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imomus
Here it is, the finished version of the song I described on Thursday:
Sempreverde
Sorry, this track is no longer available. Please buy the CD when it comes out!
As before, it's a dollar if you like and keep the download. A small price to pay for peace of mind! (Caution: This song might cause irregular heartbeat, anxiety or insomnia in some people. Always follow the directions printed on the packet and if necessary consult a doctor.)
Sempreverde
The man from the north enters the tube
Wriggles his way to the perspex cube
The man from the south dissolves in his mouth
A lozenge of Sempreverde
The man from the north and the man from the south
One by the brain, one by the mouth
Climb through the tube into the cube
Of the perspex Japanese garden
And in the pines a tiny sun shines
Birds small as insects fly through the air
The panda unzips the skin of a pig
Flops himself down in the garden
Fiddle me blank, fiddle me blind
All the young girls fiddle their minds
Jilly and Debbie and everyone's here
All for the Sempreverde
Giants and fairies and strange effigies
Sacred and artificial trees
Dragons and serpents and fish and birds
In the perspex Japanese garden
Otto the rich, Otto the poor
Spilling the stuff on the party floor
The past is so sad, the present is worse
Thank heaven we haven't a future
The world fills with trash and eskimo ash
Clouds of white gas floating in from the past
Crawl to the cashpoint, bring me the cash
And I'll get you the Sempreverde
I said 'I'm going to rape you'
She said okay
I said 'Don't say okay because then it's not rape'
She said 'Okay, I won't say okay'
On two tabs of Sempreverde
Evergreen Sempreverde
*
The current lead story on Salon is Irresistible Force, an interview with Stephin Merritt on the eve of the release of the new Magnetic Fields album, 'i'. Merritt is now giving interview with the deft, morose panache of Morrissey in his prime, so it's well worth having to sit through a Last Samurai infomercial to get to the meat of it... er, sorry, the veg. And, proving that my stock is higher in the East Village than in Clerkenwell, I did not go unmentioned (in a context which, you will see, also relates to this new song):
'Merritt does not keep careful track of what's happening in popular music these days, and seems entirely dismissive of most that he's heard. I asked him a few times if there were young and active artists out there whom he liked, and all I got was that Momus (mid-40s) is a "great lyricist," and that he likes the new High Llamas record. Since he stopped reviewing records, he doesn't get them sent to him for free in the mail anymore, so he says that "unless it's boring thumping disco music, I probably don't hear it, until my friends play it for me. Which they rarely do anymore, since I hate everything they play for me."
'...Merritt feels there is nothing new or groundbreaking in popular music these days. "There needs to be a new technology," he said. "That's usually when that happens. Robotics would be great. If we could have an easily used robot guitar, for example, we could do lots of nifty things that have not been done. Computer-assisted songwriting would also be great."
'With my Luddite hackles raised by this and a few of Merritt's other comments (he's enthusiastic about the development of computerized singing), I wound up asking a genuinely ridiculous question: "Would you want a world in which everyone played perfectly metronomical drumbeats all the time?" Merritt paused to bask in the full absurdity of the question, and then, smiling, his voice more animated than at any other time during our conversations, answered, "Yes! Yes, I would!"
Thank you, Stephin!
Story
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-01 01:01 pm (UTC)The greener side
Date: 2004-05-01 03:06 pm (UTC)Re: The greener side
Date: 2004-05-01 03:15 pm (UTC)They have found that the fountain of youth
Is a mixture of gin and vermouth
Now, of course, we know that it's a six per cent suspension of Sempreverde from 'Bayer'.
I think Ponce de Leon, back in the 16th century, wouldn't have found the musical style of this song too alien. He would probably have wondered why the singer sounded so maladroit, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-01 03:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-01 06:09 pm (UTC)also: you were in my dream earlier and we were having sex. it was ace.
honestly...
Date: 2004-05-01 06:25 pm (UTC)But I'm sick of "computer voices".
If you're sick of your voice:
Give me a song, I'll sing it...
x
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-01 10:43 pm (UTC)test results from a clinical trial.
Date: 2004-05-01 10:44 pm (UTC)It amuses and endears, incites and enrages.
But I've never had a reaction like this before.
I should've read the label's cautionary statement before ingesting aurally. But alas...
What went down:
As I'm about to pour out a spontaneous offering-in-text to the digital may-pole, your song comes on, and I am completely arrested and turned paralytic.
My focus cannot waver from the strain.
I am in it's thrall.
Upon the song's conclusion, I realize that I can't write.
I don't want to.
But as I start to explain that, the exposition itself becomes my own verse for the evening. And though I couldn't seem to get it out that way in the end, the creature that became my post was throwing itself around in my head in the rhythm of a limerick...
