gopher.createaforum.com/1/forums/rzforum/p/73

DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
The Talk of Creatures
HTML https://rzforum.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: RZ Project Talk
*****************************************************
#Post#: 352--------------------------------------------------
GHOST OF HOPE (Project of the Week for 3rd of April)
By: moleshow Date: April 3, 2017, 9:11 am
---------------------------------------------------------
THE TIME HAS COME.
yes, after making you all wait through an extra week of
generalized delusion from all parties involved during Not
Available, this train has pulled into the station for.... a
certain period of time. i am thinking.... two weeks? two weeks.
we will all have a good time. just remember that life is a
lonely train wracked by god.
#Post#: 353--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (3rd of April): GHOST OF HOPE
By: Meisekimiu Date: April 3, 2017, 10:40 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I'll be making two responses to this thread. This first one
contains my initial reaction to the album just after listening
to it for the first time, while the second post I'll make will
be my thoughts on the album since I've properly let the album
sink in.
And since I and others on the forum like to talk about their
life story leading up to listening to whatever project of the
week is, I guess I should start off that way as well. I've got
to come clean about this... I got The Ghost of Hope early. About
two weeks before official release. Now, to be fair, I did buy it
off store shelves, and I didn't leak it online or spoil any
details about it that weren't already known. When I was in Japan
last month, I stopped by Tower Records in Shibuya. Not too far
from where The Residents ended up playing their In Between
Dreams show in Japan. They probably saw that building on their
way to the venue, or maybe just where they were staying. Anyway,
right in their Residents section was The Ghost of Hope... there
were actually two copies sitting there. I picked one up and
stared at it in disbelief. When I went up to the register to
check out, I thought that maybe the man at the register would
tell me that I wasn't able to buy the album. But of course, it
was on store shelves, so I paid for the album and walked out of
there.
I went straight back to the airbnb I was staying at and, after a
few reality checks to see if The Ghost of Hope really wasn't out
yet, immediately began listening to it. And then afterwards I
began writing up a review. Here it is:
[hr]
The Ghost of Hope definitely sounds different from any other
Residents project so far� although that�s a good way to describe
literally any of their other albums. I do feel like their sound
for the past 5 or so years seemed a bit� stale, at least for The
Residents. This album definitely has a new sound to it, which is
pretty reassuring for me. I was afraid that maybe The Residents
would just be stuck with their post-Bunny Boy sound for the rest
of their existence.
Part of this change may have something to do with �Charles
Bobuck��s departure from the group, but I�ve heard that Bobuck
still left his fingerprints all over the production of this
project. I think it�s more just because this is a new project,
with new collaborators, new moods to portray, and new ideas to
reflect. Of course it has a different sound.
And yet, this album still sounds like this strange amalgamation
of all their previous works. It reminds me of Freak Show. It
reminds me of The Gingerbread Man. It reminds me of The Talking
Light and Shadowland. It reminds me of The Voice of Midnight,
and Tweedles, and God in Three Persons, Eskimo, and even The Big
Bubble for some reason. It has this very familiar sound and yet
it�s all mixed together in this particular ratio that makes
everything sound fresh and new. It really made me think, �My
god� I really am listening to new Residents!�
The sounds of this album are truly incredible. The Residents
have constructed �soundscapes� in the past with things like
Eskimo, but they truly master it in The Ghost of Hope. The
scenes they create are amazing, and for all the chaos and
grimness they portray, they are strangely a delight on the ears.
The album veers on and off the tracks between portraying more
�soundscape� like music and well, actual honest-to-god music. I
was kind of feeling bad for wanting to tap my foot and bob my
head up and down to such carnage. There�s also some Talking
Light style first-person narration going on in this album, but
it doesn�t make it this album�s gimmick. It�s actually
interesting how every song is done at least slightly differently
so the only true thing tying them together is the central theme
of train wrecks.
And even for being about something as macabre as train wrecks
and having the spooky name The Ghost of Hope, the album still
managed to surprise me with how dark it was. It�s pretty gloomy
and depressing, and the fact that songs are based on actual
(Real?) events that happened just makes it all the more
emotional. It�s a very haunting album and listening to it
reminded me of listening to the depressing stories of The
Gingerbread Man for the first time.
Now then, time to pretend like I�m Grandpa Gio for a second. The
eyeballs are back, and prominently displayed on the album art
for the first time on a major album release since Demons Dance
Alone, I think? This means a few things. First off, The
Residents are acting as observers, which is pretty clear from
the concept of the album as well as the pictures in the booklet
showing the eyeball-headed Residents calmly, almost playfully
observing these train wrecks. But it also means that we�re
dealing with commentary on our culture as well.
The railroad is so romantic and idealistic, but these disasters
show another side of these ideals. These trains were
technological marvels at the time, but we failed to control this
technology properly. The Residents are asking �But have we
learned from our mistakes?� when it comes to all these newer
technologies we�re developing� which is part of what makes this
album so haunting.
