The Thunderclown

April 23, 2011 8:44 AM

Fall in love with Mr. Momus. See the new videosongs from his soon to be released EP, the Thunderclown: Shangri-La :: Willow Pattern :: We Don't Have To Make Children :: I Want To Be Good :: The Teacher :: Midas :: The Thunderclown :: Produced in collaboration with John Henriksson of Tona Serenad.
posted by puny human (9 comments total)

short interview. "The Thunderclown is a 4-song EP that came about when I met John Henriksson of Tona Serenad in Paris. Originally I’d been put in touch with him by Anne Laplantine, who told me he might be interested in releasing a vinyl version of the Hypnoprism album. Instead, he proposed a collaboration. John is a collector of vinyl 7-inch singles. He samples and loops parts of old records, making incredibly atmospheric backing tracks. It’s these that I’ve been using to write new songs around, and the results are rather magical. John particularly likes a track called The Charm Song from my Hypnoprism album, because I made that song in the same spirit he works in: it’s constructed from the instrumental break in a 1930s Mantovani number. I like to mix those warm old orchestral sounds with modern synths and a sensibility which couldn’t quite have existed when those records were made, or would never have had that sort of backing."
posted by puny human at 8:49 AM on April 23, 2011

I like his music a lot, but something I learned in one of the other Momus threads here makes me think that falling in love with him could be quite painful.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:46 AM on April 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

I suppose it's true that loving Momus would be gentler on the ears than, um, other parts of your body ;)

This collection has a nice Hoagy Carmichael - Up A Lazy River vibe to it, crossed with maybe Noel Harrison's The Windmills of your Mind.

When I was a kid, there were 3 songs that always exerted a special pull on me. That had dimensions to them that other tunes on the radio just couldn't match. One was 'Try to Remember' (any version, but especially Belafonte's), then 'Windmills of Your Mind', and finally, 'She's Not There' by the Zombies. I think of Momus as the modern, living equivalent of those songs rolled into one, and I guess that is why he gets so deeply under my skin. Plus he's smarter than pretty much anyone else. So he's got that going for him, which is nice.
posted by puny human at 1:40 PM on April 23, 2011

This is the soundtrack to kill yourself with.

Why is it here? Why is it...anywhere?
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 2:32 PM on April 23, 2011

Don't do it Lipstick Thespian! Life is too precious. Think of all the people who love you. It would devastate them. Besides, you might end up like this guy.
posted by puny human at 3:25 PM on April 23, 2011

I'm always put off by his fetishization of Japan and Japanese people. To me, it borders on racism - it seems like abnormal idealism with cultural appropriation thrown in.
posted by i feel possessed at 6:14 PM on April 23, 2011

Liking another country and its people is racist now? Clearly I should check my memail more often.
posted by joannemullen at 8:23 PM on April 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Momus is certainly not unproblematic, though few interesting cultural figures are. And I think that he is one of the great songwriters of our time, and with his forays into literature and commentary, will be one of the artists who will make a lasting mark.
posted by acb at 6:22 AM on April 24, 2011

Liking another country and its people is racist now? Clearly I should check my memail more often.

Momus' attitude to Japan extends beyond liking; the term "nipposexual" has been bandied around.
posted by acb at 6:23 AM on April 24, 2011