Sunbutler - Sunbutler

1. Sun Butler, 2. Doghouse, 3. The Foreigner, 4. So What?, 5. Orion, 6. Oriental Lothario, 7. Never, 8. Spinoza, 9. Heliopolis, 10. Bodypop, 11. Zero Sum, 12. Glitterships, 13. Beginnings

The Sunbutler album is a collaboration between two Scots of different generations living on different continents. Joe Howe and Momus worked together before, making the Joemus album in Berlin in 2008. Whereas Joe's main musical project back then was the itchy, glitchy Germlin, in 2012 he composes and performs as Ben Butler & Mousepad, making an infectious hand-played funk that references Max Tundra, Herbie Hancock and YMO. Restricting himself to just five basic sounds on an old FM synth, Joe made backing tracks in his Glasgow studio which Momus in Osaka then warped into disjointed funk songs, emphasising the genre's sleaziness in an 80s-retro way that recalls Prince at his most dirty-minded, the glittering deconstructions of Scritti Politti, and Momus albums like 1989's Don't Stop The Night. The results are funny, catchy, and disturbingly infectious.