol.

I've had the Book of Scotlands around for ages but never got round to reading it.