Invisiblegirl
14th February 2010
01 Grind the Piggy Wigs Bones
02 Belly Ache One
03 The Longing to Be Elsewhere
04 Belly Ache Two
05 Are you a Wolf
06 The Money Apple
07 Belly Ache Three
08 Nine Miles Back
09 Fiasco Artiste
10 Belly Ache Four
11 Ball of Gas
12 Spider Mites
13 Thank you Dr Beady
14 Voicemail
15 Belly Ache Five
One of the five albums making up the Eddodi Collection viz 2007's The Corrosive Norm, 2008's Sperm Jingle Harvest, and 2009's Gravy on a plate of Food, together with this release from the same year.
Once again Moff presents a parallel universe somewhere in the north of England where folk motifs mingle with found sounds, filtered voices, and synthesized noises to create a unique aural presentation of continued wonderment.
Uniquely on this occasion a series of shorter pieces labled "Belly Ache" and numbered One to Five, provide short interludes to the main pieces.
There is unique and honest material here. The mutant blues of a "Are you a Wolf" with its wailing harmonica, and insistent rhythm is simply marvellous and far too short. The music platform for the lyrically wonderful "The Money Apple" echoes early Cabaret Voltaire in some sort of strange partnership with Tom Waits.
It is Moff's broad Yorkshire brogue, however, that most evokes a simpler time, and although comparisons are difficult perhaps the work is similar to a Mervyn Peake construct where life is much more basic and pleasant.
The repetition of "Nine Miles Back" has a fascinating Eastern European feel, and the glitchy sounds that precede the rhythmically complex "Fiasco Artiste" are compelling, and remind me of the early work that Mark E.Smith placed before us in the protean days of The Fall. In a world where "billy-cocks wither" and "adrenaline dithers" one can only sit in wonderment at the amount of material that Mr Skellington can produce. All different and all uniquely Moff in its delivery.
The last few songs on the album are some of the best work that have emerged from Moff's fertile mind in this wonderful collection of albums. "Ball of Gas" is uniquely strange with its wailing (alto?) saxophone, chittering percussion, swanee whistle (a fine instrument), and multi-layered vocals. The stand out track of the album for me though is the superb "Spider Mites" - lyrically rich - with a sort of folk-dub aesthetic. "Thank you Dr Beady" is just completely and totally out there in Moff world with no real comparisons available. "Voicemail" is a mad canter which has an insistent post punk feel to it - Pere Ubu perhaps?
This material wipes the floor with most contemporary so called "out there" music. When so much of what I listen to sounds derivative and the same its such a great pleasure to sit and listen to something so compellingly unique.
If you want to escape to altogether more interesting places then you can do so with ease with this marvellous album.
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