imomus | Jahwise Hammer of the Babylon King

Jahwise Hammer of the Babylon King

After Mr Proctor and Widow Twanky, here's another video single from the forthcoming Momus album Joemus.

[Error: unknown template video]

The song, co-written by Joe Howe and Nick Currie, is set to images from the film that inspired it: Rockers (1978) by Ted Bafaloukos. Made in 1978, Rockers features some of the outstanding reggae musicians of the time in cameo roles as themselves: Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, Richard "Dirty Harry" Hall, Gregory "Jah Tooth" Isaacs, Jacob "Jakes" Miller, Robbie Shakespeare, Kiddus I, Burning Spear, Big Youth and Dillinger.

My song is a tribute not just to the Bafaloukos film (which I watched over and over in a snowed-in house in Hokkaido in 2005) but specifically to the walking styles of its actor-musicians, which I find inspiringly free and expressive.

The music is my chopped-up, rearranged version of the Germlin backing track for our Ashes to Ashes cover, which appeared on the 7" vinyl box set Recovery. Other videos of songs which appear on the Joemus album: Thatness and Thereness and The Next Time. And you can see Joe and me performing a rocking live version of Jahwise Hammer at Stereo in Glasgow last July about four minutes into this video (includes me attempting to emulate some of the silly walks).

The Joemus album is available from Cherry Red in the UK, Darla in the US, and on Amazon (US and UK). It's officially due on November 18th (US) and 24th (UK), but some reports suggest copies are shipping already.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm really enjoying the first three video singles.

Cherry Red are indeed shipping copies of Joemus, I got mine yesterday, and it's fantastic! I'm really enjoying it.
Highlights for me a couple of days into listening to it are 'Ichabod Crane' which just sounds so fresh and new. 'Goodiepal' is a great song, if a little strange. Maybe it's because it's the only one you didn't really give any description of in the run up the albums release.
Well done, Nick, on another excellent album!

Goodiepal nearly didn't make it onto the album, IIRC!

Yes, I wasn't too happy with the way the chorus went before Joe got his magical hands on it.

Goodiepal is inspired by the wonderful Goodiepal -- bearded whistling sound sculptor from the Faroe Islands (http://www.bbc.co.uk/collective/gallery/2/static.shtml?collection=numusic&image=goodiepal) -- but also by an excellent blog post (http://pulled-up.blogspot.com/2008/07/utopia-now.html) on... Pulled Up Blogspot dot com!

I'm not going to be Nick Cave-like and claim I never listen to my own records and don't care what people think of them. I listen (and I'm also loving the Joemus album, I play it pretty much every day) and I'm eager to hear other people's impressions, especially at this early stage.

Details of which tracks you like and why much appreciated!

Just to keep a balance I think it's rotten.

Wow, I like this! This is my favorite thing I've heard from you in a while.

After all the fucking with this its time to shoot the load.
Then again, this might be a state of Daoist reservus channeling the orgasm up and down the loop. Careful with that axe!
Andmoreagain, this may be just the end of the foreplay!
You can leave your hat on - a young man's song in the same older man's hands.

Is there a bit in Mr Proctor that goes "Billy, Billy"?
That accent. Its great. My friends in Dundee will love it.

Is there a bit in Mr Proctor that goes "Billy, Billy"?

There is. Billy is my dad's name when he was a boy. But it could also be the missed associate.

i still like widow twanky best as it touches this odd nerve in me, but this is pretty great.

come play in philadelphia!

Its so very nearly brilliant - but so self conscious its hard to listen and so so Bowie but, like his later stuff it kinda lacks that effortless grace. Still you are obviously tickled (insert colour) with it and so are the fanboys (and fannygirls) so what the heck

I have to agree. There are some great sounds here, but there is something holding me back really liking it and it's to do with ultra self-consciousness and the singing voice. I just cannot love your voice, but I recognise you are pushing the boat out and doing some interesting things here. Next time around I really hope you work with someone who can also help you out with vocals.

Each to his own, I suppose -- I'm not quite sure what "self-conscious" means in this context, or why it should be such a bad thing. The self-consciousness of the way the Jamaicans walk in my clip, for instance, is excellent. I certainly wouldn't tell them to tone that down or find someone else to maybe help out with their walking.

Well, it's difficult to express what I mean without falling into the clichés of "keeping it real" etc. I like to have a sense that the performer doesn't always know exactly what he's doing, he (or she) just does it. Whereas I feel a lot of calculation behind what you're doing, not only can you "explain" it all, but you're dying to do so as well! Perhaps I'm being unfair, but you asked for responses!