One final thing to note about the eyeballs is that it means that
the �Randy, Chuck, and Bob� idea seems to be gone� at least to a
certain extent. This seems to be emphasized by the �Real?
Residents� brand that is present on the back of the cover, as
well as all over the insides of the booklet. At first I thought
it might just be a small little brand that would be placed on
the cover as a joke, but its prominence on the inside covers is
pretty intriguing. I don�t really know what it means just yet� I
think we might have to wait for the In Between Dreams shows or
maybe just hindsight a year or two down the road to really see
what�s so �Real?� about them.
Anyway, this album is pretty great. Go preorder it� it is simply
fantastic and I�m very happy to own it right now.
( Is this a bad album? The Ghost of Hope says NO! )
[hr]
It was definitely fun riding a train basically directly after
listening to that album. That didn't freak me out at all.
Anyway, I'll be posting my new impressions on the album later.
Knowing how Project of the Week goes, probably at the last
possible moment.
#Post#: 357--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (3rd of April): GHOST OF HOPE
By: TheSleeper Date: April 5, 2017, 7:22 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Favorite tracks: "Death Harvest" and "Shroud of Flames"
"Rushing like a Banshee" rocks the fuck out, it's addicting how
ferocious and scary it is.
I'm pretty sure "Train vs Elephant" was the first track they did
(maybe even what inspired the whole project). It sounds a lot
like the style in "What was left of Grandpa", maybe with a
couple new things thrown in the final mix.
I'm really unsure on why "Killed at a Crossing" is the final
track. Like, why exactly did they choose that one? I like it and
all (there's no bad tracks in this album), but I'm not sure why
it was picked as the ending (the "epilogue" with the train
sounds and chirpy synth seems to have been added on post). The
lyrics focus a lot on Ms. Folwell's "adventurous" lifestyle and
I'm not sure why, especially for the ending. Maybe I'm looking
at the wrong spots. Musically it's a great ending. I would talk
about the "She often did typewriting..." verse being repeated
three times, but maybe they wanted to make it sound like a folk
song. It does.
Also the coloring in the album package is freaking gorgeous. I
love red on black, and the covers and booklet look hypnotizingly
good. So elegant yet intimidating. It also SMELLS great too!!! I
really liked this album. They said they were working on videos
for it and I'm VERY excited to see them.
#Post#: 362--------------------------------------------------
I suspect I should listen just one more time
By: CheerfulHypocrite Date: April 15, 2017, 5:46 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote="Brian Eno"]"Ambient music must be able to accommodate
many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in
particular; it must be as ignorable as it is
interesting."[/quote]
In the faux-modernity of the Transport Securtity Authority - the
Agency administered world - nobody could take the time and
effort required to engage with Music for Airports in its
ambience. The reputation of ambient music has gradually
diminished from the revolutionary nature of 1970;s Eno, through
the career of Doctor Alex Patterson whose chill-out at Heaven
led to the Spacetime Parties of Cable Street, London, and the
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld until the Musique
concr�te degenerated into a kind of ersatz ambience. Like the
faux-modernity of Transport Security.
Beginning with The Horrors of the Night there is a building of a
layer of ambient music. The first two minutes take underground
train noises, steam hissing, insect muttering and the
distinctive train rhythm of clackety-clack-ing. It is a theme
that underpins the whole work like the hobos of Harry Partch's
world of Benson - where Partch earned money delivering
toothpaste and curlers to prostitutes. The ambience of Ghost of
Hope develops onwards from the multiple perspectives of Bad Day
on the Midway or the multiplied personae of Gingerbread Man.
Gradually, the principle of ambience becomes clearer. The
ambience is not provided by the environment but the people.
Partch rode the rails. Following the fruit harvest across the
country as part of a culture that was disappearing. His
experience was not simply of watching culture disappear but of
taking something from the ambience of the Hobo and packaging it
up for others to discover. What Partch did for the subtlety of
tones, the Residents are doing for the subtleties of layering.
In Shroud of Flames the clackety-clack of the Horrors of the
Night mutate, almost, into something like the vocal rhythms of
Up the Junction by Squeeze. Up the Junction is the name of a
collection of short stories by Nell Dunn. The collection was
first published in 1963. In 1965 a television play version of
the work, directed by Ken Loach, which led to a 1968 movie
version. The film had a soundtrack by Manfred Mann singing Up
the Junction. Lyricist Chris Difford, of Squeeze, said that the
title phrase was lifted from the collection but the sound and
fury of the Up the Junction by Squeeze is different to the
Manfred Mann song. So too is Shroud of Flames. It manages to
lull, like the clackety-clacking of the train on tracks until,
suddenly, it throws out an idea
[quote]
Clinging to their limbless trunks
Like the scent around a rose
[/quote]
Which takes the sounds - the actual building blocks - back into
something more than simply enforcing a pastiche of up the
junction. The technique of quotation is not simplistic. Instead
of quoting in easy to comprehend blocks of words or sounds as
such:
[quote="Edna Saint Vincent Millay"]
The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn�t a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.
