Presenting Widow Twanky

[imomus]

We're now just two weeks from the release of the new Momus album, Joemus. Here's the second YouTube single from the album (the first was Mr Proctor). It's called Widow Twanky, and it uses the YearbookYourself software which is pretty viral at the moment:

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Joemus got its first review this week, from an online publication called BabySue:

Momus - Joemus (CD, Darla, Electronic/pop)
"The appropriately-titled Joemus is a collaboration between Momus and Joe Howe (Gay Against You, Germlin). The two musicians did most of their writing and recording over the internet before getting together in Berlin, Germany to finish ironing out the final details of the recordings. Joemus is a slightly kooky album that is virtually unpredictable. One track may find the band playing blippy-bloopy hummable electronic pop ("Birocracy")...but seconds later you may feel that you are listening to a modern lounge artist ("Widow Twanky"). Other cuts may give you the impression that the music is entirely experimental and crazy. The duo covers a lot of ground with these 15 tracks...so much so that the average listener is likely to be taken off guard or lost somewhere along the way. And that may be exactly the desired reaction from these two extraordinarily clever guys. Bizarre modern electronic pop cuts include "The Next Time," "Strewf!", "Goodiepal," "Fade to White," and "The Vaudevillian." Odd stuff, sometimes with a strange nervous twist... (Rating: 5/6, EXCELLENT)"

Kooky, bizarre and crazy seem like strange epithets coming from a website whose front page announces: "To Smintre, SNICK on the PLOCK."

Widow Twanky has already been the subject of a fun cover version by Ross Hawkins from Idle Tigers:

Idle Tigers: Widow Twanky (mp3 file, 3.1MB)

Comments

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

BabySue's reviews are great. Usually, the wierder, the better. I used to read the ultra-racist comics on that site back in college. They are still really, really, REALLY funny, too.

[(Anonymous)]

I can't get past the strangulated, self-conscious vocals. You're a great songwriter, but a horrible singer.

le

[(Anonymous)]

I look forward to giving Joemus a first listen as soon as Cherry Red dispatch my copy. As soon as I get out of work (where Youtube is firewalled in extremis) I'll give Widow Twanky a whirl, which is the song that most intreigued me from title alone, having fond and curious memories of provincial pantomimes and their stubbled washer-women.
I'm annoyed by most 'first reviews' I read, especially on the internet because usually it seems like they haven't listened to full product, if at all. It's a Momus LP and it's bound to be experimental, and it's been talked about in the very pages of this blog and a few tracks have been made available via Youtube. Also, the official press for the record has stated a lot in regards to the album's pace.
It's so easy for these reviewers to write a short piece, fill in the blanks and slap on an above average rating purely because said artist's usual output is consistent and regarded highly in certain circles.
All press is good press of course, but I don't think it's particualarly ethical to write a piece on something the reviewer has given very little regard, for the purpose of adhering to some editorial deadline.

Anyway, I'll climb down from my soapbox now so I can continue to be excited about giving said album my own verdict, in a couple of weeks' time.

All the best!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh I love the vocal delivery,its delicious.And people say Amy Winehouse has "soul"??Pur-lease!This is the dogs.Giddy Gavin x

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

This is my new favourite song. Awe inspiring mix of "mega-trad" vibe mixed with some twanky shadows, sung by what sounds like a sad robot who is possibly dying of consumption. This is the song on the jukebox in that little dive bar on Mars. This is the song the angels play whenever they take a smoke break. This song changes into a blue powder tuxedo when it isn't being played. This song went to number one in the coastal towns of Peru 30 years ago, but was outlawed by the government for being counter-revolutionary. This song carries a noose in one hand and a faded corsage and a toy sax in the other. In a parallel universe, this song has the power to miraculously impregnate women and has been known to make caterpillars break-dance.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Now, see, this is the kind of review I wish those lazy rock journalists would write! But I suppose people who think like this have better things to do with their time than write rock reviews.

