Like some old prophet, emerging from the shimmering horizon of the desert, in 2010 I appeared with this debut LP for the Momo:tempo sound – a feverishly worked-in sketchbook journal of my travels. Except I was only sort of approaching middle age. And it was definitely more of a saunter.
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THE GOLDEN AGE OF EXPLORATION ON iTUNES >
Featuring so many Momo classics, like Sweetseeker, Paris Breakfast, Disfunkshun and The Travel Writer, The Golden Age of Exploration is a lot of musical journey to cram into all the space an old-fashioned CD can handle.
1: EMBARKING
2: UP IN THE PARTY
3: ASYLUM SEEKER
4: FLIP
5: SWEETSEEKER
6: BOBS IN THE MACHINE
7: DISFUNKSHUN
8: THE TRAVEL WRITER
9: I SAW YOU GET ON, WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET OFF
10: EVERYBODY CLAP
11: AL HAMDU LI LAH
12: DUALITY
13: BUSK ‘TILL DAWN
14: PARIS BREAKFAST
15: POLICE DE MUSIQUE
16: ALGORITHMIC
17: METROPHILIA
18: IDENTITY
19: JUST PASSING THROUGH
20: MOMOMENTO
21: WAITING IS A BIT LIKE BEING ON HOLIDAY
Sleeve notes:
“Is the world a playground or a battle-ground?
An adventure, or a trial?
It rather depends on where you happen to start from, doesn’t it? what passport is put into your hand at the beginning.
I’m making tea, by the way. sugar?
I rearranged my bookshelf a few years ago. Like a wild man. it made book-loving friends shudder – all titles together, regardless of genre, ordered only in alphabetical by author. All ideologically thrown in – a higgle of piggled sizes and styles and periods and genres. And it made me learn in a new way how important it is that I get out more.
It made me think too that different moments are shaken up in us like a cocktail. you – you there, with your finger jammed up your nose – you’re a whole sugar bowl of different grains. You’re a trillion pixels of image, of multicoloured electron bursts that make a complicated,
interesting… you.
Cool, huh? and you say you don’t get out much either.
We’re each a kind of walking cartographic memento – one we’re scribbling on and filling in as we bimble along. sure, you can put your feet on the coffee table – chocolate digestive? the question is, can you see any patterns in that personal chaos? can you see connections
between the different aesthetics and times and cultural moments?
Nah. Me neither. or, sort of. But it doesn’t half sound like so much guff when you’re sober.
Still, my own personal and inexplicably rambling exploration of said guff is, none-the-less, loosely and lovingly pasted and penciled into this little sketchbook for you to digest for yourself, if you fancy. And all, I imagine, under a jolly clever and important-sounding introduction. something like:
>ahem!<
Life is a battleground. and a playground. if you only fight, you miss the point of overcoming. if you only play, you never learn the giant value of what you’re doing.
Or, to put it another way – your adventure may be really starting to get somewhere once you discover that, sometimes, all the treasure you need is a coffee, a croissant and a magazine. Or a nice cup of tea.
Ciao for now – Momo x”
Credits:
Originally released October 2010.
All songs Timo Peach.
© Momo:tempo 2010.
Recorded in the Momo Arnewood Studio between spring 2002 and autumn 2009.
For more tunes, tinkering and jolly tittle-tattle, pop along to:
momotempo.co.uk
Synthesisers, beats, durbek, tambourine, Casio V-Ltone, vocals, words, tunes, general creative pratting about and sleeve note credit writing
Timo Peach
Guitars and mandolin [ tracks 17, 19, 21 ] Kevin Marshall
Trumpet and flugel, [ tracks 05, 07, 11, 16, 19 ] John Herbison
Additional drums [ tracks 07, 12, 17 ] Mark Adkins
Cello [ tracks 12, 18 ] Simon Lockyer
Violins [ tracks 01, 03, 19, 21 ] Pete Whitfield
Congas [ track 14 ] Pete Simonot
Written, performed and produced by Momo:tempo.
Cover art by Momo:typo with a little extra creative genius from Sarah Grace Harris.
Up in the party was originally written for the SIlver Bell production, Sign Language and contains a sample from the film. Many thanks to Klemens Koehring for use of his swearing.
Disfunkshun was originally written for the Silver Bell production, The Audition. Many thanks to Ben Campbell for wanting to commission groovy stuff.
Metrophilia was originally written for the Steve Hollingshead photographic installation, The London Wall – peek at takingthepics.com
Finally, very many thanks to everyone who gave their time and talents to help polish my pratting about and to encourage the Chap Rap over the years – musically to Kev, Mark, John, Pete and Simon, for their parts here especially – as well as to essential creative inputters Jamie, Marcus, Sarah, Timbo, Vicky, Bobby, Gel, Zo and the whole Thinking Juice test bed. And to everyone who appears on this accidentally – thankyou for brightening up this little sketchbook without realising. If I could have let you know, I would have. I should say too, along with Mum, Melly and so many of us, I’m thinking of Dad – who collected so many stories in his travels and encouraged as much music in me as he did laughter and love.
And finally to Caroline – 18 years of wandering around aimlessly together is what’s really made this a golden age of exploration.
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