All night there isn�t a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.
My heart is warm with the friends I make,
And better friends I�ll not be knowing;
Yet there isn�t a train I wouldn�t take,
No matter where it�s going
[/quote]
Which takes an entire poem and seems to suggest a particular
interpretation of the sounds before the listener. This is not an
ambient quotation. It is imposing a specific direction of
interpretation. It is an Agency Administered world approach:
meaningful quotations that present meaning even where the actual
meaning is difficult to discern, as in poetry. The ambient
approach to quotation could have taken merely part of the poem
[quote="Edna Saint Vincent Millay"]
All night there isn�t a train goes by, though the night is still
for sleep and dreaming,
[/quote]
Which would be sufficient for someone familiar with MIllay to
see the quotation pass by as part of the ambience of everything
passing by. By analogy, those familiar with the Residents would
recognise
[quote]
A train went by as I ran out the door - the number on the engine
was forty-four - I rode that train to New Orleans and took my
tears to a voodoo queen.
[/quote]
From Our Finest Flowers but might also see an oblique reference
to the project of Sculpt[b]. Which is where the ambient sound
techniques show themselves to be incredibly powerful. Unlike the
more primitive Eskimo where the ambience was foregrounded with
technological and traditionally musical sounds, Ghost Of Hope
takes the Listener outside of language in the same way ambient
music can take the Listener outside of traditional music. Unlike
others who reduce words to percussion, the Residents have made
language into a talking tonal drum. The vocals are not,
realisticallty, singing, but layering tones and meaning. Not
simplistically in the manner of three notes creating a major
chord or a minor chord but of three sounds creating a harmonic
of meaning.
Engineer [b]Pat Downs, of The Horrors of the Night is a pun on
being patted down by Security Guards. Which makes the nakedness
of Mrs McCurdy more sinister. The only way she could escape the
crash was, it seems, to be naked. Which, again, makes the
ambient nature of the Residents work far more vivid. It is not
an insipid ambience - like the faux-ambience of chill-out rooms.
This is an industrial and social ambience of industrial society.
The Ghost of Hope exits the first train crash in The Horrors of
The Night and meanders through a story which is increasingly
claustrophobic. From the misguided idea that train crashes could
be entertainment in The Crash at Crush to the prescience of
Killed at the Crossroads where an automated train - the
"Woggle-bug" killed Wilson Page and Mrs. Robert L. Folwell. In a
world where technology giants are building cars that have
passengers and no drivers, this is not simply some kind of
historical oddity. The Ghost of Hope documents a world where the
accident is an integral part. Not simply something that happens
but something that fills the world with meaning.
It is not simply that the Ghost of Hope continues the story
telling and musical experimentation of, say The Voice of
Midnight but that the narrative technique moves onwards from the
radio-show style presentation of River of Crime and the horspiel
of The Voice of Midnight into a more information saturated media
style. The layering of almost singing that drifts in and out of
spoken word - sometimes by several people, all layered together
- gives a sense of pervasive presence. There is some kind of
unspoken thing about the story. The Ghost of Hope is not, like
the story of Tweedles simply placed out in a simplistic
narrative. Train vs. Elephant suggests the metaphor of the
elephant in the room: there is something out here and we are not
noticing it.
The overall work is layered together. There is a sort of
Eskimo-esque ambient layer. Without the faux-inuit narratives.
The narratives are taken from our world - the industrial world -
and layered onto the top. Another layer is the complex assembly
of vocals which are sometimes spoken sometimes lilted and
sometimes sung and, many times, double or triple tracked. As
though the entire work is being given voice by a crowd all
seeking to be a single person. Which gives the sense of how
anonymous living really is and how anonymous the stories'
subjects are.
There are a whole crowd of names scattered throughout the Ghost
of Hope from the suspiciously punning Pat Downs to the multiple
identities of Mrs Folwell. If there is a secret identity within
the Ghost of Hope it is not one that is being made easy to
understand or access. It is one that needs continued, repeated
listening to the noises. As Eno claims it is as ignorable as it
is interesting. The sense that there are trains - all sorts of
trains - pervade the soundtrack. The sense that every train is a
disaster for people pervades the spoken words and the lilted
words lead away from the disasters to something else. Almost as
though the elephant in the room is the unasked question: do all
clouds have a silver lining? Are all disasters capable of
releasing some good.
