Search - Momus :: Otto Spooky

Techno-Folk Nouvelle Vague Redux

Jason D. Wick | Seattle, WA United States | 05/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Momus is always a master of his own musical mash-up (and with much better source material). Bringing in elements of ethnographic music samples and acoustic sounds, he again does an entirely new take on folk and world music, but this time he's on a new experimental bender recalling 60's Joe Meek sonic booms and 70's Krautrock noodling.



Highlights are the French Moroccan "Klaxon" - a Farsi taxi ride through strange domestic rites in Paris; "Your Fat Friend", a jazzy derailed romp that challenges form and keeps you guessing; "Ulysses", a psychedelic bluesy dirge; "Belvedere" - a darkly comic children's song as written by Jacko and Pol Pot; "Bantam Boys" - a medieval hypnotic hymn that is almost unrecognizable that it's even Momus.



While fans might yearn for the ironic flat Analog Baroque of the prior decade, the sounds here are warmer, more acoustic and organic. Besides, with Beck moving into sampling Gameboy noises, it's good that Momus is always ahead of the curve by a few years/decades.

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