Back in the early '70's The Residents weren't organizing material into albums, they just did stuff, usually experimental fragments. One day they took some of these fragments and strung them together and sent them off to Warner Bros as a demo where it was ill received as commercial. The Residents being restless re-inventors, rebuilt the demo a few times, recording new material and redoing older material to tighten it up. However they never got it to be what they thought it should be and set it aside, unfinished, to start on a new project.
So the work sat around. At some point a villainous thief stole a bunch of recordings from the studio, some version of the demo was taken and then sold for personal gain and leaked onto the internet. The original fragments remained untouched however.
Around 2002-03 The Residents were experimenting with remix tools and pulled some stuff off the shelf to play around with. Yes it was that same old collection of fragments that had gone into the Warners demo some thirty years earlier.
It proved to be a great amusement to The Residents and soon we all got a surprise from Cryptic Corporation, WB:RMX. I doubt that they think that they have finally finished that project they started so long ago, but I'm sure they think they have many new fragments to work with now.
The album first asks permission to "let me take you down" and then they lead you on a veritable trip through a wonderland of psychedelia. Suggested listening is track 2, Baby Skeletons and Dogs, where they twist two benign images, dogs with bones and babies into one horrific image. This is solid '70's fare for The Residents who dug deeply into surrealism. The new remix is crisp and almost rocks. Also a standout track is their take on Dylan's Maggie's Farm (track 8) which will have you tapping your toes instantly as it slowly degrades and eventually falls into thoughtful chaos. The other tracks never disappoint because they frantically behave like a precocious child needing attention. Then suddenly, the chillout (track 13) Love Theme from a Major Motion Picture assures you that all is okay. This tune has already been licensed for a Korean compilation as it manages to be both old time nostalgic and upbeat modern at the same time.
It is not an easy listening album. It is often like having boulders dropped on your head from a wheelbarrow. Good thing that Residents fans are all masochists. In general, we are lucky that the group still hasn't finished this demo because it means we might get more versions in the future like some wacky Santa Dog series.
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