The Cryptic Corporation continues its reissue campaign on Mute records with two classic releases from the late '70s. Not only that but Ralph have also released a compilation of outtakes from the group's "storyteller" output. Needless to say, the Mute reissues are absolutely essential (and they are beautiful in the hardback book format that is now standard for Residents releases on Mute) and the Ralph compilation is great but maybe not as much interest to casual Residents fans.
Eskimo (along with The Third Reich 'n Roll) is the definitive Residents album. It may not be typical in terms of musical style (but there is no typical in their world) but all the vital ingredients are here: an avant garde approach to sound, big ideas, humour and eyeballs. Presented as both a document of Inuit culture and a commentary on how they are perceived in the south, this album is best taken with a liberal pinch of salt. The allegedly authentic Eskimo folk songs included here sound suspect to say the least (especially with the hilarious photo of The Residents on a fact finding mission to the arctic) but this is part of the magic of The Residents; pulling together disparate concepts and augmenting them to suit their own agenda.
Eskimo remains as strange today as it always has been, it is not an accurate portrayal of Inuit culture but it never seriously set out to be that. Instead The Residents have created their own idea of what this culture might sound like based on the written facts they have found. Many of these facts are given in the sleeve notes, making the whole experience all the more bewildering: What to believe and what not to believe? It's an apt question considering these are a group of artists who have made a career out of being a myth.
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I was a bit worried when Mute made no mention of Buster & Glen when announcing the reissue of Duck Stab!. I was afraid that this would just be a reissue of the original Duck Stab! EP minus the extra songs later added to it under the Duck Stab!/ Buster & Glen title. Thankfully all the tracks have been included and The Residents have only shortened the title for the sake of convenience. Under any title, this release is astonishing. With its Beefheartian anti-songs from the edge of sanity, it is a far cry from the calculated approach to Eskimo (which was originally released only a few months after Duck Stab!).
Despite the sheer oddness of the songs, Duck Stab! is one of The Residents' most listenable albums. The brilliant "Constantinople," "Blue Rosebuds," and "Weight Lifting Lulu" are all toe-tapping fun at its strangest. I always think of this as their sole concession to normal rock music (in the vein of the aforementioned Captain Beefheart via Suicide). The Commercial Album may have been their idea of a pop album but this is still the closest they have come to being a traditional band. They could have easily pulled it off but fame and fortune were obviously not on the cards.
It is a pity that, unlike many of the previous Mute reissues, extra material has not been included with either album. In the case of Duck Stab!, this is understandable as there is not any companion releases to add. However, Eskimo did have a sister release in the form of Diskomo that would have fit nicely with the original album (much like the inclusion of Intermission with Mark of the Mole). Failing that, inclusion of the 5.1 mix of Eskimo would have been nice. At the end of the day, these extras do not really matter but some icing on the cake is always appreciated.
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Smell My Picture is a limited edition compilation aimed at the more hardcore Residents fan. It is a mostly instrumental collection of outtakes from the Rivers of Crime, Tweedles and The Voice of Midnight sessions. The three albums were all quite different in terms of genre and style but somehow all the pieces here sound like they have come from the one soundtrack for a very strange film. As aforementioned, their recent storyteller releases have been a mixed bag, The Voice of Midnight being rather excellent and Tweedles being a bit crap. However, without the narratives taking the limelight the music here is quite strong. Indeed there are few, if any, tracks that stand out as being anything less than good. It is a far cry from the two Mute reissues listed above; although The Residents have certainly learned how to play their instruments in a more traditionally competent way, the spark of chaos that ran through their works from their earlier years is not as evident. Everything seems so much more controlled now, for better or for worse.
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