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#Post#: 173--------------------------------------------------
ESKIMO (Project of the Week for 5th of December)
By: moleshow Date: December 5, 2016, 11:07 am
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"North of Greenland, well within the Arctic Circle, and on the
floating ice continent surrounding the North Pole, lived a
nomadic tribe of Mongolian descendants known as the Eskimo.
Their culture was passed down through generations in the form of
adventurous tales and ceremonial music. This album attempts to
recreate not only the Eskimo ceremonial music, but also a living
context for its existence, in the form of Eskimo stories.
Although on the disc, the stories are told purely with sound, a
written account is provided to aid your appreciation of this
unique culture. For maximum enjoyment, this record should be
listened to with headphones while reading the enclosed literal
accounts of what you hear. Eskimo should be played in its
entirety. A relaxed state of mind is essential. Warm clothing or
a blanket should be within easy reach."
TAP YOUR FOOT TO THE WIND, BUDDIES, BECAUSE THIS WEEK IS ALL
ABOUT ESKIMO!
i found it fitting since its December and all.
thoughts on this project? i know a lot of people have strong
feelings about it.
#Post#: 176--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (5th of December): ESKIMO
By: Meisekimiu Date: December 6, 2016, 7:11 am
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Some pretentious arty types like to say that there are different
"levels" to experiencing an artistic work. Well, my english
teacher told me that, so I assume other people like to say that
as well. I never really understood it. Even though I did see
these "levels" in English class, I never thought anything of it,
since analysis was made pretty boring in English class. The
first time I listened to Eskimo, I got it built up to me as this
truly amazing album... but I just didn't get it. I just heard
the sounds of the wind and read some stories about Eskimo
people... "well, that was nice, I guess," was probably my first
thought.
Well, a couple of years passed and I started getting a bit more
information on the album. I heard about the whole "COCA COLA
ADDS LIFE" thing, and I think by then Gio's blog might have even
written an analysis on it. I thought the album was a bit more
clever then, but it wasn't until I sat down and experienced it a
few more times while working on my still to-be-released "ESKIMO:
THE VIDEO GAME" that the album actually blew me away.
The whole satirical twist of the album is just brilliant. And
now I even appreciate the sounds of the album... I don't know
what changed in between my first and subsequent listenings of
the album, but I really do love the sounds and melodies it has
to offer.
Anyway, Eskimo isn't exactly one I'll listen to every day, or
really more than one or two times a year tops, but I still
regard it as one of The Residents' finest.
#Post#: 177--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (5th of December): ESKIMO
By: moleshow Date: December 8, 2016, 8:50 am
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Eskimo is an album that really has to "click", IMO.
it's not so great if you dont know about the concept cultural
reflection behind it. i think if one comes to figure all that
out, the music's appeal will show itself.
#Post#: 178--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (5th of December): ESKIMO
By: shortliver Date: December 8, 2016, 1:49 pm
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I actually think the concept outweighs the music in this
instance. I enjoy watching the Eskimo DVD as the "slideshow"
imagery that accompanies the audio helps to put you into the
music in a way that maybe a person would not be able to solely
by listening to the audio. Talk about a conceptual high-point in
their career too. You look at the surrounding albums to Eskimo
and it's mind-blowing how much creativity was happening at that
time. I don't even consider myself a Clifford (fan of only the
classic period-era) but you can't deny that by Eskimo they were
on fire (arctic fire at that!)
#Post#: 179--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (5th of December): ESKIMO
By: CheerfulHypocrite Date: December 9, 2016, 12:08 pm
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I purchased Eskimo from Probe Records on Matthew Street. Having
spent almost all of my money and being committed to walking the
four miles to get home, I went into the Liverpool School of
Language Music Dream and Pun. The Liverpool School of Language
Music Dream and Pun is directly opposite Probe. The concept of
'is' being accurate if this were 1980. Both Probe Records and
the Liverpool School of Language Music Dream and Pun are, in
2016, Elsewhere. Nobody can really talk about Elsewhere without
it being in the present tense. More recently, the premises have
become disguised as a Flanagans Pub.
[center]
HTML http://streetsofliverpool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/School-of-Pun.jpg
[/center][center]The Liverpool School of Language Music Dream
and Pun c. 1980.[/center]
I purchased Earl Grey Tea. The Armadillo Tea Rooms being perfect
for such a purchase. I proceeded to read the Liner Notes. The
whole point, it seemed, of the Album was to document the
Anthropology of the Lost Inuit. Outside the front door was a
magnificent sculpture of Carl Gustav Jung claiming that
Liverpool is the Pool of Life. This was infinitely superior to a
warm pint and a ropey juke box belching out something
manufactured in Sweden for the torture of an entire generation.