Which returns to the identity of the Ghost of Hope. Pandora, the
first human woman created by Hephaestus and Athena on the
instructions of Zeus. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold Pandora
out of earth as part of the punishment of humanity for
Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire. Pandora was endowed
with a huge number of gifts from the gods including a box.
Within the box were imprisoned the Horrors of the Night which
Pandora opened and allowed into the world. Only Hope was kept in
the box. The idea that Pandora had a box was due to the
translation by Erasmus of Rotterdam - the great humanist - where
he translated the Greek work pithos for storage jar into the
Latin word pyxis. In the modern, industrial word nobody has
translated pyxis into anything. Which doubly traps the Ghost of
Hope in an ever more bleak prison.
It makes sense to remark upon the guitars and the percussion and
the vocals, but they simply serve to conceal the Ghost of Hope
in ever deeper layers of ambience. The kind of world where music
is consumed instead of internalised is the kind of world where
people seek an explicit gratification from every song. Which
Ghost of Hope does not give. Instead there is the sound of the
bean s�th the keening woman who heralds death. In Irish
mythology she is called Aibell and her song is a screech and her
harp, once heard, is the portent of approaching death. Which
makes a strangely serene kind of narrative bubble up out of the
ambience mixed with music.
It is a first listen. Less than a dozen times. Ghost of Hope is
not simply recycling previous ideas but building something
sinister and new which appears less benign the more you listen.
The stripping away of the layers increasingly suggests that
there is an invisible character in the story and it is a
character that we are all straining to ignore.
I suspect that I have missed a huge amount of detail. I suspect
I should need to return to thinking about what I have heard in,
perhaps, a year or so. Let the noises begin to inhabit my bones.
#Post#: 363--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (3rd of April): GHOST OF HOPE
By: moleshow Date: April 17, 2017, 12:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
The Ghost of Hope is, to put it simply, one hell of an album.
A couple of things strike me about it as particularly unique,
but it cannot be written about in the same way that albums like
God in Three Persons or Tweedles! can be written about because
it is in a format of filling in the gaps in real (or believable)
events of the past. They have partially stepped back from their
familiar methods of storytelling to inject new perspectives into
accidents long gone. And with the eyeballs once again present on
the cover, we can assume that they are commentating. Looking
back at us, waiting for us to understand and see the present�s
face in the past.
Musically, I find that they have managed to synthesize all
periods of their career in the tracks while also managing to try
new things alongside the old.
Horrors of the Night has the rumbling of the train to introduce
the track in the same way that howling arctic winds were the
gateway into the stories on Eskimo. It also introduces something
that doesn�t feel quite familiar with the harmonizing singers
that accompany the Singing Resident. There are also some choices
made with the instrumentation that feel distinctly Bobuck-esque,
but that then leads me to wonder that if any portion of a song
was composed by him, would it really be possible to make it
sound like anyone else had their hands on it? The story portion
at the end calls to mind the Ghost Stories of Talking Light and
the Shadow Stories from Shadowland.
The Crash at Crush threw me for a loop with the acoustic guitar.
While they used a bit of it very early on in their career, it
has returned with a clear, resonating and repeating sound. The
occasional woodwind-fueled chaos that the track dips into at
times calls to mind certain songs off of Tweedles!, specifically
Stop Signs. The lyrics on this are perhaps some of the best out
of their entire career- they balance casual wording with
eloquent, vivid descriptions horrific scenes creating a tasty
juxtaposition of nonchalance and terror.
Death Harvest is strangely mournful, in a way not unlike the
Talking Light rendition of Bury Me Not, with its slow, drifting
and sorrowful tone. The guest vocalist calls to mind the one who
sang Cain and Abel for the live show of Wormwood. Of course,
Banshee is totally uncharted territory for the group. It has the
chaos of Satisfaction but a biting clarity, heavy instrumentals
and screeching guitar that you�d expect from a plethora of other
groups� but rarely would you expect it from them. It winds down
as if it had never been there with an almost comical drift into
the end of the track. It is almost abrupt, but fittingly so, as
if a train had come through and hit the song itself and it only
had a short amount of time before returning back into an abyss
of assorted mechanical noise and whispered, ethereal notes.
Shroud of Flames is a song I can genuinely dance to. It has a
certain catchiness to it, and hard-hitting rhythms like those
found on Teddy from Prelude to the Teds or many of the new
renditions from Shadowland. The strangely harmonized vocals come
across as inhuman but call to mind the Chorus from Not
Available. Those vocals are the tool used to give us some of the
best-flowing lyrics from them yet. I mean, wow.
[quote]�Along the railway bed a vast amount of oil had waited
for a flame to parboil, bake and broil.�[/quote]
When the Singing Resident breaks back in for longer segments, he
delivers to us even more deliciously danceable detailed
descriptions of the dramatic scenes at hand.