I don't think the Jamaican walk thing is analogous, because what I imagine you're getting from their walk is not the same as what they're trying to express with it - I imagine you're seeing a touch of camp in it, which I very much doubt is what is intended to be expressed. The walk is self-conscious and unself-conscious at the same time.

I have to say I think the Joemus album is my least self-conscious in years, in the sense that it's very raw and intuitive. I basically sang the first thing that came into my head over the tracks Joe gave me, which is why the lyrics are so -- I won't say "random", I'd rather say they're wired into the id, the "primitive prompter", the right brain, the unconscious.

Of course, there's a lot of consciousness in the placement, the editing, the ordering of songs and so on. But it's a very, very spontaneous album, and what you hear is "the real me" even when I'm in role as Widow Twanky or whoever. It's a paradox well-known to actors that you find yourself by adopting the personae of others.

There's now a lyrics page for the Joemus album. (http://imomus.com/joemuslyrics.html)

On the subject of new releases, here's one I made earlier, to coin a phrase. Hope you like it!

My favourite song on 'Joemus' changes every time I revisit - at the moment it's definitely 'Fade to White' which is just spectacular. I love the guitar on it.
Elsewhere 'The Man You'll Never Be' is also beatiful and I like the way 'Dracula' revisits the old themes of age and libido.
There is so much to like on that album, it sounds fresh and new and is a lot more 'Western' than anything you've put out since 'Folktronic'. Not that the Eastern elements of other later albums a criticism, it's just nice to hear you exploring other areas, such as on 'The Man You'll Never Be'.
All in all it's a winner, it really is. Your best since, erm, Ocky Milk!

Woot!

It's definitely a good sign that everyone mentions different tracks as standouts. You're the first to mention "Fade to White", for instance! It's strange for me, because I remember what a terrible song that was when it started. It was called "Love Will Drive Us Crazy" and was just going nowhere, riding a white Italodisco stallion. It was only when I steered my steed off towards the rings of Dante's Inferno and Eliot's Wasteland that it began to make sense. It required darkness.

That's great, because I can imagine it as something the uber-cool campus hippies in the song would've made themselves. There's another video of the song out there, by someone Japanese. It's got better audio quality than yours, that's about all I can say for it!

[Error: unknown template video]

Glad you're happy with my comments..

It sounds like there's an awful lot from those 'sessions' that will remain unreleased. Are you planning to make some of those tracks available online for those who've purchased the finished product?

Oh, I don't want to flood the internet with terrible alternative versions of my songs, no. Lots of people haven't heard my good work yet, so I'd rather keep up the chances of them stumbling on something good with my name on it.

Its also maybe because we know you so well from this blog (or think we do!) that that alien other distance, that oblique mystery Bowie has (or had) and which is really needed for a song like Widow Twanky is missing and so it comes across as affected. On the other hand If I had never heard you before or read this damn blog or spent too long listening to Bowie this new LP might possibly be the best thing ever.

Maybe a big budget video on Battersea bridge with a chorus line of japanese girls twirling umbrellas would redeem things !

Re: Hmm. Glad blogging hasn't snookered creativity, in terms of being too close to the audience. Easy to lose the sympathetic ear. This song reminds me of aspects of 'Philosophy of..' compacted further together. I'm been practising my Fan Dem Aff, Willie Bounce and Stookie to it.

Get jiggy!

I've been actually avoiding playing the youtubes; perhaps I'm showing my age but I like listening to albums in their entirety, with the tracks sequenced as the author intended.
I do hugely like Mr. Proctor, it really sounds quite unlike anything you have one before.
You seem to be inverting the standard pop musician's career trajectory of gradual decline, this sounds so new and exciting - kudos to you and Joe.
I'm hugely glad you never chose to 'keep it real'.

Thank you Nick for perhaps my favorite Momus album of all time. I don't know if you remember me...hope you do. I've been an eager listener since the days of el. Thought you lost a bit of the magic, perhaps a bit too cerebral and not enough of the groove. I've been pretty much listening to Joemus nonstop since it arrived in the post. Keeps getting better. I see perhaps a bit of inspiration coming from the likes of Of Montreal and Animal Collective. Thank you. Veena

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jahwise Hammer of the Babylon King

no subject

WoahMus!

Re: WoahMus!

Re: WoahMus!

Re: WoahMus!

no subject

no subject

no subject

i walk the streets singing widow twanky

Re: i walk the streets singing widow twanky

no subject

Hmmmm

Re: Hmmmm

Re: Hmmmm

Re: Hmmmm

Re: Hmmmm

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Hmmmn part 2

Elephant Man's Dancehall Gym

Re: Elephant Man's Dancehall Gym

no subject

wow