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

[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.

playing the internet as an instrument

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

This comment reminded me of some experiments by Chris Chafe. There's a note about them
here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/sparkligbeatnic/19713.html).

[axolotl-eyes.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed watching the artistic process and being able to listen in as it was going on. Maybe I am turning into too much of a digital creature myself, but I truly believe the sum total of my enjoyment of listening to the MP3s as they were created to be greater than would have been had listening to them all at once on a completely unknown album. Every day I would check up on Click Opera to see if you had posted a new musical adventure. It most definitely kept you at the forefront of my musical experience for well on half a year, knowing that any second a new Momus song would be available through my computer. I think at this point I would be more than willing to continue paying for songs as they come and maybe start to let the album fade away as an outmoded packaging idea.

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with this, and find it an interesting emergent result of Momus' experiment. Watching the songs as they developed allowed for a slower digestion of each individual piece; chewing one's food, as it were. The experience is somewhat analagous to illustrated storybooks that come with a record.