In 1979 the big musical battle line was being drawn between the punkoids and the disco divas. There had never been such cultural tension since the wars between the surfers and the greasers way back in the early ’60’s. The Residents had passed their own punk stage in 1976 with the release of “Satisfaction” and were feeling that disco, while using the studio in new ways, did not actually offer much in the way of depth.
So they decided it was a good time to make the jump into world music, since by their own calculations it was not to become popular for several more years. They scanned the map for a proper culture to exploit and, not finding one, became discouraged until seeing a large Coke sign featuring Santa Claus. Immediately they realized they had overlooked the North Pole because it is made of ice and therefore not on their world map.
One can only imagine the glee with which they rushed out to the library to gather all they could find on Eskimos. What they found was a government-issued book on Eskimo sanitation, a book of Eskimo legends, and one scratchy record of someone hitting a drum and chanting. Not exactly the rich cultural vein they had hoped to mine.
But I guess it was enough, for it set the Eyeballs spinning off into their own imaginary world of six-month nights, frozen fish building blocks, and Eskimo sex lives. For almost four years the ideas tumbled around. Sometimes they would feel elated at some new breakthrough, but usually they moaned that the album would not only be dreary to listen to, but pretentious beyond belief.
Just as it was nearing completion, a late night listening suggested that it was going to need more work and they took the tapes and disappeared to England where they met up with friends for whom they played the tapes in hopes of gathering some unbiased opinions.
Respected musician and writer, Chris Cutler, who had played percussion on some parts of the album, took the masters to a bank vault and calmed the band down enough for them to remember that the album resulted from their decisions and a belief in the self is imperative, not the concerns of what others will think. Chris arranged for the masters to be returned and the album eventually came out.
Instantly it became a hit, both in sales and in reviews, Andy Gill of New Music Express in London said, “I’m not sure quite how to convey the magnitude of The Residents’ achievement with Eskimo. What I am sure of is that it’s without doubt one of the most important albums ever made, if not the most important, and that its implications are of such an unprecedentedly revolutionary nature that the weak-minded polemical posturing of purportedly 'political' bands are positively bourgeois by comparison.“
He says this because the album tells the story, without relying upon words, about the assimilation of a ritualistic society into consumer society . This story unfolds as Eskimo fables, a lived experience, set to the grinding of sound effects and music. It is a mind movie rich with detail. Eskimo is, quite literally, a unique experience.
- Uncle Willie
The Classic Avant-Garde Masterpiece.
Still Slideshows and Text for all six titles.
1 The Walrus Hunt (4:01)
2 Birth (4:33)
3 Arctic Hysteria (5:57)
4 The Angry Angakok (5:20)
5 A Spirit Steals A Child (8:44)
6 The Festival Of Death (10:26)
Part 1
Part 2
D/L both files to same folder then HJ Split (Windows) to join them.
Approx 25 Minutes of additional material(Easter Eggs)
Diskomo 2000
Nanook
Sedna
The Esquimaux Village
Eskimo (flac)
1 The Walrus Hunt (4:01)
2 Birth (4:33)
3 Arctic Hysteria (5:57)
4 The Angry Angakok (5:20)
5 A Spirit Steals A Child (8:44)
6 The Festival Of Death (10:26
Recorded between April 1976 and May 1979.
Artwork By [Original Graphic Art] - Poor No Graphics
Drums [Precision Drumming] - Chris Cutler
Performer [The Residents Assisted By] - Snakefinger
Synthesizer [Inspired Synthesizing] - Don Preston
The first pressing of 10,000 copies came on white vinyl and says "FIRST PRESSING - 1979" on the inside of the gatefold cover.
Eskimo in Concentrate
Eskimo Out-takes
MP3
flac
No comments:
Post a Comment