Tell me something about Otto Spooky

[imomus]

Today I'd like anyone who's got a copy of my new album Otto Spooky to tell me something about it... and you.



How does this long-playing Momus record fit into your listening routine? What records do you play before and after it? Have you bought anything since, and is Herr Spooky throwing shade or overshadowed? Were you particularly struck by certain lines? Do Otto's musical textures please you? What's great and what grates? Where does Otto stand in your personal canon of Momus records (assuming you have some other ones)? What do you think of John Talaga's intermezzi? Have you fallen asleep to this music, made love to it, got lost in it, jogged with it, played it in your car while driving through a National Park? Did you cover your children's ears when the song about the fascist boyscout came on? (Assuming you have children, that is.) Did your dog chew James Goggin's digipak (if so, print the JPEG above on stiff card and spray it with some foul-smelling fixative). Do any of the songs play in your head even when the record isn't on? When you're at the supermarket, do you ever look around to see if Robin Hood is there "in a wheelchair buying food", kidney dialysis colostomy bag by his side? Are you a top-scoring, panda-topping Lute Score wizard?

Comments

[dermfitz.livejournal.com]

Ah, kind of like a read-only focus group! I like it. I don't have the CD yet. Hope this helps.

[xyzedd.livejournal.com]

I bow, curtsy, genuflect, get down on my knees, prostrate myself, then PRAY to Otto. Oskar is filled with wrath.

Seriously, I hope to give you a fuller report later....

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Click Opera is albumware. It's free, but once a year you have to buy and crit an album.

[silenceinspades.livejournal.com]

i have a slight case of tinnitus causing me to have a high pitched ring in my ears. some times i think i hear things, mostly my cell phone. i swear that the other night it was playing lady fancy knickers. in my head. in my inner ear. though i like the song, it was starting to drive me insane.
the album's great though. my girlfriend likes folktronic better, but she also likes broadway original cast records.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I also have that low-level tinnitus thing. But it never plays tunes, thank God. Aren't dental fillings sometimes supposed to tune in radio stations? That would be my ultimate nightmare, to have to listen to Phil Collins tracks directly in my head.

Your girlfriend's astute... there is something rather Broadway about Folktronic.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm really glad you made this post! Because I'm interested to hear how successful you think the album is.

As for me, I really like it. The only problem I have with it is that it has some coherency problems. There's a definite contrast between songs 1-9 and 10-15. At first I didn't like the 'intermezzi'--I thought they made the album much too disjointed--but now that I know them better, I do. (Let it be known that 'Oskar Tennis Champion' is my favorite Momus album.) One thing the intermezzi do is force you to listen to the album in the order it is presented. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

It also took me a while to warm to the production. OTC sounded very crisp and well-produced. This one seems to have a lot more going on in each track, so the low-end feels a bit muddy or cluttered at times. But that means that it holds up well to repeated listens--there's a lot here to discover. And I still haven't dissected the lyrics (I'm much more interested in sounds).

I very much like the direction you have been going in these past few years. Your music has gotten more experimental, exotic, and interesting. And, overall, it remains accessible. The people who continually complain that they want the "classic" Momus don't understand what it means to be a musician.

The only track that sounds unsuccessful to mine two ears is "Mr Ulysses." It's not as dense as the other tracks, and, honestly, I think it slows the album down too much, especially since it's followed by "Water Song." My favorite track is probably "Lady Fancy Knickers." And I like the Eastern sound of "Corkscrew King" and "Klaxon" (I was particularly struck by the latter...though I think it hasn't quite held up so well). And let it be known that I really like "Cockle Pickers"! I feel like I'm playing Monkey Island.

The first time I heard "Klaxon" I expected to hear some fretless bass pop in. I think it would fit in wonderfully. In fact, I think I might rip your album to my computer and try adding fretless bass to some of the tracks for fun. Have you ever considered using steel drums for any of your pirate-y tracks? An underrated instrument, indeed!

