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Mon, 20 Dec 2004

The Residents, Commercial Album 

25th Anniversary DVD and CD, Mute
The Residents

There are two items here: first, the CD. This come packaged in a
colorful booklet with lots of information about why this thing
exists. Those of you who store in racks will ask when graphic
designers will get a clue and make these offerings the same size 
as a standard jewel box case. That aside there are some nicely
weird illustrations and, of course, the music, and it's worth
saying "thanks" to the record label for actually giving us a bit
more than the usual bare minimum.

In effect these are "easy" tracks which came about as a result
of the very demanding Eskimo which took them four years to
record. Though Eskimo was critically acclaimed it seems fair
to say that the whole thing gave a few people headaches.

Anyway, if you're now expecting pre-digested pap set to a dance
beat ... no! Here we have a mildly eccentric and highly
creative series of quite short songs. 

Now the DVD; and this is really what this project is about.
There are a series of one minute videos which, up to now,
were too expensive to collect together and make something of.
The same technology that is allowing a kid with a Mac to experiment
with video editing also allows people of the critical stature of
The Residents (and critical stature oftentimes suggest "small
market") to get things together for a commercial release.

The DVD has a game-like interface where you travel a maze of rooms 
to discover the fifty-six, very different videos. 
(thunderfinger)

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