[quote]Engineer Pat Sexton and fireman Billy Young saw the
engine bathed in incandescent tongues. Flames that licked and
laughed and danced about and sung causing every breath to scorch
their livid lungs.
Sexton drove until roasting flesh and pain forced evacuation;
still his hands remained fastened to the throttle, as his flesh
sustained; charcoal colored blisters macerating him with pain.
[/quote]
He closes out the track with a monologue that blends the styles
of God in Three Persons with the Buckaroo Blues and Baby King
sections of Cube E. The tone is one that communicates the
suspense and shock with a calloused, but disctincly human
delivery.
This is the perfect entry into the mellow and melancholy track
that follows, The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918.
Weeooweeooweeoo Clown Alert. The vocals on this track are so, so
fitting. He does �sad clown� unbelievably well. There is a
loneliness that shakes me to my core on this one. When such
excellent vocal delivery is paired with a distinctly Bobuck
musical base (since they sampled pre-existing work from him,
perhaps this was inevitable) in which the sound effects and
composition create a tangible space through sound, it is
practically impossible to fail. This actually doesn�t call to
mind a whole lot of tracks from elsewhere in their career, since
we hardly had much of a blending of solo Bobuck and Singing
Resident vocals. But the small break into circus music is
distinctly reminiscent of the Live at the Fillmore, live Icky
Flix and Shadowland renditions of Benny the Bouncing Bump.
Outside of that, the choices made here are somewhat familiar but
do not immediately call to mind much of anything else.
Train V.S. Elephant is similarly musically unique, although with
its heavily instrumental sound (with vocals being used more for
texture than context) it can easily be compared to Eskimo. Once
again, the Bobuck feeling is present with the suspense of the
moment, the buildup of it all, seeming to manifest around the
listener if they just close their eyes. It is sort of the I Like
Black of the album. The guitar work is similarly put in the
spotlight, put on display in all its singing glory. It interacts
playfully (but with intent) with the instrumentation to paint a
vivid, tragic image. Just as The Bunny Boy had an instrumental
breather before more hard-hitting tracks, The Ghost of Hope
gives you a moment to catch your breath before launching you
right back in, with the environment now becoming uniquely and
surprisingly mysterious as�
�Killed at a Crossing begins. The more natural sounds that
closed out Train V.S. Elephant are sharply contrasted with a
deep, electronic humming that immediately call to mind the
keyboard contributions of Rico (or as he is credited on the
album, Eric Drew Feldman�) for Shadowland. The instrumentals are
sharply suspenseful and, in conjunction with the lyrics, seem to
crawl along in the murkiness of the strange accident and the
information is happened to reveal. The almost criminal
undertones to the story are immediately reminiscent of River of
Crime. Strangely enough, Singing Resident bring a frequently
unseen card of his into play. His singing is low but not
frightening and unfamiliarly unexaggerated. He is actually
incredibly melodic. There is no effort being made to play a
certain character. It is a rare side of his talents, a side seen
occasionally on Stars and Hank Forever, sections of Freak Show
and Demons Dance Alone, to name a few. This is another track
where the guitar work from N.C. really shines through. It has
that live flavor where it peeks through here and there while
also not hesitating to come out and lead the way when the time
is right. The end of the track (and the album) have a common
trait with Eskimo in that, despite an ending that leaves the
listener in a sort of shocked state, it loops well. Noise flows
into noise.
--
Some other assorted things I noticed were that only the
train-auto collisions seem to be impossible to find records of.
I�m not sure if this is particularly relevant to the album or if
it holds much meaning beyond The Residents enforcing their
ability to/stressing the importance of blending reality into
believable falsehoods, but it�s something.
I also noticed that they have taken on the new persona of The
Real(?/!) Residents. This is really fun for me, because I see it
as them having put a holdable, useful and generally reliable
illusion into the spotlight and then withdrawing this illusion
at the point where the fans seem to have collectively come to
terms with it and accepted it. They have merged back into the
shadows as the scattered remains of their previous illusion
grasp desperately to understand what has occurred, as the
illusion of Randy is dependent entirely/exclusively on the
existence of The Residents. If he is not a part of The Real
(?/!) Residents, what is he? What did he experience? As
observers, we are lead to question who is more believable. Randy
is credible and generally sorta seemed to know what he was
talking about while simultaneously sharing information that
perhaps we didn�t know. But The Real (?/!) Residents have the
credibility of familiarity- they are once again faceless. They
tell nothing. We get what we get and there is no face to reach
out to. We are left waiting on the edge of our seats.
Overall, the album seems to hold much more potential and it is
almost inevitable that it will be one of those that spill out,
growing innumerable heads, all equally wonderful and beautiful
in their own complicated ways. It is unique and fresh in a
manner that puts it on the same level as Animal Lover in my
mind. That is possibly the highest compliment I can give to an
album. And this one deserves it. Especially since it gets better
with each listen.