Otto Spooky is my most-listened-to album of the year thus far, followed closely by Jeans Team - 'Music von Oben'. They're a newish electronic German band that I think you'd really like, Momus. They even have a track called "Boat Music."

Patrick

[(Anonymous)]

And if that's your hand on the cover, have you considered hand modeling?

Patrick

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

It's currently languishing on my amazon.co.uk wishlist, awaiting my next paycheque. I'll keep you posted. (If it's anything like your blog, it should be quite interesting.)

comment

[(Anonymous)]

haven't heard otto yet momus. but i'm still very much in love with summerisle. very good listen on a bike ride, falling asleep to, sharing a dinner with. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scrobble

[jip.livejournal.com]

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/music/Momus
http://www.last.fm/fans/Momus

Re: london update

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

What size batteries?

[armistice-day.livejournal.com]

another next-payday wishlister, here - but when i do buy, it'll be a two copy purchase, as i owe my friend foxysquid for pimping you (musically, of course) to me in the first place!
that said, i love the cover art and am itrigued by the track titles and the bits i have heard. :3

[cosmic-disciple.livejournal.com]

don't have the album, but the cover was mimiced in a local (Athens, Georgia) Golden Pantry billboard, the same hand is reaching out from the black bottom for a Coke spilling out of a 12-can fridge pack.

[axolotl-eyes.livejournal.com]

My order for Otto was placed the moment it became available. I am quite impressed with the intermezzi that pull one out of one song and then spin around until the listener is plonked face-first into the next. I don't know if it is a complaint or not--I have been listening to most all of these songs since they were posted here, this album was a bit of a disappointment in that I felt I had mostly owned it before. I have fond memories of listening to 'life of the fields' while sitting and watching the wind run through the nearly-ripe barley in rural Kumamoto last May, 'Sempreverde' while watching crass Japanese youth and more crass foreign tourists visit Nara Koen in June or 'Lady Fancy Knickers' as I went to many farewell enkais in July and August. All that the album offered me above and beyond what I already had was the flow between the songs (now often ripped apart due to the randomizer on my discman) and two as yet unheard songs I am slowly warming to--'jesus in furs' being particularly apropos for my return to the violent and Jesus-y USA.

I want to listen to it as I blaze around town on my bicycle, but hipsters with fast guitars help to power the ride a bit more than the soothing notes of 'water song' or 'Cockle Pickers.' As you would expect, this album is fantastic for being a digital creature, playing in the background as one clicks away for hours on the internet.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was interested in whether the people who'd helped finance the making of the album -- Click Opera readers from one year ago -- would feel that it was 'pre-owned' when they bought it. Interesting. I may not make mp3s available of the next one, in that case. I think I won't be in such dire financial straits over the next year, so I won't have to do that again. But it is great to share the tracks as they arrive. And in some cases -- like Corkscrew King -- comments here actually steered the song in a new direction. The internet really 'wrote' this album, and it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that the main instrument played is Google! I'd think to myself "Hmm, I want a Mongolian horsehead fiddle here", I'd Google the instrument name, find a sample, download it, and cut and paste it into the track (in this case, Sempreverde). Playing the internet like an instrument! So it's funny to hear that it now plays in the background as you surf! Full circle.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm looking forward to hearing it. Have there been any press reviews of it yet?

H.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Not a single press review yet, which is why I wanted to ask here. They'll come, they're just slow. I'm particularly interested in what Pitchfork says, since they panned the last one. My grades on Pitchfork have pitched from 8s and 9s back in the late 90s to 2s and 3s now. I don't think the records got worse, I think it's just that there's a hype cycle -- you tend to get five years of press in any territory, and it starts positive and gets progressively more bored and cynical. It's an attention span rather than an assessment of artistic quality.

[runstaverun.livejournal.com]

I got your record at Kims in New York City, they have a wide selection of your CDs. I like it, it is currently in my computer at work, where I was the one to type the song name information into whatever cd information database Windows Media Player uses. I have listened to it in my car and at work. Since I bought Otto Spooky I saw Freezepop and bought their most recent CD from them (also with a song in French on it). I only listened to the Freezepop CD once before my car window was broken and my CD player (with the CD inside) was removed... Luckily my girlfriend also bought the same CD from them...

favorite songs: Lady Fancy Knickers, Lute Score, Cockle Pickers
least favorite songs: your fat friend, the water song

Some songs are mixtape bound, and will probably sit next to Neutral Milk Hotel, Venetian Snares, and the Streets.

