Well, I've been promising these mp3s for a year. Oskar Originals comprises mp3s of the original versions of the songs on the 2003 album from Momus, Oskar Tennis Champion. Now you can hear and download these songs in the raw form in which Reproducer John Talaga (aka Fashion Flesh) heard them before he began his work of mangling, micro-engineering and re-splicing. All bones and no flesh, as it were. Also included are some extra tracks and out-takes.
MOMUS
Oskar Originals
01 Spooky Kabuki PREMIX
02 Is It Because I'm A Pirate? PREMIX
03 Multiplying Love PREMIX
04 Scottish Lips PREMIX
05 My Sperm Is Not Your Enemy PREMIX
06 Oskar Tennis Champion PREMIX
07 A Little Schubert PREMIX
08 The Laird of Inversnecky PREMIX
09 The Last Communist PREMIX
10 Pierrot Lunaire PREMIX
11 Beowulf (I Am Deformed) PREMIX
12 Electrosexual Sewing Machine PREMIX
13 A Lapdog PREMIX
14 Lovely Tree PREMIX
15 Palm Deathtop PREMIX
16 Erostratus PREMIX
17 Back Answers (by Robb Wilton) PREMIX
18 Infanticide PREMIX
Listening to the uncooked versions more than a year after making the Oskar album in Tokyo in late 2002, I'm more than ever convinced that what Sir John Fashion Flesh (currently hard at work with Oliver Cobol on the second Super Madrigal Brothers album) did was alchemy of the highest order. But these early versions do have their moments -- passages of naive charm, urgency or intimacy. For those who know the Oskar album well, it'll be interesting to see how much glitchery was in the originals... and how much wasn't.
I've been completely gobsmacked by your generosity so far -- consider your honour as responsible file sharers and patrons of the arts completely vindicated! Suggested donation this time, if you like and keep these files, is $4 or ‰âÂ3 for the whole album (plus demo artwork by Florian Perret -- click the small image for a larger one). Please bear in mind that these files in no way replace the Oskar CD, which remains the authorized version and, in my opinion, takes the tennis championship cup for the second year in a row. Front row seats are the price of a CD and are available at a record store near you!
Corkscrew King
The latest Momus mp3 is Corkscrew King.
It's a song about impotence. Now, impotence is a serious affliction, but it's slightly less serious when it affects a spoiled old feudal lord who practises 'sekuhara' (sexual harrassment) on his courtly ladies and concubines. It's less serious when you're both an idiot and a famous comedy character. This song runs together Ken Shimura's Bakatono and Henna Ojiisan roles and mixes the resulting Frankenstein's monster with the poet W.B. Yeats, who believed potency and creativity were closely linked and, in old age, had a Steinach operation to revitalize his failing virility. He also got tight with a guru called Mr Swami who taught him about tantric sex in Majorca: "The Yogi, dressed in bright pink and looking like a bright carnation, sat with his hands folded on his ample paunch."
If you're one of the people who helped me brainstorm this song yesterday, it's yours for free. Otherwise, it's a dollar. Cheaper than Viagra! (Not necessarily guaranteed to make you hard, though.)
Corkscrew King
Bakatono bakemono henna ojisan
Gamushara sekuhara henna ojisan
The king is in the winter, in the winter of his prime
Welcome to the kingdom of the Corkscrew King
See him pour a jet of wine across a concubine
See him try in vain to plunge the corkscrew in
See him eat sashimi from a naked woman's breast
See him drink wakame sake from her sex
Send in all the dancing girls and send in all the wine
He's impotent, omnipotent, and only 69
Send in Dr Mojo who can turn back time
Send in more Viagra to halt the decline
When you're 69 the sky is overcast
The castle flag is flying... half mast
The gate is shut, the canon blocked
The flower they fire at one o'clock half-cocked
The tower flops, the blossom drops
The king will play the shamisen
Bakatono bakemono henna ojisan
Gamushara sekuhara henna ojisan
The Yogi Dr Swami with his hand upon his thing
Guru by appointment to the Corkscrew King
Says 'A badger in the hand is worth a badger in the bush
A badger down your pants, you've got to push push push'
An aged man, the poet says, is but a paltry thing
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless he sing
So clap your hands for every wrinkle in your mortal dress
Join the throng and dance along with the Corkscrew King
Send in Dr Mojo who can turn back time
The castle flag is flying and the weather's fine
But when you're 69 the sky is overcast
The castle flag is flying... half mast
The gate is shut, the canon blocked
The flower they fire at one o'clock half-cocked
The tower flops, the blossom drops
The king will play the shamisen
Here's the latest mp3, hot off the Momus hard disk recorder: Robin Hood.