I feel very strongly for this album. I want to see it grow big
and strong and healthy etc etc etc. Much love for this one and
everything it has goin� on.
#Post#: 364--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (3rd of April): GHOST OF HOPE
By: Meisekimiu Date: April 17, 2017, 2:56 am
---------------------------------------------------------
The Ghost of Hope is a great album. Although the collection of
my "favorite" Residents albums is just a fuzzy and ever-changing
idea, (with the exception of Not Available being my favorite)
this one is definitely up there. I already said my initial
impressions, and for the most part I still agree with them. I
will say that I think this album is a bit more complex than it
appears at first. Even on my first listening, I knew certain
things seemed... rather strange. Let's go over each track
(heh... "track"... trains... heh) individually. I'm going to be
noting some interesting things I've noticed, and also trying to
look into the historical accuracy of each story.
Horrors of the Night
The first thing I noticed about this song was that the lyrics
didn't rhyme. Now, The Residents aren't exactly pop stars so it
isn't that weird to hear them not rhyme, but rhyming is just
such a key part of their sound that it's definitely noticable
when there aren't rhymes. It does give the song a less
story-like vibe though, as if The Residents are simply quoting
what happened. And it seems like this did indeed happen
HTML https://www.bradfordlandmark.org/index.php?The%20Wreck%20of%20the%20R%20%26%20P%20Railroad!<br
/>This was the only bit of information I could find on the wreck
,
but maybe I didn't look hard enough. Anyway, the term "Horror of
the Night" is used in this newspaper excerpt, which is pretty
cool. From my research, though, it doesn't seem like The
Residents are quoting anything directly, besides the phrase
"Horror of the Night". While the names seem to be real, I can't
find the quoted passage at the end of the song anywhere,
although it does say that all the survivors were interviewed. I
do think the ending to this song does sound a bit too much like
a story from the Talking Light... or a Shadow Story. I'm just
saying... that writing style sounds rather familiar...
The Crash at Crush
Yay! 3/4 time! This song is a lot more songy than the previous
one. It rhymes! In fact, I'd say it's almost folksy in nature.
While the previous song just starts describing the action from
the start (as the sleeping passengers on board would have
experienced the crash), this one builds up tension before the
crash. This feeling of doom just creeps around the track (I
guess it's the ghost of hope), and I really like it! There are
many different resources on this incident. While it isn't the
best resource for serious research, the existence of a Wikipedia
article
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush,_Texas
just proves how
"notable" this incident was (also there are cool pictures!).
This song got stuck in my head after listening to the album a
2nd time.
Death Harvest
I think this is my favorite song from the album. The gentle
nature of the first part, followed by the sheer ferocity of
Rushing Like a Banshee, only to become calm once again... I love
it. I simply love it. Peter Whitehead does an amazing job on the
vocals... ahhh this song is so great. Now then... I can't seem
to find any information on this incident at all. Obviously
smaller incidents involving just automobiles with no vicious
train derailments or anything of that nature won't be getting
their own Wikipedia articles... but I just can't find any
information on this incident at all. Although the places and the
weird secret society mentioned in the liner notes are real, I
can't find anything on the people or the train accident itself.
Weird, since you don't often find someone's head stuck in the
ground with their feet in the air. Anyway, the rhyme scheme gets
switched up again, with the first part not rhyming at all until
Rushing Like a Banshee takes over, where the rest of the song
rhymes from there.
Shroud of Flames
I really dig this song. It's sounds quite nice... almost too
upbeat for the chaos being described. I mean, I could dance to
this song about people burning up in an oil fire. I also like
the alternating vocalists here... while I'm not entirely sure if
there's a purpose to it other than sounding cool and weird.
Again, I can't find any information on this incident. However,
this one doesn't seem to be too out of the ordinary like the
previous two stories, so maybe it's just harder to find
information about it in the first place? One final thing to note
is the final lyric before the monologue at the end: "Conductor
Townsend said / Peering through a mask / Revealing nothing but /
His eyeballs as he rasped,". Maybe it's just a coincidence that
we have "eyeballs" and "mask" in there. Although I think it's a
bit odd... I mean, I feel like "eyes" would be more natural to
say than "eyeballs" in that situation, but hey, I guess they
have to keep up with the meter of the song.
The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918
I think this track is the weakest musically (it sounds the least
like an "actual song", not that that's important when we're
talking about The Residents), but it more for makes up with that
with its emotional impact. The very moment I heard that "RACE!
SKIN! IGNORANCE TO THE END!" sample, I knew something was up
with this album. I still don't fully get the inclusion of that
sample. Maybe it's just a joke, or maybe it just sounded cool.
This incident also has a lot of information on it, including a
book even called "The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918: Tragedy
on the Indiana Lakeshore". Even the names seems to be real,
although from my resources (that book), it seems like there was
a Emil Schwyer, not an Emil Schwem.