[robinsonner.livejournal.com]

When I saw the mp3 file title widowtwankyross I thought all you need now is the guest appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show. His comeback show even.
A lovely piece for lovesick robots.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wossy and I are the same age and share a love of David Bowie and Japan (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=japanorama+series+3&search_type=&aq=f), so it might make sense. What's more, I was in the front row of the studio audience for the pilot of The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross -- his first TV show -- in 1987.

[(Anonymous)]

So long as you don't share his interest of plaguing the ex cast of Fawlty Towers, bragging you've slept with their granddaughters!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That was Brand, I think Wossy was just a snickering sidekick.

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, what are your thoughts on the Human League's 1984 hit single "The Lebanon"?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I have already outlined my position on this issue at the assembly of the 32nd International Conference in my seminal essay Synth Pierrot (http://imomus.com/thought110401.html).

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting. So from your synth-rockist stance, "The Lebanon" commits the solecism of using guitars, thus sullying the purism of the synth-pop sound, and signaling its decline. I'm not sure I entirely buy that. After all, in 1984 we already were years on from Bowie/Low, Gary Numan etc. The "no guitars" rule was already old hat. The important thing about "The Lebanon" is not actually the guitars, but the synths. Yes, we've moved on from the synth-pop era, but only by accommodating it, incorprating the sound into the mainstream.

[(Anonymous)]

Either way, it's not a terribly good song, is it? But I think Midge Ure era Ultravox got there first, and quite some time before, with the Edge-style guitar plus synthesiser combo (cf New Europeans from the Vienna album).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The Lebanon switches musical allegiance from Kraftwerk to The Edge's open-tuned, "epic" guitar chimes, compounded by subject-matter which skirts the Bono-esque (humanist, anthemic, not quite as banal as Culture Club's War Song but not far off). I will forever consider it The Human League's quisling moment. They later regretted it, I'm sure, since they returned to what they did best: synth pop with synths.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It also sounds like Simple Minds channelling U2. Anyway, it's the moment when a certain crystalline clockwork electronic perfection got muddied with that "full-spectrum dominance" guitar sound which always flattens arrangements by taking all the space away. It didn't have to happen, but some weak souls were tempted.

Imagine a Kraftwerk album with fuzzy, "committed" guitars! Imagine them singing "Radioactivity" with power chords! The horror!

[(Anonymous)]

It's a bit unfair to single out the poor old Human League here. No, The Lebanon is not great, but by the mid eighties, all artists of the art rock/glam rock/post-punk continuum were floundering. Even Kraftwerk wasn't doing a very good impression of Kraftwerk any more! This was a thread of music that dissipated, rather than led on to something else. What became exciting in the mid to late eighties came from other threads - hip hop, acid house etc. The artrock/postpunk aesthetic went underground for a good decade or so, as of around 1985 or 86.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Those pictures are quite disturbing.

[robinsonner.livejournal.com]

He started as a warm-up man didn't he?
I always remember the night Julian Cope wandered on stage.

[robinsonner.livejournal.com]

Lovely aren't they?
Its like the new Picasso

[pixelmist.livejournal.com]

This may be one of my top five favorite songs of yours, ever. What's the ratio live instrument-to-synth we're dealing with here? My jaw is droopdropped. This track is unbelievable!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Glad you like it!

The percussion is samples played manually, the guitar is real acoustic guitar with a woozy tuning effect on it, the vocal is treated to throw it an octave higher, the riff is distorted synth organ plus a mixture of synth piano and real guitar, and Joe takes the sax solo and sax riffs with a (deliberately plastic-sounding) sax sample. Strings are all synthetic.

Actually, the song started off as this:

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I took that backing track, cut it up, and put it back together again in a different order and wrote the new song over the top. Quite a few songs on Joemus were written this way: the Ashes to Ashes cover, for instance, becomes Jahwise Hammer of the Babylon King in a different order. Writing this way limits your choice of chords, but makes you do things you wouldn't normally do, in terms of transitions and structuring. It's a restraint and also an incentive to do new things. And I think some of the energy of the first song always comes through in the second.

