I've been listening to The Residents today. I was reading a review for another band's record - might have been Black Dice...no, it was Eric Copeland - and The Residents were referenced, and the reviewer called their music beautiful. not something I'd ever imagined to be the case.

so I listened to...

'Eskimo'

this one sounds like a sci-fi precursor to Sun City Girls. sonic pranksters re-enacting the rituals of an ancient tribe of vaguely humanoid primitives on an icey planet somewhere else in the galaxy.

at points - I'm thinking those otherworldly intervals in the woodwind harmony that closes the last track in particular - the beauty is obvious. as for the rest, it's more curious. the chilly, naked beauty of rarely frequented alien frontiers.

'God in Three Persons'

again, this record has a bizarre, sci-fi sense of intrigue to it. but the focal monologue is very much human, albeit a very skewed and seedy humanity. a weird pathos. like I've heard in Robert Ashley and Laurie Anderson's music on occasions.

it's kind of like a really vivid audiobook. there's a depth of strangness in the words, eerily backlit by the music, throwing freakish shadows across the walls & along the ground.

and it's oddly moving: even when the female chorus directly addresses the 'sad part' in 'Loss of a Loved One', even when the narrative takes a twisted turn in the second half.

yeah. I liked these two. 'Meet The Residents' up next.

oh, and please join in. maybe people could live blog first listens?