The Residents/Renaldo And The Loaf — Title In Limbo
The CD appears on Austrian experimental label Klanggalerie, and it comes in a come in a mini three panel gatefold, which features a stuck on 8 page inlay booklet in the middle panel. The reissue sadly doesn’t offer up any rare or unreleased tracks- but really it’s just great to have this album back in print again. This is the first time the album has been available since 1998- when it was released by Ralph Records, as an ltd CD pressing of just a 1000 copies. This recent reissue is unlimited.
The album is made up of eleven tracks, with a total running time of just thirty five minutes. The music for the album was created in two stages- firstly in 1981 both projects met together for four days in San Francisco to jam & record. Then in 1983 Brian Poole( one half of RATL) returned to San Francisco with tape loops( from Dave Janssen- the other half of RATL), and he sang, & added instrument overdubs to the material. And the resulting work is a wonderfully weird sonic Frankenstein monster, which mangers to stitch together the elements of both projects sound to create something very distinctive & wholly original.
The album opens with “Intro:Version”- which is a short instrumental just over minute track- it brings together a tolling & angular blend of synth & guitar, with slurred Resident’s horn honks on top- it’s perfectly ushers one into the albums off-kilter atmosphere. Next up we have “The Shoe Salesman”- this opens up with a blend of uneasy synth & vocals from one of RATL, fairly soon odd, locked, yet strutting & coldly wiry guitar element are added. Then things sudden turn very quirky & playful, as we move into a blend of buoyant one-man band guitar playing, day-glo synth stabs, and kazoo- with the singer now moving from eerier spoken word start to more comic & animated. From here on each song takes you on its own strange & often unexpected journey- moving between buoyant & odd, to disturbing & wonky, onto slurred & disturbing. With The Residents & RATL fairly equally sharing vocal performances. And on a few tracks we also get the highly distinctive & wonky seared guitar & violin work of The Residents guitarist Snakefinger.
As collaborations go this is one of the more effectively quirky & odd I can think of, and as an release it has a very special place in my heart as I first heard when I was getting into the Residents back in the mid 1990’s. Also due to it’s sound use & time period it’s very much up their with great Residents albums from the 80’s like The Commercial Album, and the two Mole albums- but as I said early-on it does have it own distinctive sound with-in the bands discography. So really if you are a fan of either The Residents or RATL- this is no brainier. And if you generally enjoy odd & unpredictable music from the 80’s this is also a must have.