The Null Device

Joemus/Mr. Proctor/Vaudevillian

Good tidings come from Neukölln: Momus informs the world that his upcoming album is almost complete. A collaboration with Joe Howe of Germlin/Gay Against You, the album (initially referred to as "Joemus", though now probably named "Mr. Proctor") promises to be an intriguing melange of breakneck digital glitch mentalism and Momus' erudite, askew music-hall pop:
2. Widow Twanky (3.12): Basically inspired by Cliff Richard and big melodramatic 1950s ballads, this is the tale of a man who becomes a transvestite in order to incorporate the lost woman he loves. Joe blows a plastic sax solo in the middle. There's already an Idle Tigers cover version of this, though it's a bloody odd one.
12. The Man You'll Never Be (5.56): The newest song on the album -- written and recorded this morning, in fact -- is the one I like best at the moment (but the latest always is). Over a Pachelbel-like cycle of fifths, a woman (me in electronic voice drag, as I was in Widow Twanky) tells a man that she doesn't care who he is or what he does, because to her he'll always be "the man you'll never be". Because of the uniqueness of who he'll never be, she tells him, she loves No Other -- and No Other's brother, and the art school lab technician too.
13. Fade to White (4.28): Imagine an 80s Italian disco diva reciting T.S. Eliot while mouldering in an early grave. That's what this song sounds like. Stabbing, nagging synth riffs never sounded so decadent and delicate.

There are 2 comments on "Joemus/Mr. Proctor/Vaudevillian":

Posted by: Peter http://www.frogworth.com/blog/ Fri Aug 15 08:47:59 2008

You know about this, right? http://www.fracturedrecordings.com/

(URL better work! If not, fracturedrecordings dot com)

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org/acb/ Fri Aug 15 09:28:39 2008

Ah yes. Momus posted a very early version of Ashes To Ashes to his journal a long time ago. I imagine it has mutated a lot since then.