I Have A Warped Mind!
(Not that this is news....)

In my very first blog post on October 14, 2003 (nearly a year ago - expect a bunch of that danged one year blog anniversary junk in the next few weeks), my very first sentence read as (very) follows:

Why did synthetica start with fake bluegrass sounds?

This was a reference to a long-forgotten Theo Tres Thr3 song that predated the posting of the first Ontario Emperor MIDIs in August 1998. (Comment: these were composed on a Mac, and the instrumentation does not sound all that great when played on your standard Windows computer. For a more representative sample of my aweless talents, listen to Rockford Vote Stuff.)

Although I'd have to plow through the entire Ontario Emperor catalog to be sure, the only example of an Ontario Emperor synthetic bluegrass moment would be the opening seconds of the song "Deeper in Debt" from the deleted mp3.com CD Digital Judge. In essence, I've just had a lot of fun throwing banjo arpeggios into the most synthetic songs imaginable. I have a feeling Johnny Cash would sort of approve.

Well, I'm not the only person who thinks in such ways. Here's what the All Music Guide has to say (emphasis mine):

In 1952, anthropologist/ethnomusicologist/filmmaker/collector of curiosities/polymath Harry Smith released his Anthology of American Folk Music on Folkways. The brilliance of the six LP collection of pre-WWII music was in Harry Smith's ability to see connections between dark ballads, rollicking social music, and geographically disparate songs. His collection defined the music in the context of American culture and created a dramatically novel worldview.

Scottish-born eccentric Nick Currie, aka Momus, is a Harry Smith for the age of information....[He] uses his website to address whatever touches his fancy, and comments on everything from art to history to literature to philosophy to mass media. Momus always attaches a character or concept to his albums, and Folktronic is his anthology of fake folk. It takes a warped mind to connect mountain music and electronica, but this is just the kind of thing that has gained Momus his cult following....The artist formerly known as Maoist Intellectual, Futuristic Vaudevillian, and Audio Portraitist always seems to do something new and unexpected, and this time the space-age folkie molds traditional ballads and Appalachian ditties out of plastic and silicon.

What can I say? Kewl...