Momus - OTTO SPOOKY

momus, dont look at this part:
they're all in my slsk folder
no one ever downloads them

my favorites are
lif of the fields
water song
klaxon
+ maybe sempreverde

probably cause they lack momus style humor im not a big fan of and they got interesting production

im curios to hear how everythin works out with john ff's additions

Yeah, me too. I love it when I'm reading old threads and he starts posting. Feathers fly.

Momus: Otto Spooky (American Patchwork, 2005)

The first track sees a computer singing 'I'm going to rape you', then, when his partner agrees, fretting 'Don't say okay because then it's not rape!' That's followed by a pagan paen to spring which describes 'shinto dogs at the phallic symbol' and begs 'pull me down and pump me dry' (sexual reference to the extraction of seed from human genitalia, either by mouth or hand). Next there's a tribute to a lustful 'Corkscrew King' (the double entendre on 'corkscrew' is milked until the white froth runs down the bucket and the udder is dry). The king seems to be impotent -- and the song treats this like a big joke. A character called 'the Yogi Doctor Swami' has 'his hand upon his thing' and the chorus contains many 'humourous' allusions to senile erectile dysfunction.

Next comes a song in Arabic scales, sung in French, in which a Tripoli taxi driver explains the joys of giving your spouse a damn good slap in the face. Although this is recommended in Ecclesiastes 5,9, Judges 3,11 and Ruth 15,12, it's not something we Christians need a pagan to tell us about. Before the song called 'Lady Fancy Knickers' (which seems to be about duct tape, but turns into a thundering of Mongol horsemen's hooves and the Islamic-style threat 'black is what we'll wear when we come to kill you all') there's the song which sees Robin Hood, the notoriously immoral redistributor of wealth, exchanging his bow and arrow for a wheelchair and colostomy bag after a serious beating from his rival, Dooh Nibor, an obvious caricature of a Republican politician.

A song describing a video game in which you compose lute scores and shoot off panda's heads is not something we'd recommend any children hear, especially those who can't distinguish video games from real bamboo forests. The worst is yet to come, though: a children's song which advises kids to 'touch other children's genitals for pleasure' and 'take your parents struggling to the Great Mountain of Death / Sing the party anthem as you throw them off the edge'. 'Your Fat Friend' is an offensive ode to husky girlfriends, then comes a blues song describing a sexual encounter between a man and God. Even more sickening is the sarcastic demolition of the faith of Mel Gibson ('Jesus in Furs') in which 'The Passion' is described as a sick masochistic gorefest and Christ is implored to 'Come back as a girl, or come back as filthy letcher / Please save the world without too much tomato ketchup'. The record ends with an Elizabethan falsetto eunuch song ('You harlequins, you play such s**t...') and a tale of two homosexual archeologists who meet death (in the form of an Edison demonstration gramophone record) in Italy.

'Otto Spooky' is wretched in every way, and Beelzebub has surely got a cosy corner table already laid out for Momus right by the door to hell's hottest kitchen.

I'd really advise anyone who has the mp3s to get the album, because it's a very different beast. Talaga is a sound design genius and his morphs have worked so well. It really is a kind of electronic psychedlic folk now, and in between the tracks you float off into a zany world of deranged sound that estranges everything and whets your appetite for the next story. It's sorta like falling asleep and having lucid dreams connected by sort of Kandinsky-like abstract sound imagery.

Anyway, enough by me (I seem to have written almost everything on this page about 'Otto') – I'm really curious to know what people make of the record, good and bad. So far it seems much more popular than 'Oskar', in terms of the labels themselves liking it (Darla and Magistery) and early buyers giving the thumbs up... I just hope I haven't made a classic, because I'm very much against that on principle (and it's a pain to have everyone say forever after 'It's good, but it's not as good as The Classic he made...')

http://www.avdf.com/jan98/hum_h001.html

Say no more.

Momus, I'm wondering what you think of the segues between songs--what their purpose is and what do they add to the song. Some of them I like, particularly those that retain the feel of the song that just finished. But sometimes they're too out of place and a bit disruptive. I mean, where does the one at the end of "Jesus in Furs" come from (though I like that one, heh. I thought it was a new song when I first heard it).

Ah, I just remembered that you compared this album to Bowie's Berlin albums. Maybe that's why the last 5 or so tracks have a completely different feel?

Anyway, this album still has plently of listens left in it, and I'm glad I bought it. More than any of your albums, Oskar won me over, and this one continues in that direction, so I'm more than content. I have to start reading your Livejournal more...I see that most of these songs were posted last summer! Have they changed much since you posted them (minus the segues)? I was taking a peek over there and I saw all those people trying to convince you to return to your old sound. I laughed.

I'm still really liking it. And the segues have grown on me. How wonderful is "Jesus in Furs"? The only thing I would have hoped for is a bit of a crisper sound. The songs are so dense, that a lot of the lower/bassier sounds aren't crystal clear.

I listed to Otto back to back with the Happy Family album to see how things have changed. The synth on "The Night Underground" sounds like the Momus of today :)