The Residents — RMX
This recent reissue comes in the form of a CD on Austrian experimental music label Klanggalerie. It comes in a four-panel glossy digipak- which takes in fairly minimal artwork of The Residents eyeball made into a question mark, and inside a collage of some of the projects key albums.
The album was originally released in 2007 on Itunes, then on RSD- which was The Resident digital-only label-. It takes in tracks from the projects MySpace page, the short-lived Vomitorious Downloads section of the Bog, the Baby Skeletons 12" and extras from the River of Crime download series. So this is the first physical pressing of the release.
Oddly the album opens with a non-remix- in the form of "Icky Flick Theme"- this nearing two-minute instrumental track was the theme to The Residents 30-year anniversary DVD release, tour & compilation album. The tracks sort of dramatic/ filmatic affair, built around snapping beats, marching synths, and smoky elector horns- I guess it nicely opens the release up.
From here on we dip down in various places in the projects large discography- and some of my personal highlights come in the form of "Blue Rosebuds"- it's takes this 1978 tracks original waving creep-ness-to- proto surreal/ high pitch rap. And replaces it with clapping beats & sinister swoons, with later crackling Mr. Skull rock vocals, and a chiming-though-messy euphoric rock riffing on.
"Jelly Jack"- this removes the choppy & jaunting 1990's weird-do electronica & theatrical male vocals of the original. And replaces it choppy & oriental electric guitar struts, moaning & muffled female vocals, and uneven galloping electro beats. "Baby Skeletons And Dogs"- this was one of the earliest Residents tracks from the early 70's, original it was a fairly shambolic & wonky blend of off-key noise guitar churn & cartoon vocals- for this remix we get a more detailed, though still off-the-wall track- to begin we get a blend of snapping ethnic beats, clean Spanish guitars, wavering & slight glitch pulled vocals. That leads into meatier guitar chugs, looping synth tones, and later denser ethno ambient work-outs.
I guess as far as any remix project goes- this type of thing is only going to appeal to fans of this project, and really you have to have some familiarity with the original tracks to get the most out of it. As Resident Remix/ rethinks go, this is ok- though it does very much have the sound the project used in the late 90's/ early 2000's around Icky Flix & the Wormwood live album Roadworms¡so how much you like that period will really help you decide if you need this or not.