The hero doesn't always win in the end: in this version, Robin meets his nemesis, the oddly-named Dooh Nibor, who not only reverses Robin's policy of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, but has a streak of the old ultraviolence running through him.
As before, if you like the song and keep it, I'd ask you to donate me a dollar via Paypal:
Here's the lyric:
Robin Hood
This is the tale of Robin Hood
Kind and fair, brave and good
This is the tale of Robin Hood
How the guy got shafted
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
Robbing from the rich, giving to the good
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
Happy ever after
But driving down from Nottingham, here comes Dooh Nibor
His motto is 'Protection' and his motto is 'Screw the poor'
Dooh Nibor, Dooh Nibor
Serve the rich, screw the poor
Don't let the bastard grind you down
He drags you to the granary out among the cranes
At the end of the runway underneath the planes
In a big black suit that looks a little strange
With the gold crash hat in the rays of the sun
With the visor black and the baseball bat and --
Look out, Robin! Behind you!
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
You're not dead yet, it's just some blood
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
Get back and show the bastard!
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
Bound and gagged in the nude
Robin Hood, in the boot
Of an Opel Corsa
As the pylons glisten in the sun of Dooh Nibor
The world below him listens, there's no place for you here any more
We pull our golden helmets on and turn to face the sun
Don't let the bastards grind you down
He's got you cuffed at the reservoir up above the dam
With a gag and a blindfold and all of the gang
Coming clambering on scaffolding, stumbling on planks
Look out, Robin! (Too late!)
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
Breathing through a rubber tube
Sherwood Forest is your club
Sherwood Forest for the cup
Robin Hood, Robin Hood
In a wheelchair buying food
Paralysed but feeling good
Mentally retarded
Pull your golden helmet on and take a golden ride
Kidney dialysis colostomy bag by your side
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, breathing through your rubber tube
Don't let the bastards grind you down!
The other new songs are Life of the Fields and Jesus in Furs and Corkscrew King.
The Life Of The Fields
Here's an mp3 of my latest song, The Life Of The Fields.
It's a folk-pop song heavy with shinto magic, spring and sex. It has a sort of New Order feel to it, if New Order had been a medieval folk group. There's a family tie between this song and the one I sing on the new album by Hypo, 'Random Veneziano'. They both contain the image of throwing wine 'in the face of nothing'. And, although it's much more of a traditional pop song than the material on Summerisle, my forthcoming collaboration with Anne Laplantine, this song is very much set on that same summer island, a parallel world of enchantment, animist religion and burgeoning sensuality. The lyrics are inspired by cult horror film The Wicker Man, but also by a documentary I saw on Arte about the battle of some Indian farmers to stop American companies claiming copyright on the gene structure of basmati rice. The documentary showed an Indian TV commercial for Bollgard, a gentech cotton strain which can resist insects. The imagery was of a beaming Green Giant-like nature god running through abundant fields. Its very non-Christian nature god imagery reminded me of 'The Wicker Man'.