Ah, the oft-underappreciated glory of the fevered state...
*grin*
Thanks again.
Re: honestly...
Date: 2004-05-01 11:18 pm (UTC)The reason I used one here is to exaggerate the artificiality of the 'perspex Japanese garden', to make it seem like a very synthetic, high-tech and engineered experience. I love the idea of a folk song resembling 'Greensleeves' being sung by a computer. I love the contrast between the computer's 'emotionless' voice and the heart-rending sound of the Mongolian horsehead fiddle that accompanies it, and I like the absurdity of a computer -- which has no body and no desire -- singing 'I'm going to rape you'. For me, the result takes me into 'Man Who Fell To Earth' or 'Bladerunner' territory: that sub-genre of science fiction which is about emotion and memory. This is something I worked a lot with on my 'Timelord' album ten years ago, for instance in the song 'Christmas on Earth', where an astronaut celebrates Christmas back home, despite the fact that he is subject to an Einsteinian time shift which means that his friends all died long ago.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-02 05:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-02 09:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-02 01:47 pm (UTC)Re: honestly...
Date: 2004-05-02 06:45 pm (UTC)However, isn't Stephin Merritt probably referring to the new sampling "packages" which use actual flesh-and-blood singers to digitally create your vocal lines? (I've heard the posted examples and was duly impressed--I think it's Yamaha who's most hard at work on this, and if you're not as lazy as I am, you can do a search and judge for yourself. The packages are named for the singers whose phonemes were originally sampled.) In the future, in theory, one could slice and dice any singer and then utilize the results to sing your own material. Who, then, would sing "Sempreverde"? Someone ageless and evergreen, I hope--Barbra Streisand?
By the way, this song is the most otherwordly and eerily beautiful of the recent batch, with a renewed sense of mystery one can really appreciate after the slightly more straightforward melodies and choruses of the past few. Meaning in plainspeak, I already treasure it!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-03 06:58 am (UTC)this song can be listened 3 or 4 times.. no more.. good lyrics.. musically shit..
i love you momus, but your ultimate ways don't suit me..
Merrit interview
Date: 2004-05-03 07:12 am (UTC)1.- Bjork is innovative
2.- "New Music" should come from young people
3.- Mentioning rappers on an interview to an artist that is considered a great songwriter, just to compare the "verbal ability" of the hip hop artists.
I think that most of Bjork's innovations where already there years ago, but they weren't really popular, in terms of commercial success.
About the "new music" thing, I guess that the fact that the journalist mentions Momus's age is just an indication that he only knows this about Momus and haven't really listened to any of his music. I would say that a new record by Tom Ze (mid sixties?) would be more innovative than the debut album from a teenage rapper. Age shouldn't be a parameter of "freshness".
Finally, I just don't think that Hip Hop is that great, mainly because is always too local, too "east coast/west coast. I think most americans regard it so high because they feel it's the P.C thing to do.
I really enjoy your LJ, keep the good work
R.Casas
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-03 07:15 am (UTC)this song can be listened 3 or 4 times.. no more.. good lyrics.. musically shit..
i love you momus, but your ultimate ways don't suit me..
Re: honestly...
Date: 2004-05-03 07:54 am (UTC)http://www.vocaloid.com/en/sample.html
I long for the day when Momus will employ one of these transhumanoid singers.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-03 10:43 am (UTC)Undoubtedly Momus will be sure to pass it on to Henry VIII (supposedly).
Re: honestly...
Date: 2004-05-03 11:03 am (UTC)This is a nice example of computer voice manipulation… it was recorded for a Divine Comedy tribute album (http://tribute.neilhannon.info/home.htm), and it was made using Virtual SingerTM (http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/virtualsinger.htm).
lacking in viridian?
Date: 2004-05-03 03:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-03 10:32 pm (UTC)Re: honestly...
Date: 2004-05-04 03:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-04 08:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-04 11:12 am (UTC)ah, and, oh dear, momus Momus MOMUSMOMUSMOMUSMOMUSMOMUS.
but she din wanna ride wit you. poor it out son, go on, write a song about it an sell it for a yen to a wallpaper magazine reader.
Re: Merrit interview
Date: 2004-05-05 05:42 am (UTC)Try picking up some Blackalicious, or Aesop Rock, or listen to some Hip-Hop from countries other than the USA. There's plenty of great stuff out there.
As for the cliche evident in the Merrit interview, I didn't really expect anything more from a Salon Trendroid.
Re: honestly...
Date: 2004-05-05 09:50 am (UTC)when does the cd come out?
Date: 2004-09-16 02:20 am (UTC)