From the Scrapheap to Scraps

This started as a simple request from Scraps, a friend of NSS, for some follow-up musick by a favorite of mine, The Mabuses. But Nothin' ever stays simple around here for one reason or another.

The Mabuses' second album was The Melbourne Method, but when I went to retrieve it from my files, I realized that "Fetch the Hammer" & "Narc Fears" were corrupted. I immediately turned to their third offering, 2007s Mabused, only to realize that in the more than fifteen year span between releases 1 & 3, the original esoteric avant-pop of their self-titled had given way to the much more modern psychedelia / folk derived Brit pop mixture that was Mabused. Songs like "June" & "Russian Roulette" still harkened back to the earlier sound, but alas...

Then I realized that the best follow-up to their self-titled wasn't even by the Mabuses, but Egomaniacs. Egomaniacs finds The Mabuses' mastermind, singer/guitarist Kim Fahy & co-founder/ drummer Jamie Harley teamed up with Shimmy Disc honcho (Mark) Kramer of Bongwater / Shockabilly infamy. The three branch out from their usual devices & tackle a variety of other instruments, resulting in this group's most entertaining though one-off effort. Egomaniacs sounds distanced & strange, carrying the genre-mashing tendencies of the Mabuses forward into a slightly different, dreamier setting. Fahy's signature dry, reflective singing & the combination of acoustic guitar with spacey effects calls to mind a lot of early-70s psych/prog folk material. Harley's percussion is subtle & creative, leading where needed but otherwise carefully filling out the corners of the musical structures Fahy & Kramer create, though as the liner notes state, "Kim really wrote most of the songs."

Fahy, Harley, & Kramer - Egomaniacs, Shimmy Disc-068, 1993.

all decryption codes in comments

Cancerman
I am Rolling
Your Sister
That Letter
Heavenly Bent
Father’s Day
From Nebraska
Redline
Mamma’s Collection
Your Lips are Nuggets
Indeed, This is the Creep
The Raven
The Pebbles
Kiss Your Wallet


& as requested, before all the rambling à moi...

The Mabuses - Mabused, Magpie Records 901, 2007.

Dark Star
Seasider
Mirth
Sugarland
Byayaba
Havana
Tiger Lilies
June
I'm the Greatest
Feast
Glass Eyed Pitter Patter
Garden Devils
Russian Roulette
Destination

Enjoy,
NØ

The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse

Doctor Mabuse was made famous in three movies director Fritz Lang made about the character. Dr. Mabuse is a master of disguise & telepathic hypnosis. Mabuse rarely commits his crimes in person, instead operating primarily through a network of agents implementing schemes he has planned for them. Mabuse's agents range from: career criminals working for him; innocents blackmailed or hypnotized into cooperation; & dupes manipulated so successfully they do not realize that they are doing exactly what Mabuse planned for them to do.

 

Mabuse's identity often changes. One Dr. Mabuse may be defeated & sent to an asylum, jail, or grave, only for a new Dr. Mabuse to later appear, as depicted in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. The replacement invariably has the same methods, the same powers of hypnosis, & the same criminal genius. There are even suggestions in some installments of the series that the real Mabuse is some sort of spirit that possesses a series of hosts psychically.  

 

The Mabuses is a band formed in London in 1991 to carry out the musical schemes of the evil Doctor. They released three albums to mirror the three films of Fritz Lang that memorialized the criminal master-mind. The band was fronted by the enigmatic Kim Fahy. The Mabuses present music that mixes pop sensibilities with the more esoteric concerns of film & literature. Lyrically & musically, their recordings can be described as modern psychedelia. Fahy's rhythmic/melodic style is rooted in folk-derived Brit-pop typified by the likes of Syd Barrett.According to the Doctor’s devious plan, the music’s nursery rhyme loopiness with whimsy & surrealism combined…all strangeness, quirk, & sinister charm where nothing is quite as it seems. 

 

 

The Mabuses ‎– The Mabuses, Rough Trade ‎– R2771, 1991.
decryption code in comments

Side A –

Cubicles

In the Long Run

Kicking a Pigeon

Brightmares

Mad Went the Barber

Diego N°1

Side B –

The Gibbon Walk

That’s How Men Drop

Life as a Lifeboat

The Novice

Diego N°2

We Rested our Feet

Nightcap

Enjoy,
NØ