New to me, but if you’re of a certain disposition (Welsh to be exact) you may well regard your Cardiff-based countryman as some sort of legendary (and possibly mythical) figure.
This 10-track collection – less an album and more a stream of consciousness – is an eccentric set by any standards… lead single ‘Le Pigeon’ is a true piece of Fisher Price techno as MOuse (the odd capitalisation deliberate, it seems) struggles with an invasive bird to the point where he’s forced to pee in the sink.
From then on it’s a meandering collection of surreal spoken-word pieces, which may or may not be directly translated from cheese-fuelled nightmares – ‘A Well-planned Party’ could be DAF or Suicide with some madman rambling over the top, and just one of a bizarre collection of tales – take ‘Kerplunk Sticks’, which tells of a drunken intruder bending all the cutlery in the MOuse house).
If there’s one thing that adds to the oddness of the theme it’s that MOuse’s tales don’t have any resolution – but then again, all the best nightmares seldom do.
Oddest is saved for last, an eight-minute opus ‘O’Sullivan, Reardon, Doherty, Bond’ an absolute (I believe the parlance is) “banger”, although one which sadly avoids snooker and instead analyses the songwriting process, touching on Jack Johnston, and pondering why one might paint a bench turquoise.
DIY tips aside, if there’s one lesson to be learned from this exhilarating, challenging, and strangely engaging listen, it’ll be not to travel to South Wales, at least not under cover of darkness.