Momus - Bambi

1. The Blind Boy, 2. Bambi, 3. Deer Wife, 4. The Fallacy, 5. Love Isn't a Right, 6. The Ephebophobe, 7. Lipgloss, 8. Kinski Gets Angry, 9. Song of Norway, 10. Hammered Horse, 11. Pots, 12. Skriptorium, 13. Crispbread Pagoda, 14. For Elise

One reason Momus has been able to rack up 30 albums in as many years is that the Scottish provocateur is the quintessential "artist without a style". Lacking any interest in authenticity and equipped with a master-forger's ear for pastiche, Nick Currie has shown himself willing to try everything from cabaret to electronic folk. But following his 2012 collaborations with Joe Howe and David McClymont, Momus remembered that he did have a unique style after all lurking in the murky music of his teenage cassette recordings. Soft yet scratchy, gentle yet urgent, these early compositions used the distinctive sound of a microphone wedged under loose guitar strings, biro-and-anglepoise percussion, and John Cage-style prepared piano. Revived in the 21st century, this post-punk avant-sound gives Bambi a soft charm which at times becomes gently jagged, even primal. The record is also prime Momus, with rants about the rage of Klaus Kinski, sci-fi visions of a futuristic Zurich ruled by an evil Google, some rejigged Bach, a cover of a song by Nick Drake's mum, odes to Japanophile potters, some crooked evangelical Bible-bashing, and Lynchian stuff about guitarists compelled to have sex with deer. They do say the best pots have the best flaws, and Bambi—a rough-glazed flower vase thrown by a living international treasure—proves it.