Your new record is very nice.

[(Anonymous)]

"Your Fat Friend" is great. I love how everything sounds slightly off key.

Patrick

[backmasked.livejournal.com]

my local down-home alabama indie record store is dragging ass on getting it to me.

if you were on Cuneform, you can bet they'd have got it to me on time...

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Wish me good news on the job interview I did last week - I'll spring for the CD if I get the job!

[serenchwilen.livejournal.com]

Otto Spooky is one of albums I'm most anxious to hear for this year, number two after the return of Phil Judd with Novelty Act (http://www.philjudd.com//) which hopefully will be out next month.

You may have gone over this already, but what would be the easiest way for someone in the U.S. to get a copy of Otto Spooky? My usual sources for imports and obscurities are making no mention of it, Virgin in Orlando had no listing for it, and amazon.com says it's not out here until April. I'm afraid all the local record stores by me are pretty useless. Is there any online store you recommend? I am eager to listen and give you feedback.

Evangelism.

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

I uploaded the disc to iPod a couple of weeks ago just before I stepped on a plane to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to install a wall-sized video projection in a university gallery. The piece was a 19-minute loop: Casey Spooner singing on bended knee to my husband and I in a Manhattan hotel suite displayed in front of an audience of middle American Catholics. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my favorite track was "The Artist Overwhelmed." :)

You never disappoint Nick. Otto Spooky is gospel music for all airports, seaports, train stations... and it almost demands to be listened to with headphones in any situation where people watching is unavoidable. You seem to live inside a futuristic Jim Jarmusch film that will never be made. Easily, your best release since Folktronic (which is my favorite, now only by a slight edge).

Re: Evangelism.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Now, see, this would be the perfect Pitchfork review. An opening paragraph about Casey Spooner singing on bended knee, and some Jim Jarmusch references, followed by a "easily his best since..." summing up.

lady france knickers

[sadlittlemonkey.livejournal.com]

otto spooky is my second momus album after stars forever. i listen to it once a week. i don't play anything before or after it... it's disorienting enough even without the intermezzi as it were (which are f*ckin' superb, by the way)

what is great? sempreverde, life of the fields, robin hood, lute score
what grates? cockle pickers and perhaps.... the artist overwhelmed (i'm not sure yet)

however... you might like to know that although lady fancy knickers is not a favourite of mine... whenever i pop into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, boil pasta, wash dishes, look into the freezer, make toast, get rice, etc., i start humming the shirelles section of the song... i love that part... "ahhhhhh ah ahhhh... ahhhhh ahh ahhhhhh!" lovely. reminds me of moments on stars forever.

i enjoy taking walks with the album. for example, last week i took a two hour walk in the suburbs... the speeding cars and ugly trackhousing which usually grate my nerves were transported to little bubbles which floated up to the sky. i became entranced... feeling my way through my own perspex cube... fields of orange and pink, shrines, ithyphallic dogs, taxi rides in foreign countries, peg legged singers sitting on a porch, the son of god walking with me telling a story... these people and places replaced the normal dog, bus stop and liquor store one passes on a mid-morning walk. thank you!

highlights:

sempreverde // absolute masterpiece // the production quality is amazingly simple but effective. the computer generated/manipulated singing gives me the creeps even more than bjork's all is full of love video. the instrumentals over the lyrics towards the end gives me the chills.

life of the fields // i forget... was this the 'new order' track? // there's this overwhelming sense of build up throughout... this push and pull... i love the constant beat... it reminds me of some of my favourite summer tracks... you know, the kind of music you listen to while sitting on your california porch with a cocktail... feeling nostalgic... soaking up sun... songs like: harmony korine (kahimi karie), electric relaxation (tribe called quest), a dancehall remix of the fugees,

robin hood // link from zelda gets picked up and thrown into a rockin' 80s track with hot air guitar and big hair... we built this city on rock and roll...momus!

bantam boys // this is just creepy/sad/familiar // maybe it was my previous life!

more later <3 <3 <3

alec
a.k.a. sadlittlemonkey

Re: lady france knickers

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Wonderful to hear tracks reviewed individually like this... and to hear about the power music has to transform dull landscapes into more interesting ones. And I agree with you about which tracks are good.

how much for the canon?

