Jahwise Hammer of the Babylon King

[imomus]

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

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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.

Comments

Re: Hmmmm

[imomus.livejournal.com]

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.

Re: Hmmmm

[(Anonymous)]

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.

Re: Hmmmm

[imomus.livejournal.com]

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.