I murdered a pretty little bonsai tree

[imomus]

Reading this blog, you might be forgiven for thinking that its author is an amateur sociologist, poseur, journalist, traveller, self-mediating slummy fashion pin-up, cultural commentator, rentable eccentric, and so on -- yet pass over the fact that he also makes pop records. But he does, and it's the main thing he's been doing for years and years. He even released one last month, an album called Ocky Milk. Never mind what our self-mediator has declared about it, though; what are other people saying?

On the whole, they're liking it very much, whether they're bloggers, skeptical music lovers on bulletin boards, or journalists. Here's what some reviewers have said:

"Ocky Milk is supremely welcome. It's as rich and enjoyable an album as Nick Currie's made in years: warm, funny, arch in most of the right places, made with an admirable integrity and a genuine playfulness—and, at long last, surprising." Theon Weber, Stylus magazine

"What’s immediately striking about the album is its quietness. Momus uses space and silence to great effect throughout the album." Brandon Bussolini, Dusted

"The pleasure of Momus's music lies in his peculiarly elegant, catchy brand of lo-fi; he's on dandy form here, as a conspiratorial, synth-pop storyteller on The Birdcatcher, camping it up on Frilly Military and blending spooky spoken-word incantations on Devil Mask, Buddha Mind." Arwa Haider, Metro

"The drifting quality of this record is very attractive, especially on the more inventive numbers such as the hazy, faintly sinister 'Dr Cat'," says Leo Chadburn in Playlouder. But his praise is qualified:

"There are, however, some mawkish moments, notably the sentimental 'Nervous Heartbeat' with its Japanese onomatopoeia... Similarly questionable is 'Count Ossie In China' on which Momus reprises the risible Jamaican accent I hoped never to hear again after his 1995 track 'The Madness of Lee Scratch Perry'."

Leo might like to know that I'd planned to include another song with a bad Jamaican accent on the album, but dropped it for this very reason. I've decided to let you hear the outtake today; it's down below. As I emailed a friend at the time, "I'll probably be slaughtered by the PC for doing a (bad) Jamaican accent and implying that Jamaicans are tree-murderers with knives. But who says it's a Jamaican accent? It's Imaginaican. And therefore it's only slandering my own imagination."

Actually, listening again to "Bonsai Tree" I think it's an interesting piece. Even Ocky Milk's outtakes had something good about them. And I can explain the accent: the "Imaginaican" is Welsh, see, blud. I mean... "boyo".

Bonsai Tree (Stereo mp3 file, 3MB, 3mins 17secs.)

Update: Here's Ishimaru's Miyagi Bonsai Shop Dub Remix.

Comments

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

Ocky Milk hasn't grabbed me as immediately as Oskar and Otto both did. I like many of the songs, individually, a great deal, but the lack of variation in tempo over the length of the album makes it difficult for me to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. It may grow on me.

I still treasure Otto Spooky!

[(Anonymous)]

After your "Funky Forest" entry earlier this week you could have titled this one "Reggae Forest".

But wouldn't a Welsh "Imaginaican" be murdering leeks? Realistically, I mean.

[dzima.livejournal.com]

In Bonsai Tree, Momus has definitely gone Tricky on us (as I said before).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah, therein lies a doctoral thesis (http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/archive/main/momus.html).

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

"But who says it's a Jamaican accent? It's Imaginaican. And therefore it's only slandering my own imagination."

That'd be the George Lucas defence?

[psychronic.livejournal.com]

This song is awesome, I love it mon!

Initially I would have agreed with Stanley Lieber in that Ocky isn't quite as good as Otto, but a couple of days ago I listened to Ocky all the way through on my headphones and I realised that I hadn't really heard it properly until then. It's a triumph! Otto Spooky is still perfect to me though, for some reason it all came together at exactly the right time...can you imagine a metalhead listening to it with a huge smile on his face?

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

haha, oh wow. I hadn't considered that parallel.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you happy with sales?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, I see I'm at 12 in the Darla Hot 100 (http://www.darla.com/topSellers/). I think I peaked at 6. I shall have to fall back on the old indie cliché: "We just make our records for ourselves. If anyone buys them, that's a bonus."