Train vs. Elephant
I think this track speaks for itself for the most part (I
mean... it better, that's the whole point of it!). I do really
like this track though. It's a nice break from lyrics while
still having a good atmosphere and story behind it. I did
research this incident and found a blog post
HTML http://telukansonchildhood.blogspot.com.br/2009/04/blog-post_18.html<br
/>from a man who stumbled upon the sign and asked locals about t
he
event. I think it was the exact post The Residents used as
inspiration for the track. Neato!
Killed at a Crossing
This one just immediately hits you with this mysterious,
sinister tone. It isn't my favorite track on the album, but I
think it's just a perfect way to end somehow... I don't know why
though. The rhyme scheme is gone (for the most part) again,
although unlike in Horrors of the Night, I can't find any
information on this incident. And I think it's time to stop
beating around the bush a bit and talk a bit more directly. I
believe that certain stories in The Ghost of Hope are entirely
fictional. The Residents are playing with truth and fiction with
this album, so by the end you may not entirely be sure what is
"Real?" and what isn't. And The Residents use a variety of
techniques throughout the album to confuse the truth and
fiction.
Horrors of the Night makes no use of rhyme so it sounds less
like a story and more like an actual recount of what happened.
This departure from The Residents' "usual" sound starts the
album out by loudly proclaiming that this song was based on
real, actual events... something which The Residents aren't that
well known for. I mean, yes, they've reported lots of "true" or
"historical" things before, but the actual presentation is
usually warped while keeping the underlying and more universal
truth intact. The song cleverly builds up a suspension of
disbelief. Of course these events are real, otherwise The
Residents would have made it rhyme and the events would be much
stranger. The Crash at Crush sounds more like a folk song but
yet it too is based on a true event. And now we have two
contrasting ways of telling the truth: literal reports of what
happened and more story like songs. At this point it doesn't
matter what any further songs are like, their sound alone will
say nothing about how based in reality they really are.
Death Harvest is the first fictional story of the album, and it
starts without a rhyme scheme. It sounds just like a literal
report of what happened, including various specific details that
would be strange to make up. A rhyme scheme does eventually pop
up, though, maybe to combine the two styles presented in the
album so far as to confuse the listener. Shroud of Flames
presents its fictional incident in a straight-up song with a
beat but uses specific names and an ending monologue like
Horrors of the Night to make it sound like a true event. The
Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918 finally brings us back to
reality, although changes a small detail here or there, like
Emil Schwyer's name so it isn't 100% true. Train vs Elephant is
based on first-hand accounts. While there is proof that this
incident happened, specific details are a bit muddier.
And that brings us to the conclusion of the album once more...
Killed at a Crossing. It has this sinister, mysterious, and
well... important tone to it. It sounds like this song is the
"concluding paragraph" to the essay on truth and fiction The
Residents have presented upon us. And this fictional story is
about truth itself, with the main character of the story
immediately presented as not entirely trustworthy. The song
lacks rhyme scheme so it sounds like another report of actual
events. And it liberally sprinkles in specific details to make
the story believable... in fact, let's compare the lyrics of
this song to one of a similar style, Horrors of the Night:
[quote="Killed at a Crossing"]When the Wogglebug
A Pennsylvania train,
Ran into a Ford,
Mrs Robert Folwell
And Wilson Parker Page
Perished instantly[/quote]
[quote="Horrors of the Night"]Five cars broke off and sped
Down the incline followed
By two more coal cars,
As all aboard appeared
Oblivious to the fate
Laying in wait
For them on the incline[/quote]
In the stanza from Killed at a Crossing, every single line
introduces a specific detail, where as Horrors of the Night
connects its lines a bit more naturally. Although the other
stanzas in Killed at a Crossing aren't quite like this, they are
still very dense with specific details when compared to any of
the other songs. But as the song concludes, the final stanza
does rhyme as one final little "twist" to the song. As the train
departs, you find yourself confused as to what the truth really
is...
I have to admit it'll still take time for me to truly understand
this album. Maybe in a few months or a year from now I'll get
what this album is really trying to say, but until then I do
think its trying to say something about the nature of truth in
addition to its commentary on society and technlogy. A song like
Killed at a Crossing, although certainly about a train accident,
doesn't completely match the "man not being able to fully
understand and control growing technology" theme... but hey,
maybe I'm just crazy. As for The Real? Residents, I think it's
an extension of this theme and is meant to clue us into the
"Real?"-ness of the stories in this album. I just hope Randy is
okay.
