The Residents — Mush-room
This new CD release presents the listener for twelve tracks that last between just under the two & half minute mark, to near on the ten & a half minute mark. And as you’d expect the tracks are a dizzily, detailed & often puzzling mix of sounds that dart between: Moody yet off-kilter electro ambient sound tracking, circus like beat-scapes & quirky electronics, weird mish mash of sampled & looped vocals mixed with theatrical & often ethnic tipped dramatics. Through to slurred & backwards played vibrant operatic tinged odd pop scapes that are string swooned, onto strange & unsettling mixers of jerking modern classic themed electro texturing that’s roamed by mournful horn & string work. Through to live ethnic tinged jazz work-outs that are just tied to wondering bass lines and quirky beats capes.
As The Residents have done through-out their long & strange career you can hear darts back to their sonic past through-out this soundtrack; but these moments never feel like stale re-treads, but instead inspired & creative re-thinks. Take for example “Sticks & Logs” which takes the main melody from their 1994 “The Gingerbread Man” release- it’s taken from it’s jauntily soured nursery rhyme sing-song original setting, and up-dated it into a wonderful detailed mix of electro gamelan, bombastic electronic texturing, and a buoyant mix of organic & electro instrumental textures.
“Mush-rooms” is another highly rewarding, strange, twisted & sonically surreal trip from The Residents, which stands up with the best of their more modern/recent work. And don’t be put off by this been a sound-track either, as it totally mangers to stand on it’s own as a great, cohesive & shifting album.