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

I read that Leo Chadburn review. I can see where he's coming from, but personally, the accent didn't bother me. I seem to recall that I had a brief struggle with my artistic taste filter in my brain upon hearing Count Ossie in China, which went something like, "Do I suspend my disbelief? Okay, I do." And with that, the struggle was over, and I like the track very much.

After all, I suspended my disbelief similarly for Kate Bush when she did Cockney and Aussie accents on The Dreaming. As she sings on one of the tracks (http://www.lyricsdomain.com/11/kate_bush/leave_it_open.html) on that album, "We let the weirdness in". I generally find that life is more interesting when you do.

Thanks for the link.

m

[(Anonymous)]

Hi momus protocol check

Mon

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

By the way, the Bonsai/Jamaican connection reminded me that Natsume Soseki was probably a fan of reggae, even giving one of his novels the title 'Mon (http://www.library.tohoku.ac.jp/collect/soseki/mon-e.html)'

Re: m

[(Anonymous)]

Only use thin clients these days. Got no time for fat clients ok now that I said hello maybe ill go read what you wrote

[mini-snape.livejournal.com]

But WHY? WHY a Jamaican accent? *insert desperate flailing of limbs here*

[imomus.livejournal.com]

There's a running theme on Ocky Milk which you could state as "What if Jamaica were floating in the Sea of Japan?" There are so many rasta-looking people in Japan that you sometimes think it already is. I spent the early part of 2005 living in a totally rasta house in Hokkaido, for instance, watching the film "Rockers" over and over.

And so I send Nyahbinghi drummer Count Ossie to China, or set a young dread loose in Japan, bringing his sensuality but also a certain psychopathology; he's murdering the bonsai trees.

The Japanese are fascinated (http://imomus.livejournal.com/157776.html) by negritude, but also tend to equate foreigners with crime (http://www.japantoday.com/jp/popvox/621). This track ties up both of these "occidentalist" projections.

[mini-snape.livejournal.com]

Well, that explains it. Though the accent still grates on me. Also, reminds me of that blog by the black man who became a schoolteacher in Japan. Was that called Gringo Smash? Did I find it through you or fandom_wank?? I don't know. Byron ate my brain.

[xishimarux.livejournal.com]

Bonsai Tree needed that electronic dub sound treatment. In fact... I just made a remix. :)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/bonsai-tree-miyagi-bonsai-shop-dub-remix-mp3.html

[xishimarux.livejournal.com]

Ganjin Smash? The guys name is Azrael. I used to read it back when he regularly updated it. I loved the stores about him blocking package attacks and Kancho. haha 1000 years of pain.

[mini-snape.livejournal.com]

I fail at fangirl Japanese. Miserably.

Yes, he doesn't really do much about the thing these days, which is a shame, but I read the entire backlog one day when I was bored, very edifying. Apart from his rather scary entries about his girlfriends (someone ought to tell him the general audience doesn't care if he prefers breasts to arses), it was all highly amusing, too.

Must have been fandom_wank I found it through, then.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's pretty good!

I worked on this song so much, because it was never quite right, and some of the mixes I did slowed the song down and dubbed it up, with some of the same effects you've used. It began to lose the sensuality and immediacy in those versions, though it gained in sinisterness. But yours is good! Nice extreme dubbing FX, and nice chop-up in the lyrics!

[(Anonymous)]

OT: Hey, Momster, what's up, where's your take on the recent spate of teenage suicides in J-wonderland? I want to see you spin that into something positive, a praise of close communities or something, respect for the other and all that.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

can you imagine a metalhead listening to it with a huge smile on his face?

I'll try!

teenage suicide

[(Anonymous)]

Sigh if omly they could realize it gets better zzbn

[badspelling.livejournal.com]

I guess the greatest irony is that while the reviewer takes issue with a persona that you're putting on, the reviewer himself uses both a pseudonym and and persona on a regular basis when working his 'real' dayjob.

Remix album

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

On a tangent: have you thought of inviting some people to remix your tracks and releasing a remix album?