Momus: 'Hairstyle of the Devil' (1989)
Momus: 'Cibachrome Blue' (1992)
Momus: 'Rhetoric' (1994)
Talking about favourite blogs: if I didn't have such a short attention span and if I didn't hate reading long texts off computer screen (especially here in a local free Net café amidst the clamour of 10 - 15-year old boys coming to play RuneQuest and shoot-'em-up games after the school), I would pay more attention to the Web diary of Momus where the Scottish-originated artist and writer -- born as Nick Currie in 1960 -- gives his regular views on art, culture, politics and naturally music, his own and of the others.
Anyway, I try to give at least a brief daily glance to what Mr. Currie is saying, so I recently noticed he's going to give for free (or for a voluntary donation) six Momus albums recorded for the legendary Creation Records, according to certain fans some of his best. In his own words from the blog:
"Six Momus albums -- the ones I recorded for Alan McGee's Creation label between 1987 and 1993 -- are out of print. Creation doesn't exist any more, and in theory Sony owns the rights to these albums, but isn't doing anything with them and probably never will. In the meantime, only Russian pirates are profiting, charging punters for illegal downloads.
So, during the rest of December, I've decided to release mp3s of my six Creation albums here on Click Opera, for free. Think of it as a sort of Creation Advent Calendar, with a new old Momus album every couple of days. If you're the sort of person who likes to donate to the artist when you download, do it here. But it's not really necessary; these albums paid for themselves long ago. Think of this as a Christmas present. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!"
All six albums are now online:
(Momus also added a post-script on Alan McGee of Creation Records.)
This is the era when Momus (the name borrowed from the Greek god of satire and mockery) took cues, alongside the more obvious Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Scott Walker and David Bowie influences, also from such contemporary electronic artists as Pet Shop Boys, to his witty, ironic and bittersweet songs of literary style, wry commentary and "tender perversion" not unfamiliar with controversy. As is found from Wikipedia entry, in his time he has managed to anger both the trans-gender electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos and Michelin Tyres (comparing the famous Michelin Man to a blow-up doll), not to forget songs mentioning paedophilia, necrophilia, adultery and Tamagotchis.
I have to say my own knowledge of Momus' music is more sporadic and limited to owning some albums from this era of the late 80s and early 90s. Though the artist himself comments the album in question: "This is really just a funky book-end, pleasant enough as a mood piece, but not really essential", my own favourite Momus record is the futuristic-themed Voyager of 1992 (where 'Cibachrome Blue' video seen here is taken from) -- and he even had a gig at Yo-Talo in our measly Tampere during those days, which I remember witnessing.
The other connection Momus has to this country is the Man of Letters documentary film made of him in 1994 by Finnish director Hannu Puttonen (who also created the videos for 'Pornography', 'Marquise of Sadness' and 'Rhetoric' by Momus) -- the film is available as a DVD with extra material on Cherry Red Records.
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