In the wake of the second release from Momo’s forthcoming new LP, Undo – to say nothing of BBC Introducing showcasing the tune this month – various corners of the music press seem to have the measure of Mr Peach. Alarmingly. Our round-up of reviews – for your nerdy interest.
SOUNDS LIKE? Apparently, I’m using an outdated version of Soundcloud to listen to this, it’s entirely appropriate because Tim Peach uses an outdated way of making music, he does it properly. Now, I can’t be arsed to read the press release, but it’s odds on that Momo:tempo and / or Mr Peach will be involved in all sorts of hellishly exciting modernity, but I’m focused on this and these…
The big news is the extended hold of a synth note at 2.58, the other headlines note the frantique and very zoot suited scramble through a track that should have a promo video full of cartoon wolves pointing guns at Brian Eno to make him make this, like ‘Misery’ but with more fun and less in the way of broken legs. It still sounds like a very English 2NU though.
IS IT ANY GOOD? Obviously and this is why; The Momo:tempo thing works on every level, if you want to get wasted and dance, if you want to tick off cultural cross references, real and imagined, if you want to techie picky wallow in the professional excellence, even if you’re sad enough to want ‘cool’. Momo:tempo is for you, they won’t even laugh at you, or not much, because Momo:tempo already know that cool is long dead and they’ve moved on.
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Well this is a little bit fantastic. Think camp (not Louie Spence camp) brass injected with a busy bass line, some infectious grooves and a Latin party beat pulsing throughout, then you’ve got Momo:Tempo’s ‘Undo’. It’s a quirky yet light hearted track that displays Momo:Tempo’s playful nature, meticulous musical abilities and colourful creative flare to a ‘T’.
Currently, the emphasis on finding something new and unique has never been so great, and sometimes I get the feeling that when we find it we shy away (well, I don’t, but others tend to like their little indie safe blankets), so I encourage everyone to not only listen, but completely indulge yourself in what Momo:Tempo has to offer. Shrug off the Monday blues and let the wonderful world of technicolour open up, with the likes of Timo Peach (aka Momo:Tempo) to guide you through. ‘Undo’ definitely enables you to shrug away the cobwebs and casts a brighter, more dazzling light on the world and makes you see it’s not that bad of a place.
‘Undo’ is a brilliant piece, with a bed of tangy melodies thrashed with rapturous bouncy bass line and a spoken frisky lyric makes this a uniquely addictive piece of pop. The break in the middle echoes carnivalesque madness, providing cascades of musical imagery pounding rhythmically in a cadence of culture. Well done Momo:Tempo for not shying away from crafting something completely imaginative and original, with a dash of warmth and lashings of nostalgic Latin desire.
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Now ordinarily if like me upon reading a collection of descriptive words such as Africana, right said fred, salsa, right said fred (I’ll say it twice in case you missed it the first time), saucy, right said fred (again in case you missed it the first and second time), tropicalia, kooky, Latino and Herb Alpert all shoehorned into one sentence has you of the mind to take all your prized possessions and make a bid to run to the hills then fear not for I am just disappearing over the horizon ahead of you and be warned because I know what’s coming next because I’m scribbling this down. The common sense part of me (and yes it is here somewhere often stashed in the arse pocket in a matchbox) is whispering in my ear that I should have nothing to do with this particular release and that repeat listens can only serve to rot my brain and cloud my judgement. The devil may care part of me on the other hand whilst frantically sending electric shock impulses to my feet causing them to tap wildly is screaming excitably that its so unfeasibly daft it borders on infectious of the type rarely heard here since M’s ‘pop muzik’ and has deemed it necessary to point out exactly at which point where in proceedings did we start caring about our judgement as if we had one in the first place. So before you all start nodding off at the back we’d like to introduce you to momo : tempo or if you will Timo Peach as he’s known to kith, kin and the zillions of listeners who’ve fallen under his spell, we say fallen under his spell because we assume it is he glaring hypnotically from the CD artwork like some n’er do well freak circus magician like love