Another example on the album: my cover of Sakamoto's Thatness and Thereness, chopped up and re-ordered, becomes a new song called Strewth! I remember, back in the 80s, everybody accused SAW of having a computer that did this for them -- each Jason and Kylie single was the last one in a different order! Well, actually, if that really were the case, if my experience is anything to go by, the songs would have sounded a lot weirder.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to play those two YouTube videos together. It kind of works until the key change in Twanky. Then it's a horrible mess.

[drywbach.livejournal.com]

The tuxedo hasn't been seen much today! :)
Nice review.

I got my Joemus today!

[(Anonymous)]

listening now. detailed review to follow, but already loving Widow Twanky and really enjoying Jahwise Hammer Of The Babylon King. It reminds me of The Last Communist, which is one of my all time favorites. November's the best month of 2008 so far.

Re: I got my Joemus today!

[(Anonymous)]

Are lyrics online yet?

Re: I got my Joemus today!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

No, I should do that soon though.

[(Anonymous)]

this track is excellent, etc.
;-)

[eclectiktronik.livejournal.com]

this track is excellent, etc.
;-)

[pixelmist.livejournal.com]

The guitar's the thing for me. It brings in the dynamic - like it's pulling the tune back and forth across the rhythm. Woozy "Widow Twanky"!

Hearing those YouTube clips next to one another is brilliant. I am very interested in hearing the rest of the record; seems like it could be as big an aesthetic break/evolution as Oskar was from Folktronic.

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

Did I really say "blue powder?" -- ha ha, me type dyslexic.

(Momus looks very Simon Peggish 25 seconds into that video.)

Re: I got my Joemus today!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You're really early with your copy of Joemus! Are you a reviewer, someone in the industry? Which country?

[drywbach.livejournal.com]

Could be a typo, could be next season's fashion hit...

Yes, there's a bit of Peggness going on there. :)

[bugpowered.livejournal.com]

I can't get past the strangulated, self-conscious vocals

*cough* Verfremdungseffekt *cough*

[bugpowered.livejournal.com]

Hello, Tom Robbins called, he wants his similes back ;-)

[bugpowered.livejournal.com]

This is the song on the jukebox in that little dive bar on Mars. This is the song the angels play whenever they take a smoke break. This song changes into a blue powder tuxedo when it isn't being played. This song went to number one in the coastal towns of Peru 30 years ago, but was outlawed by the government for being counter-revolutionary. This song carries a noose in one hand and a faded corsage and a toy sax in the other. In a parallel universe, this song has the power to miraculously impregnate women and has been known to make caterpillars break-dance.

Hello, Tom Robins called, he wants his similes back.

;-)

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

The first time I visit this blog in a few weeks, and this is what I see? Oh dear lord Momus, LOL!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping the T.Rexness will not be lost of Electricwitch.

Slithery Tove, he's a natural-born slider, he's just out of sight (sight)!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, that's about tomorrow's song!

a strange nervous twist

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

Youtube tune suits the images though the melodics seem a lot more mature compared to the sixties images. This widow seems to have a checkered past by the sounds of things. Maybe an Audrey Hepburn romance.

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3633616896/nm0000030

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

if I knew who Tom Robbins was, then I would know if that was an insult, or you making a clumsy pass at me. Either way, I'm flattered dear.

[bugpowered.livejournal.com]

Tom Robbins,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins

american author and champion (or abuser) of that very overloaded trippy-hippy simile style.

Neither insult nor pass, I'm afraid.

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

I must have been thinking you meant Harold Robbins, Tom Robbins sounds interesting - I will check him out at the library today :)

Re: I got my Joemus today!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm in New York and pre ordered from Darla, which i will now do EVERY time there's a new Momus CD.

The album is fantastic. Still working my way through getting to know the second half, but the first half is chock full of aces.

Re: I got my Joemus today!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Number 11 on the Darla Top Sellers List (http://www.darla.com/topSellers/)... with a bullet!