[(Anonymous)]

ridiculously, i'm using parcelforce to get data from your laptop into my ipod, so it might be a while until i can tell you. to business: i've illegally downloaded everything you've done since timelord, your last vinyl release (snob/retro/contrivance/nocdplayer i bought the rest, and new too) but you undeniably deserve my cash, so i'd like the opportunity to make amends and paypal over my conscience. how much for the canon? i suppose you'd get less than 20% of cover price from a record label if i'd bought them, so maybe 2 or 3 quid an album for the content? do feel free to contrive a reason why it should be five times that much, though, like all the guys who sell mp3s for a living. i bought the last two by the way, so i think i owe you for about six. although for some reason i don't listen to the songs on the portraits/patronage one much. although, again, it was a brilliant idea, so on that one can you give me an estimate for the concept without the content?

Re: how much for the canon?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

If you really want to do something, a $15 gift LiveJournal subscription would cover everything. My paid subscription runs out in a couple of months, I think.

[sakuraamplifier.livejournal.com]

I think Otto is wonderful overall, but I've noticed on your last couple of releases (this and Summerisle) that you've started making some songs that I find too depressing to listen to. For some reason, the sampled speech at the end of "The Artist Overwhelmed" pushed these buttons for me, as did all of "Bantam Boys". Something about the warblyness of some of the sounds, I guess.

Those are really my only complaints, though. I think your records continue to sound better and better–and not in the sense that they are "more polished", but in the sense that it gets harder and harder to pick out what instruments/electronics are used to make any given sound. "Lute Score" is an example that springs to mind here, and is probably my favorite track on the album. Speaking of "Lute Score", I was wondering if the line "Something to do with the free bamboo, something to do with the snow" was intentionally echoing "Something to do with a chopper, something to do with my head" from "Last of the Window-Cleaners".

A few of Otto's songs have wormed their way into my daily life--while doing laundry yesterday, I couldn't get "Belvedere" out of my head, and "Corkscrew King" can pop into my brain just about any time. I don't think Otto trumps my previous favorite Momus albums, Oskar Tennis Champion and Philosophy of Momus (the former becuase the songs are just so great, the latter because of all the good and bad associations I have with it), but I only got my copy on Friday, so maybe with time it will rank higher.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The warbliness is my patented tempo-stereo effect, which I used quite a lot on the record. Yes, by The Artist Overwhelmed it's producing very extreme digital artifacts which are meant to be rather creepy. The music is supposed to sound old, fatigued, decayed, trembly, half-rotted. As is the old Edison phonograph narrative, which becomes the voice of death. I wouldn't say it's a depressing effect, but certainly a creepy one. Spooky! (Timelord is the album where I get depressing, I think. Can't listen to it!)

I like your point about not being able to identify instruments. Literally, the main instrument I use is my Akai S2800, filled up with 'material from the internet'.

Trumping is always good! Every artist wants to trump, even if only himself.

[(Anonymous)]

At this point, I listen to Otto Spooky at least once a day if I listen to anything at all. When it's over, I turn on NPR; I don't usually listen to anything else anywhere near it. The only thing I've bought since is about $50 worth of import Scissor Sisters singles. Yours is the only album I've heard that's worth my money so far this year. It is second only to Stars Forever, but growing in stature; it may eventually surpass that record. Tender Pervert is my third favorite. The songs go through my head all the time. I was going to list the songs that do, but it's most of the album. Corkscrew King only appears in my head when I've just woken up.

