1960: Nick Currie born in Paisley, Scotland
1969: Moves from Edinburgh to Athens, Greece
1973: Moves to Montreal, Canada
1978: University in Aberdeen, Scotland, studying literature
1981: Leaves university to found The Happy Family, a pop group including three ex-members of the Postcard Records group Josef K
1982: 4AD Records release The Happy Family's 'The Man On Your Street', a Brechtian concept album about a fascist dictator and the Red Brigades
1984: Having returned to university, graduates with first class honours
Moves to London
1986: First release under the name Momus 'Circus Maximus' él Records
1987: Moves to Creation Records. Tours Germany with Primal Scream. Records 'The Poison Boyfriend'
"If his excellent De Sade inspired debut EP, 'The Beast With Three Backs', bespoke the poetry in the anguish of sado-masochism and his first LP, 'Circus Maximus', failed through being weighed down by a surfeit of ideas and historical references, 'The Poison Boyfriend' fulfils the art Nick has always promised to produce." Jack Barron, Sounds
"One of the most provocative, intelligent songwriters around; someone who'll tackle sexuality, (im)morality, and the sins of the world with almost embarrassing sincerity." Len Brown, NME
1989: 'The Hairstyle Of The Devil' reaches number 2 in the independent singles chart. Records 'Don't Stop The Night'
"'Don't Stop The Night' is superbly realised, clinically crafted, one man's brilliant obsession. Musically, he's moved from acoustic strum to muted disco stomp." Ian Gittins, Melody Maker
1990: A compilation, 'Monsters Of Love' is released.
"A coherent collection, a fine Momus starter-pack and a nice primer for this decade's Momus." Roger Morton, NME
1991: 'Hippopotamomus', an album about animals and sex, sparks a press backlash.
"Momus is a bit like a mussel: it tastes good when swallowed whole, but examine it too closely and it looks as disgusting as a shrivelled, unidentifiable piece of sexual organ. Spit it out immediately." Betty Page, NME
1992: Tours Japan. Two albums are released, 'The Ultraconformist' on Richmond Records and 'Voyager' on Creation. Black Spring Press also publishes a collection of lyrics entitled 'Lusts Of A Moron'
"'The Ultraconformist' is vignettes of Dickensian grotesquerie set to Weill-style oompah cabaret music, very self conscious but droll nonetheless. Too many of the songs are packed with contrived wordiness, and, taken as a whole, the effect is dense and overbearing." Dave Morrison, Select
"'Voyager' is awash with luxuriant synths and awe-inspiring vistas, on a trajectory between St Etienne, PM Dawn and The Orb... Basically, no-one will believe this is Momus." Simon Price, Melody Maker
1993: Visits the Arctic and Japan, produces Japanese artist The Poison Girlfriend, writes short stories for a book about Pierre et Gilles for Taschen, and contributes to Derek Jarman's film 'Blue'.
'Timelord'
"This is an outsider pushing further still, out into spaces entirely his own, hopelessly lonely but free. It's as though in tearing out his guts he has somehow been cleansed - the demons have turned to despair, but at least, at last, as the closing "Breathless" reveals, what will survive of him now is love." Taylor Parkes, Melody Maker
1994: Tours Scandinavia, produces Munich group Bismarck Idaho, marries his Bangladeshi girlfriend Shazna and moves to Paris. Writes the EP 'I Am A Kitten: Kahimi Karie Sings Momus in Paris'.
1995: Cherry Red release 'The Philosophy Of Momus' .
"The laconic anthropologist returns, with more hugely intelligent, hugely entertaining musings on contemporary mores... Urbane, witty and always perfectly measured." The Independent
From Visionary Video comes the feature length documentary 'Momus: Man Of Letters'. A new record for Kahimi Karie, 'Good Morning World', is recorded in August. It reaches number 5 in the Japanese singles chart. 'Slender Sherbet', an album of new versions of his 80s material, is released in November.
"One of the UK's greatest and most underrated songwriters... ambivalent, challenging, confusing, disturbing. If you need to exclude ambiguity from your life, you shouldn't buy this album." Melody Maker
1996: A string of hit singles in Japan with Kahimi Karie, a reading at the Cuirt International Festival of Literature in Ireland and a sell-out concert in New York. Momus authors a CD-ROM, 'This Must Stop!' A collection of demos, curiosities and out-takes, 'Twenty Vodka Jellies', is released.
