The Residents
Eskimo

THE REVIEW

What I am going to review is one of the cornerstones of ambient music of all time: the Residents provide the most mystical, dark, delirious, and anti-commercial sound you can imagine. To speak of the "antithesis of rock" might be necessary: indeed, here there is no melody, verse, singing, solos. There is madness, improvisation, hysteria, monotonous choruses, instruments never heard before, dissonances. There is synthesis, extreme minimalism, perhaps hermeticism. And excuse me if that's not enough...

Clarification: there is a CD version with 4 extra tracks, I own the one with "only" 6 tracks: if someone wants to take the trouble to review the other one... It is a concept album, which somehow connects to the thought of a mythical guru of the time (whom some would identify as Captain Beefheart in disguise!): he believed that modern society lobotomizes our brains through consumerism and alienation. The only way to reason, then, is to exploit the icy cold that Mother Nature has provided us: that of the North Pole. It is known, in fact, that similar to an electric circuit, efficiency is better at lower temperatures. I find it necessary to make these clarifications because without them it would prevent us from fully understanding this masterpiece in its context (remember we are in the '70s). Far from any commercial cliché, from any "catchiness," from any preset schema: this could be a way to describe their music, made of dissonant sounds, hysterical screams. And of some truly engaging, chilling, or at least curious moments. You will hear graceless chants, symphonies on the verge of madness...

It is impossible to describe the tracks individually; it's a CD that should be listened to as it is, from start to finish. And without turning up the volume too much, otherwise, it might be the time someone calls the police on you... I just want to point out "The Festival of Death", the best track on the album. And if at first "Eskimo" seems incomprehensible, heavy, boring to you, after a few listens you will only be able to fully appreciate it... enjoy listening.