child of Jarvis Cocker and David Tennant (though having now seen the video maybe not so). Currently knocking together a full length follow up 2010’s ’the golden age of exploration’ which to resigned sighs we here appear to have missed, ’undo’ serves as the first fruits of those sessions – a clever little ditty about the pitfalls of not having a system restore option for real life disasters and cock ups. Okay the right said Fred comparisons might be a little unfair but trust me once heard and you’ll see where I was coming from, safe to say Peach attends the same musical school as those audaciously clever types Pepe Deluxe in so far as he’s able to ferment a brew flavoured by such a varied array of styles which on paper shouldn’t sit easily with each other but by his creative hand manifests into a perversely peculiar pop calypso dinked with the smarties of the Sparks as though crash landed on a sonic landscape reared on the cosmopolitan sounds of yello’s precocious ’you’ve got to say yes to another excess’ and found cutting seductive shapes whilst drinking cocktails at a smoking sophisticat nightspot. ‘dead good’ is similarly cut in sharp threads, amid the chill toned jazz funk allure elements of emperor penguin subtly needle away between the grooves swapping notes with a ‘penthouse and pavement’ era Heaven 17 while a ‘pimp dad’s car’ mix of the lead cut draws things to a close not before injecting the original mix in a scatty schizoid electro surge.
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Once in a while something truly unusual comes along. Some special. Not your normal listening. Break out of your chosen tribe and genre, and try something else.
For this reviewer that appears to be Bournemouth group Momo:Tempo who have appeared here on RR, albeit very briefly (okay a few sentences). But after there appearance on Hope FM with Tim Heywood, and our very own Chinners, we were able to get a copy of their new single “Undo”, and it has been playing fairly repeatedly for the last day or two. What makes it special? In this day and age it strikes this reviewer as something fairly eclectic, and refreshing. Fusing together elements of jazz, dada, whimsy, and style. The rhythm led sound is offset by Timos’ spoken delivery, and, at times, exceedingly humorous lyrics.
As a reader this probably tells you nothing so far, but one comparison that immediately springs to my mind is that of the Swiss electronic band “Yello”, specifically the Zebra and Baby albums, where Dieters voice just suckers you in. In fact you could perhaps even draw comparisons on the vocal delivery to that of Karl Bartos (without the modulation). The precision layering of the sounds, the strong rhythm, the style injected by the brass section, the strings, all merge perfectly together, electronic and “natural” instruments used by Momo along with the vocals, all having the same effect.
Now, I must be honest, aside from the odd track on their website, and the two tracks on the EP (the third is a re-mix, although different enough to be considered another track), I have not had the opportunity yet to listen to any of their other material. In part this might be due to their infrequent live shows – which only adds to an air of mystique, and possibly leading to them becoming a cult band.
On their homepage they describe themselves as “Alternative, electro, lyrical and world aware – Momo is quite the musical adventure.” – one sentence, more succinct than the paragraphs I have written here. Let yourself go, Momo will guide you!
Right, I am off to dig out my Yello albums, and heading on over to SoundCloud to find me some more Momo…
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Timo Peach – better known under his Momo:tempo moniker – has been keeping busy since his 2010 debut album, ‘The Golden Age Of Exploration’ with various TV and film score writing projects, not to mention a slew of collaborations and production jobs occupying his time. Yet he’s also found time to record a second long-player due out this spring, and ‘Undo’ comes as a timely taster.
Ostensibly a quirky slice of electro-pop, ‘Undo’ is constructed from a manic hybrid of styles, and with cheesy trumpets and semi-spoken smart-arse lyrics enunciated in a somewhat theatrical manner, it should be bloody awful. But it isn’t. In fact, it’s great. It’s catchy, it’s fun and clever. Consequently, it will probably go over the heads of many, and equally, won’t appeal to others for the reasons mentioned above, and who simply don’t dig the whacky wit and 80s disco stylings. But it certainly gets my vote, and that’s something I won’t want to undo.
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