Homoeroticism, inflatable dolls, strychnine and unrequited love are all dealt with, in supremely literate style, so slip into your silk smoking jacket, and enter the
magnificent Momus mindscape of highballs, harems and hookahs.' Ian Fortnam, NME
1997: Momus moves back to London, co-writing and producing albums for Jacques ('How To Make Love, Volume 1', Setanta Records) and Laila France ('Orgonon', Bungalow Records). His own 1997 album is 'Ping Pong'.
His continual look-mother-I'm-swearing-are-you-appalled-yet? attitude is, after a few songs,
about as shocking as a mince pie, while his music is the sound of someone who wishes he was from France, where they encourage such
self-indulgent opuses of drool and jism in the name of art. Jim Alexander, NME
The embarrassingly talented Nicholas Currie would not dream
of repeating himself, unless given the opportunity to do so backwards - as he does quite remarkably on Shoesize Of The Angel, the
near-exact inverse of his Hairstyle Of The Devil musically, lyrically and emotionally. A mere fraction of the good stuff here... Momus: the most underrated man in pop. Dave Dimartino, Mojo Magazine
He writes a scorching tune... Momus himself may never achieve the success of his impersonators. How depressing. Peter Robinson, Time Out
Tours Europe (Athens, Vienna, Munich, Paris) with Gilles Weinzaepflen, later known as Toog: the Eurokong Tour.
1998: Two tours of the US, Amerikong and Shopping In Amerikka, with Kahimi Karie. A trip to Japan to perform with Kahimi on TV show Music Station with her hit single 'One Thousand 20th Century Chairs'. A Momus album, 'The Little Red Songbook', on which Momus invents the style he calls Analog Baroque (harpsichords, brevity, analog synths, wit).
He lists Rabelais and Martial among his songwriting influences (with a side of Matthew Barney and Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange"), and
his music - from Brecht to Beck on Moog and simulated harpsichord - is suitably challenging. But live, draped on a chair and sporting a pirate eye patch, his obscurities coalesce and his sharp wit and smooth rap seduce. His songs, by the way, are quite dirty, as might be expected of someone who goes in for the Decameron, too. The New Yorker
Ends the year in Japan with the Kahimi Karie Girlie Action Tour, playing 2000 seater venues in Tokyo and Osaka with members of the Cornelius band.
1999: Momus establishes his own label through Cherry Red, Analog Baroque Records. Signs Toog,, New York multimedia whizz Mister Swenson, and Berliners Stereo Total. An amicable divorce from Shazna, with whom he plans an album. Following a lawsuit from electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos, Momus announces that he will make 30 song portraits for $1000 each. The resulting record, Stars Forever, is released in September to much fanfare. The Independent makes it their album of the week. Wendy Mitchell in Salon magazine writes:
Lesser artists might have taken a more literal approach to portraiture, spewing facts in rhyming couplets. But Momus' subversive streak creates songs that people would never have written about themselves... These fans didn't get exact representations of themselves. They got something better -- a chance to become part of Momus' twisted world.
Gives lectures on his work at art colleges in Maidstone and Washington DC. Appears as a guest on BBC Choice shows Inside Tracks and Beat Room. Records a new Kahimi Karie album with a prog-medieval feel and arrangements by the Dufay Collective. A tour of the US with Toog and Kahimi Karie, the Vaudeville Tour, is followed by a tour of Germany. Momus ends the year -- and the century -- at a party thrown by artists Gilbert and George.
2000: Scores a new British film directed by Jamie Thraves, 'The Low Down' (Film Four International). Tours the UK with Stereo Total. Relocates to New York City, settling in Chinatown. Through March and April he appears as the Earl of Amiga in a weekly webcast cabaret spectacle entitled 'Electronics in the 18th Century'. Records and releases a documentary about the Manhattan art and music scene, a CD of pseudo-ethnological fieldwork called Fakeways: Manhattan Folk. Begins writing and recording the next Momus album, Folktronic. In August he's at the Edinburgh Festival and in Paris, then in September he finishes the album. October sees him in residence at the LFL Gallery, Chelsea, New York in a performance / installation one man art show called Folktronia. Here he expands the imaginative world of the new album into a series of ten minute video tapes, and records people singing misheard, misremembered and improved versions of his new songs. He ends the year lecturing in Finland and touring Germany with Kreidler.