As for lyrics I particularly enjoyed, I love the inflection on the computer in Sempreverde as it says, "I said 'Don't say okay because then it's not rape'". Also, the lines "the past is so sad / the future is worse / thank heaven we haven't a future", I've been told, summarize my entire personality. In Lady Fancy Knickers "If you love me, love me totally for fun" is something I've tried to communicate in more words to less effect before. Disaster followed.

I definitely think the texture of this album is what sets it apart. You really leapt out into new frontiers for this recording. You've alluded to it as your Lodger, if I recall correctly, and I don't think that's far off the mark, especially with the Afro-tinged element of some of the songs. The synthesized slapping noises in the chorus of Klaxon are priceless.

I was surprised to love Fashion Flesh's intermezzi because I really disliked his work on Oskar Tennis Champion. I initially wished they were separate tracks, but now when they're playing on random in my iTunes the intermezzi make for even more amusingly disorienting transitions. I especially love the one before Bantam Boys because it goes in a direction completely different from everything else on the record-- and almost anachronistic to the style of the song after it.

My boyfriend was present when I received Otto Spooky. He didn't like Sempreverde, but kissed me anyway. We both love Life of the Fields, which I think is a Momus classic. I've taken to calling it the pagan love song-- meaning that it almost reminds me of a pop song that could be sung by any of today's interchangeable female pop stars of the moment, except that instead of Puritanical, wholesome puppy love, it seems to advocate paganism, something darker, more sensual and exotic, and inexorably wrapped in sorrow. Still, I'd give a fortune to hear one of them cover it with trendy pop beats.

The way you end the album is excellent. The line "In the midst of life there is death" combined with "The more you become acquainted with me, the better you will like me" is brilliant. The distortion on the word death is especially pleasing-- it makes my more mainstream friends squirm. Your insight into homosexuality is quite remarkable, considering that you are a heterosexual man (not typically a creature that understands us). I see this song almost as a companion to Miles Franklin-- both seem to recognize the part of the homosexual experience that isn't packaged and sold to the masses. This song also deeply reminded me of the story/opera Death in Venice; was it an inspiration?

The contrast between Sempreverde and The Artist Overwhelmed is also interesting. They both seem to present what most would consider very dark elements of humanity-- drug use, rape, and death-- in completely different lights, making them into things they weren't when the song began. Quite a feat.

I have decided that, after a year of trying to moderate myself in order to achieve my goals and getting nowhere, that I will abandon most of my attempts to placate those around me that I don't agree with, particularly on the issue of my sexuality. This album is the beginning of my soundtrack for that transformation. I no longer care if I corrupt their children merely by existing. It may not seem to be immediately related, but music is strange that way.

~Kevin

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah, interesting! The thing about the record not being a waste of money is very important, because morale is undermined when records come out that aren't worth their price. That seems obvious, perhaps, but it could undermine the whole business of making records, and to some extent has. I'm just sad that my records, which could entertain so many people, sell so few copies.

I've never heard the intermezzi on random, what a good idea! Must try it.

And I'm so glad the homosexual resonances on Artist Overwhelmed ring true. I think it was a description of my fantasy gay relationship; we'd be terribly snobby culturephags, holidaying in Italy, lightly aroused by the "muscular statuary", listening to Gluck on the iPod. I don't think Death in Venice played a part, more my actual holidays in Italy. And perhaps the essay I wrote, Classicism and Atrocity (http://www.imomus.com/thought200502.html).

Like your last sentiment very much. I can also identify the moment when I decided to do that artistically. I think I called it "optimising my marginality", and I think it was just before I made Tender Pervert.

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

First off, my copy came in a jewel case, which I actually think is a better presentation of the design (which, wonderfully, reminds one of an LP cover).

Songs that won't leave my mind: 'Klaxon,' 'Lady Fancy Knickers,' 'Lute Score,' 'Robin Hood.' The melodies are very strong on this album. I would say, deeper than on previous outings. Maybe it's just my imagination.