[center][img]
HTML http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9RiS7Wspsxg/UontbVkxEYI/AAAAAAAAAXM/XGR5ZEyAVpU/s1600/jung.JPG[/img][/center][center]Carl<br
/>Gustav Jung with notably suspicious 1927 Quote[/center]
So. My first experience of 'Eskimo' was reading the Liner Notes
in dubious surroundings. It was as if the Residents had managed
to use some form of mind 'fluence to push me away from the
putative site of the Cavern wherein the unresting spirits of the
Beatles would be telling me that the only music to listen to was
prefixed by Mersey. Months before the crazed unresting spirit of
John Lennon would be celebrated with the joke - mere days after
his final departure:
[pre]
Q: What were John Lennon's last words?
A: That's not a real f_ck_ng gun.[/pre]
The joke only really worked if you swore.
The Liner notes carefully to one side of the tea - which I may
have been served in the presence of Ken Campbell but I really
cannot be sure - I began to read. I had heard that the Residents
had taken fright and run off to England with the master tapes
for Eskimo. I have no idea if that had any influence. But it
made sense. The Liner Notes casually mentioned the pentatonic
scale of the Album and so, I whipped out a fipple flute and
attempted to run up and down the notes.
I was cornered by an angry person who instructed me to put the
instrument away or have it lodge up my arse. The reason, and it
was a good reason by all accounts, was that I might summon a
bloody pooka. The smell of alcohol might have been there or
might not. It is a long time to hold on to the possible odours
of eructation and fart, so this might be a tad inaccurate.
Indeed the whole incident is long since polluted by the
subsequent discovery, through the ramblings of Echo and the
Bunnymen that the album is an ethno-forgery of enormous
proportions and that Brian Eno claimed this album was
instrumental in the formulation of the general idea for ‘My Life
in the Bush of Ghosts’. Eno, it is claimed, wanted to create a
psychedelic vision of Africa in a way that, with Eskimo, The
Residents had evoked a psychedelic vision of the North Pole.
I continued with the liner notes while sipping tea. The only
thing I remember is that the Eskimo were a wandering tribe of
Mongolian Descendants was incredibly funny. Not ordinary
humourous but actually, incredibly, laugh out loud, funny. The
idea that the music was somehow ceremonial made perfect sense.
At this point, I was not the recipient of a squeak or a bleep of
it and there were four miles of foot slogging between me and a
turntable. So I read it as being one long, continuous story.
It was there, and then, that the Mysterious N. Senada took hold
of my imaginings. Unlike any other thing N. Senada actually made
sense. Senada was an Anthropological Musicologist and would,
obviously, pop off to the Arctic. The results that he
communicated to the Residents also made perfect sense:
"North of Greenland, well within the Arctic Circle, and on the
floating ice continent surrounding the North Pole, lived a
nomadic tribe of Mongolian descendants known as the Eskimo.
Their culture was passed down through generations in the form of
adventurous tales and ceremonial music. This album attempts to
recreate not only the Eskimo ceremonial music, but also a living
context for its existence, in the form of Eskimo stories.
Although on the disc, the stories are told purely with sound, a
written account is provided to aid your appreciation of this
unique culture. For maximum enjoyment, this record should be
listened to with headphones while reading the enclosed literal
accounts of what you hear. Eskimo should be played in its
entirety. A relaxed state of mind is essential. Warm clothing or
a blanket should be within easy reach."
Which is exactly what was needed. Packing up the vinyl and
wandering off the four mile hike to what would become a molhemot
hole in some othertime, I managed to avoid being pounced upon by
one of the denizens of the The Liverpool School of Language
Music Dream and Pun or the Armadillo Tea Rooms and scuttle out
to Matthew Street. The walk began as invigorating and
optimistic. By the end of walking up the hill, I was in an
exhausted state of mind. So I lay down with my head between two
speakers with a blanket over the top and turned the power on.
With blankets to warm me as recommended. Although the
temperature did not really warrant it.
I have never reproduced the sound of that first listening. The
record player span up to speed, strangely, over about twenty
seconds. Which drew out that start of the album far longer than
anything I have heards since. I was hooked. This made more sense
than the Post Punk and Disco nonsense that everybody was
starting to listen to. This was real music. This was what it was
all about. I was lying on my back, exhausted, in the dark,
listening to the wind. The worst experience was turning the
record over. The Liner notes had not warned me about that.
By the end of the first listen I had alienated everybody I knew.
Within three months Lennon would be dead. Within a year, Toxteth
would be burning. But the event I remember most clearly is
sitting, reading an album cover. Clearly, I have contributed
nothing to the Exegesis of Eskimo. Unless we take Jung at his
word and I, somehow, channeled the 'fluence of the Eyeballs into
something bigger.
[center]
HTML http://i3.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/article10664380.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/JS73280969.jpg[/center][center]Toxteth<br
/>Riots 1981[/center]
#Post#: 180--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (5th of December): ESKIMO
By: moleshow Date: December 9, 2016, 1:59 pm
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CH, your posts are always... the absolute most, and also the
best. never stop.
#Post#: 368--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (5th of December): ESKIMO
By: moleshow Date: April 20, 2017, 12:09 pm
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OLD TALK ^
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NEW TALK v
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