If you like the song and keep it, I'd ask you to donate me a dollar via Paypal:
I'm time rich but money poor. A dollar makes a difference to me. If I get enough donations on this one, I'll keep posting mp3s of new material as it appears. Please don't redistribute these files via file sharing services. Send people to this page instead. The address is:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/imomus/2
I'm doing this for several reasons. First, I don't agree with the music industry's view that file sharing damages record sales. I don't think anyone downloading and liking this song will be prevented from buying a superior-quality hard copy of it (it may be quite a different version) when the album comes out in 2005. Secondly, the song is very much about things happening now -- spring, the return of vitality and sensuality to the world, the ceremonies of April and May, a certain shift in sensibility (mine, at least!) towards the organic. Third, the song is actually inspired by folk music (which tends to be pre-copyright) and by a documentary which showed the threat poor farmers face from private companies claiming ownership of the 'intellectual property' of rice. It seems only right that its own DNA should be made freely available. Fourth, although I've asked my labels to look into it, I don't yet have any of my songs on iTunes, so I'm doing my own iMomus version of iTunes. Fifth, I like the idea of people paying based on their ability and their sense of honour. It works for shareware, perhaps it can work for songs. Sixth, I'm just really excited about this song and simply cannot keep it under my hat for a year! I want it to fly around the world spreading its healing love and spooky country charm immediately! Here are the notes for the song:
Bollgard
The life of the fields
A smiling lord of the fields prances through green cotton leaves free of boll weevil
Man and plant in harmony
India, where many gods are already using gentech
pollen
good tree wool and not good
sperm blows in on the wind
the community seed bank
the seed of the earth
black rices and short green rices
beeja shows me a gramme
she is the guarantor of our harvest
hundreds of varieties of rice
rice as intellectual property
ricetec
And here's the finished lyric:
The Life of the Fields
Your eyes are flat, the city's hot
Night falls over the barren system
Leave the cracked city block
Come back to the old religion
Throw your seed behind the plough
Throw your wine in the face of nothing
Feel the sea anemone
Children play in the rockery garden
We're all John Barleycorn
We're all one in the old religion
Meet me by the waving rye
The question mark in the scarecrow's eye
Gaelic runes and harvest moons
Shinto dogs at the phallic symbol
Mustard seed and dandelion
A time to live, a time to die
Meet me in the waving leaves
The question mark in the scarecrow summer
Meet me out by the lemon trees
Pull me down, and pump me dry
Lie back now and think of rain
In the blossom of the willow
Mastering the morning pain
Gorgeous on your petal pillow
Mustard seed and dandelion
Treading wine for the old religion
The high priest and the artisan
Piping at the gates of knowledge
Saturnine as the hammer god
Hammering, getting it on
Meet me by the waving rye
The question mark in the scarecrow's eye
Gaelic runes and harvest moons
Shinto dogs at the phallic symbol
Mustard seed and dandelion
A time to live, a time to die
Meet me in the waving summer
The question mark in the scarecrow's eye
Making out by the rhodedendron
Pull me down, and pump me dry
Lie back now and think of sorrow
The question mark in the scarecrow's eye
Mustard seed and dandelion
A time to live, a time to die
And some other audio odds and ends from my studio... These ones are free.
My Pervert Doppelganger
Extract from the 1997 Momus album Ping Pong
Old Friend, New Flame
The first track from the 1998 Momus album The Little Red Songbook
The Last Communist
Extract from the 2003 Momus album Oskar Tennis Champion
Erostratus
Unreleased track recorded during the Oskar sessions, 2002, Tokyo
Thyme
Extract from the forthcoming collaboration between Momus and Anne Laplantine, Summerisle
A Lapdog
Track from Oskar Tennis Champion, 2003
Journey to the Centre of Me
Demo of a track recorded by Kahimi Karie for her 1999 EP Journey to the Centre of Me
I Cat My Hair
Demo of a track recorded by Emi Necozawa for her 2001 mini-album Mashroom Haircat
Pierrot Lunaire
Demo of a track written for Emi Necozawa and recorded in a different version on Oskar Tennis Champion
Homemade Soup
Unused demo written for Kahimi Karie
Dima the Kirgilyakh Mammoth
Demo of a track recorded by Milky on Travels with a Donkey, 2002
Electrosexual Sewing Machine
Track from Oskar Tennis Champion
Kiosk
The sound of the Momus solo art exhibition at LFL gallery, New York, 2000
Lo Sposerete
A one-off Stars Forever-like track written in 2001 for an LA couple
Lady Fancy Knickers
Unused track from the Oskar sessions, 2002
Beowulf
Track from Oskar Tennis Champion
Momus interview covering the years 1987-88
Momus interview covering the years 1988-91
Momus interview covering the years 1992-94
Momus interview covering the years 1995-97
Momus interview covering the years 1998-2001
As a historical curiosity, here's a page of audio samples from 1995.