#Post#: 395--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (3rd of April): GHOST OF HOPE
By: moleshow Date: April 20, 2017, 12:39 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
OLD TALK ^
---
NEW TALK v
#Post#: 399--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (3rd of April): GHOST OF HOPE
By: DrIncluding Date: April 20, 2017, 1:34 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HORRORS OF THE NIGHT: here's another interesting link:
HTML http://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/898/rasselas%2C-pa-railroad-accident%2C-july-1883
#Post#: 401--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (3rd of April): GHOST OF HOPE
By: HornedGramma Date: April 21, 2017, 3:57 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
My thoughts on The Ghost of Hope. From a conversation on the
Facebutt page, but our fearless leader requested I transmute it
to here. I don't mind.
It's a creeper, for sure. Like all of their best records, my
initial reaction was a kind of dazed uncertainty. The
comparisons to Eskimo that were made in some of the press for
Ghost of Hope seem a little too eager at first, but then you
realize that in a lot of ways it is very much like that record:
the dissonant, chanted harmonies, the ethereal stews of noise,
the distorted wails.
The sudden return of tuned percussion on 'Horrors of the Night'
is an immediate indicator that they are back in top form. The
return of Carla Fabrizio gives it the feel of one of their
contemporary masterpieces.
Crash at Crush is a deeply exciting piece. That accordion, man.
And the way the reverb on the Singing Resident's voice keeps the
waltz tempo in the moments when the instrumentation cuts out
(Go! Go... Go...). The line 'I can't escape the fact of Buster's
broken back' has this innocent, sinister bewilderment in its
delivery that makes for a truly classic Residents moment.
Death Harvest has quickly become one of my favorite Residents
tunes. The melody is one of their most beautiful, and the string
arrangement -- which feels like it comes out of nowhere -- is
unspeakably gorgeous. The inclusion of the Banshee segment,
which at first seems so jarring, is a true moment of genius. It
bears down on that composition like a speeding train on an
unsuspecting man enjoying a pleasant summer morning: perfect for
the most obvious reasons. Nolan's guitar in this song honestly
feels like it could break your neck.
Shroud of Flames is black as tar. There is a blunt meanness to
it that we only rarely get from the Residents (Burn My Bones,
Black Behind).
The Great Circus Train Wreck is everything the Residents do
well, done as well as they have ever done it. I am only
supposing here, but those MIDI horns seem to suggest that this
is one of the tracks worked on most extensively by C. Bobuck
(dude fuckin' loves his MIDI horns). While on a lot of these
tracks the absence of the longtime compositional genius of
Bobuck is apparent (to varying degrees), this track feels to me
like one of, if not the last, fully realized collaborations
between the two. The man from whose perspective this account is
related is another in the Residents' grand tradition of
tragically hopeless victims of circumstance (Bunny, Mr. X,
Tweedles the Clown). The weeping, desperate way he moans 'Thank
you...? Thank you?' almost makes you want to cry.
Train vs. Elephant is straight-up fucking fire. I regret that it
is not included in all versions of the album, but of course that
is due to necessity. This is one of those compositions that is
taylor-made for live performance: an instrumental apocalypse for
the band to tear through while the SInging Resident takes a
much-needed breather. Like 'I Like Black' on the Bunny tour, or
Cube E's 'Engine 44'. If you listen to the version of Engine 44
from the full Ralph America recording of Cube-E, at the very
end, you can hear some guy in the audience go WHOOOO!!. Correct
reaction, and -- I imagine -- the reaction Train vs. Elephant
will get when they unleash it on an audience. Also: the sound of
the train hitting the elephant is one of my all-time favorite
Residents sounds. Right up there with the sound of the
Electrocutioner.
Killed at a Xing was a mystery to me for the first several
listens. It's so goddamn strange, I couldn't make sense of it.
Reading the corresponding story in the liner notes was
essential. Kind of like the summaries of the Bible stories
included on Wormwood, Killed at a Xing appears to be completely
literal (Look it up -- it's in the book!). The fact that the
person they are describing was apparently exactly as she is
described doesn't seem possible. It makes your head spin. The
extended outro of this song includes some of the most fantastic
electronic work they've done in a very, very long time.
Every minute is thoroughly considered and 100% effective. I've
heard it fifty or sixty times at this point, and -- like their
very best -- something new and unexpected seizes me on each
successive listen. Even I would have hesitated if someone asked
me if the Residents had another honest-to-god masterpiece in
them. Let alone as much gunpowder to burn as they packed into
Ghost of Hope. I am head over heels for it; I place it firmly
alongside Not Available and Animal Lover as being among their
absolute best.
Give this one the patience it deserves. It is worth it.
#Post#: 408--------------------------------------------------
Re: GHOST OF HOPE (Project of the Week for 3rd of April)
By: DrIncluding Date: May 1, 2017, 4:24 am
---------------------------------------------------------
@meisekimiu "Again, I can't find any information on this
incident."
here's one:
HTML https://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/21547/bradford-pa-passenger-train-engulfed-in-burning-oil-jan-1884
*****************************************************
DIR Next Page