2001: Appears at the Future of Music conference in Washington DC. Tours the west coast with Stars. Starts a new label, American Patchwork, through Darla. Spends four months in Tokyo, where he produces a mini-album, 'Mashroom Haircat' with singer Emi Necozawa, released on the Quattro label in November under the group name Mashcat. Also records a new song for Kahimi Karie, 'Frilly Military'. Writes articles for Index, Black Book, Relax, Metropolis and Studio Voice. Returns from Japan in time to witness from his roof the terrorist attacks on New York City. Tours the US and Canada with Stereo Total. Spends a month in London, where he has laser eye surgery. 2001 sees the official release of a new Momus album, Folktronic.
''Folktronic' is Momus' 'The Straight Story', his best 'proper' product in a long time. 'Little Apples' is like 'Flashdance' played through a drainpipe and accompanied by yodelling, 'Robocowboys' is Gary Numan's best in a while, while the synth line from 'Folk Me Amadeus' is the ghost of 'The Final Countdown'. 'Finnegan the Folk Hero' celebrates the web designer, 'Jarre in Hicksville' has the synth hero captivating hillbillies with his son et lumiere show, 'Handheld' is a duet with a Palm Pilot. And David Lynch would love 'Psychopathia Sexualis', the catchiest song you'll hear about bondage, bestiality, paedophilia and necrophilia.' Omer Ali, Time Out, London
'Crammed to the gills with literature, pop culture, humor and a genuine appreciation for the legends pissed on, Folktronic might indeed qualify for that honor mistakenly awarded many times over: the first great album of the new millennium.' Dan LeRoy, West Virginia Graffitti
'This is Momus being Momus; he still sounds like Donovan, and he's still as quirky, arrogant, and witty as ever. Though the record is far from the genre-defining landmark Momus likely intended to be, it certainly ranks among his better works. My advice to diehard Momus fans: log off littlejapanesegirls.com, zip up your pants, and get your ass to the record store.' Matt Lemay, Pitchfork website
2002: 'Queen bees, stags, elks, a bunch of foulness in the pit? New work?'
Momus begins the year in New York City, working on an album with his ex-wife, Shazna under the collective name of Milky. The album, 'Travels With A Donkey', is recorded throughout February, with Shazna visiting Momus' studio after work. The result is an interesting mixture of el Records-style acoustic whimsy and electro-acoustic musique concrete.
In mid-March, followed by a film crew making a documentary for Manhattan Cable Channel 67's 'Product', Momus packs up and leaves New York, with a swansong for his two years in the city held at Joe's Cafe. He heads to Tokyo, where he works on a commission for MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), making a Flash piece for their online digital gallery. Suffusia: A Beautiful Life takes the form of a lecture, delivered by a deranged and visually deformed professor, about a utopia where words are replaced by texture, colour and pure sound. It is realised in Paris by Momus' longtime visual collaborator, Florian Perret (with assistance from Flash guru Mumbleboy), and goes online in June.
Buying an old Apple Performa in Akihabara, Momus sets to work composing new stuff for an album codenamed 'The Pirate'. He attends performances at the kabuki theater in Ginza, participates in the recording of Emi Necozawa's solo album for Quattro and explores the work of Japanese artists like Miharu Koshi, Haruomi Hosono, Yokoo Tadanori and Keiichi Tanami.
June and July see Momus' most extensive US tour ever, The American Patchwork tour. To promote new releases on his Darla-distributed label American Patchwork, Momus sets off with Super Madrigal Brothers, The Gongs, Phiiliip and Rroland (who joins on the west coast dates), visiting such hitherto unexplored places as Kansas, Salt Lake City, Arizona, New Orleans and Florida as well as all the regular venues. The tour begins and ends in New York City, where Momus makes new friends, like sound artist o.blaat, but is mostly preoccupied with his friend Rika, whose life is in crisis.
August is spent at the Edinburgh Festival and with friends in Paris. There's a show in Paris with Toog at the studio of fashion designers Pelagique, and an appearance in Buro's Paris-Tokyo webcast 'Headphone Concerts for 12 People'. Momus interviews Malcolm McLaren for Black Book magazine.
In September Momus returns to Tokyo, where he records intensively, finishing his new album, now strongly influenced by Jacques Tati and entitled 'Oskar Tennis Champion', in late October. Shazna is flown out to Tokyo by L'Appareil Photo and interviews are made to promote 'Travels With A Donkey', released (in Japan only) on November 11th. The same week as the Milky album comes out, Momus plays a show with Discom.
In late November he moves to Paris, his home for the immediate future. Here he works with Florian Perret on the sleeve for 'Oskar Tennis Champion' and makes a DVD remix of Takashi Miike's film 'Ichi The Killer', which is shown in the Tokyo art exhibition Urbanlenz.