Frequency: I have sort of an unusual relationship with this album since I feel somewhat connected to it, having contributed monetarily (what, five, six bucks?) to its creation over the last year, as you published each demo to Click Opera. I have been listening to most of these songs in a different order over the last year, and so have come to regard them each individually. Having them integrated into a whole here at last lends a special... I don't know... literary quality to the endeavor. Your sequencing of the album works quite well. Since receiving my copy, I've been listening to it every day or two, between Ohgr's Welt (http://tinyurl.com/3lw92), Thee Majesty's Time's Up (http://tinyurl.com/5lkot) and lecture .mp3s I've downloaded from Limewire. Easily the best album of 2005 so far.

Certain lines: As mentioned in my initial post on this topic (http://www.livejournal.com/users/imomus/81370.html?thread=1918426#t1918426), your lyrics always impress. 'Sempreverde,' 'Lute Score' and 'Belvedere' are favorites here, though really, as I have said, I consider this album your best work to date, and 'it's all good.'
To mix that up a bit, favorite musical lines include: The entirety of 'Sempreverde,' which sticks in the craw like a warm meal; the phrasing of the vocals in 'Klaxon'; same with 'Lute Score'; the transition at the end of the choruses in 'Robin Hood'; the very ending of, the piano run that closes out 'Your Fat Friend'; and again, the phrasing of the vocals in 'Water Song.'

Complaints: One thing I've noted about the production of your records is that they sound great with headphones, but often are a bit muddy when listened to over loudspeakers. In my car, the lyrics of many songs are obscured as your voice seems to sink into the mix a bit.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting contrast to the comment above that the mp3s made the album feel 'pre-owned'. You're saying you feel more personally involved, having contributed at the composition stage. (Thank you!)

Yes, I was personally blown away the first time I heard the effect of the intermezzi. John really worked hard to make the transitions work psychologically, and also did unexpected things like the rocking drums at the end, which are correctives to a certain turgidity.

Best record of 2005 so far... I can live with that!

I've also noticed the voice sinking thing listening here in Hokkaido. It's nice in a way, because it's almost like a karaoke version of the record. I think there's some weird phasing thing going on. I made such liberal use of the tempo effect, which plays havoc with the stereo by pulling left and right in and out of sync with each other, that some phase-cancellation thing is probably going on with the vocals.

[(Anonymous)]

The sad thing is, if Pitchfork gave your album an 8.5 or above, the bucks would start rolling in. And I think it could receive that kind of score IF the right writer reviewed it (perhaps someone like Scott Plagenhoeff or Dominique Leone, people whose taste in music is less trendy than Ryan Schreiber). Unfortunately, like you sort of said, you're not a new 'next big thing' artist. Personally, I think this album and the last are different enough to be more than 'another Momus album'. It's the same reason David Byrne's awesome 'Grown Backwards' album from last year received only a modestly good review and was then forgotten about by PFork.

There really aren't any albums out there that sound like Oskar. The PFork review of it was terribly misguided ("why won't this guy just go away! what is this, his 5th album?"). I wish I could tell one of the more trustworthy reviewers to write about your album...if only because you deserve to have more people here your work and ultimately sell more albums.

Patrick

[imomus.livejournal.com]

At the moment, only Ryan has been sent the album at Pitchfork. It's a good idea to get a copy to Dominique.

[lepinktrash.livejournal.com]

mine is still in plastic.
i have a love and hate feeling towards momus.
love, because he is himself.
hate, because i smell a few of my strong insecurities in his work, now in his journal.
i have to be in a very specific mood to listen to momus or else i feel like puking.
if i'm in that mood then it is so nice.

[(Anonymous)]

i like your "Klaviersonate Nr. 14 cis-mol op. 27 Nr. 'Mondschein-Sonate', Presto agitato" drawing very much.

[buckminster.livejournal.com]

bad news, my friend, i think you've released a good album.
lady fancy knickers has been a favorite of mine since you put it on your website. i'll have more to say when i get a chance to figure out all the lyrics.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh, a good album? Well, as long as it's not a "timeless classic" I'm okay.