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#Post#: 415--------------------------------------------------
ICKY FLIX (Project of the Week for 8th of May)
By: moleshow Date: May 8, 2017, 10:38 am
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YUKKKKK!! HOW ICKY!
sort of a weird project to choose, but its one that im very fond
of and i don't quite think this week is right for more of the
Classic stuff. soon, though. soon.
#Post#: 416--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (8th of May): ICKY FLIX
By: dunwich Date: May 8, 2017, 10:40 am
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Wish I had more to say about this, but I don't own it! Going off
the videos I have seen and the bonus tracks on the Freak Show
Special Edition, I can say though that:
1) Molly Harvey is a treasure.
2) Icky Flix versions of Freak Show >>> Album versions.
#Post#: 420--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (8th of May): ICKY FLIX
By: CheerfulHypocrite Date: May 14, 2017, 3:12 pm
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The Residents do not seem capable of actually putting out a
compilation. Nibbles which is not Icky Flix seemed like a
compilation. It had You YesYesYes and Santa Dog and a green
cover and it only cost £3.50 which was worth it for Skratz, Good
Lovin' and The Electrocutioner. Green on the Front and Red on
the Back. It is probably the only Residents compilation that
sounds like someone simply thrown together. As the sleeve notes
say, "so non concept that nobody bothered to tell the Residents.
It seems like the early experience of having compilations thrown
together by Branson rankled deep.
So, when it comes to Icky Flix there is a sense that the
Residents have a warehouse full of tapes - or some strange kind
of digital equivalent. At night, when nobody is about, people
like Roger and Timmy wander about seeking out music to listen
to. Which is want seems to happen with Songs for Swinging Larvae
- the entire Renaldo and the Loaf original is sieved through a
cheesecloth and placed into soaker squirt guns. Which is a
euphemism for "real musical instruments". Thereupon Timmy sings
along to the newly mutated music.
Which is what Icky Flix achieves most effectively: mutation.
Like some kind of strange high school water pistol shooting
tragedy, Unlike the horrors of real life High School Shootings -
such as recalled by the Boomtown Rats in I Don't Like Monday's,
the Tommy water pistol version has much more joy in it. Which is
what characterises all of the pieces of Icky Flix I have heard.
And the truth is I have only heard the Icky Flix pieces. For
several years I had, because of the peripatetic nature of my
days, no access to a DVD player. The two pieces that stand out,
for me, are Songs For Swinging Larvae and Vileness Fats. Mostly
because the versions seem to sit well with the Molly Harvey
vocals and the cheesecloth of real musical instruments
technique. Unlike Our Finest Flowers the construction of Icky
Flix is about film soundtracks not art music. Songs For Swinging
Larvae had a curious place in video history. The Graeme Whiffler
video narrated the story of a child abduction and was, thus,
apparently excluded from television broadcast. Which is a nugget
of information that I only really became aware of quite
recently.
When I first heard Songs For Swinging Larvae it was in a Road
called Alverstone. Which was named after The 1st Viscount
Alverstone (1842 - 1915). The good Viscount was involved in the
Litigation against Charles Stewart Parnell (Irish: Cathal
Stiúbhard Parnell; 1846 - 1891) the Fenian and all round
Republican. My landlord, being a Persian traveller from the
recently created Iranian Republic - and not of theocratic bent -
managed to dig up the blasphemous Lord's Prayer created by
students at Cambridge University...
[quote="Cambridge Alverstone Club"]
Our Lord,
Who art at Wilberforce,
Alverstone be thy name,
Thy swaps will come,
Thy grass reps will be done,
On earth as they are in Chariots,
Give us this day our daily banter,
And forgive us for our pennying,
As we forgive those who penny against us,
And lead us all into Cindies,
But deliver us from Gardies,
For thine is the club, the tie and the track,
For ever and ever,
Amen.
[/quote]
My Landlord believed this held the same relationship to the High
Anglican Church as Renaldo and the Loaf and The Residents bore
to mainstream Western music. My Landlord's Sister - who was very
much a supporter of the Revolution - explained bar and cabaret
music was one of the most popular forms of music while my
Landlord - very much unhappy with the Revolution - preferred
classical Persian and Iranian Music. In the evening, they
agreed, was the time for music and conversation.
So it was that, one evening, I was sitting in a kitchen - up the
road from Penny Lane, - possibly named after James Penny (d
1799), a wealthy 18[sup]th[/sup] century slave ship owner and
strong opponent of abolitionism - discussing Renaldo And The
Loaf
[quote="James Penny Evidence To Parliamentary Enquiry Into
Slavery"]
If the Weather is sultry, and there appears the least
Perspiration upon their Skins, when they come upon Deck, there
are Two Men attending with Cloths to rub them perfectly dry, and
another to give them a little Cordial...
They are then supplied with Pipes and Tobacco....
They are amused with Instruments of Music peculiar to their own
country...
and when tired of Music and Dancing, they then go to Games of
Chance
[/quote]
Unlike James Penny the discussion was not centred on justifying
anything but on the experimental nature of Renaldo And The Loaf
and how all the Iranian Musician had either stopped creating or
gone to Los Angeles. It was a repeated conversation about with
how culture would die because politics would take control and
ossify culture if possible. How the songs in Iran were all about
the achievements of the Republican Guard and none about waking
up and having a walk in the cool hours. Which led to the
denunciation of Nibbles because it was merely a warehouse and
not a carefully curated collection. Which was why Songs For
Swinging Larvae was infinitely preferable.
Bizzarely, despite their differences both Zorha and Reza -
Landlord and Sister - agreed that Nibbles was an outrage and
merely a warehouse. Despite which, when she returned to Iran
Zorha took a tape of Nibbles with her. Reza chose to stay in the
UK. So far as I know, Zorha lived a happy life in her home. Reza
spent the remainder of his life teaching around the UK after
converting to Christianity - as this was the religion of the
United Kingdom. Their grandparents were Zoroastrian and so,
according to Reza, practicing the religion of the Country you
are in is perfectly acceptable.
Which is why Vileness Fats and Songs For Swinging Larvae stand
out for me on Icky Flix. Not because they are the greatest works
in history but because they both strike me as going beyond the
practice of compilation
HTML https://flamingpines.bandcamp.com/album/absence
and warehousing
music and help to keep music as a living, breathing entity. The
strange vault of music that Timmy races through picking and
sampling from here and there. Keeping music alive rather than
preserved.
Which is what Icky Flix seems to be: keeping music alive. The
reimagined Songs For Swinging Larvae is as far from Penny Lane
as James Penny is - in the same way that the Lords Prayer of the
High Anglican Church is distant from the Alverston Club's
version. Yet, both Anglican and Averstone were, and are, the
Ruling Class. They keep their culture alive with blasphemies
that would have lesser mortals deemed venal. The vault of Timmy
and Roger and Arf and Omega and even Lonesome Jack seems to let
anybody who can enter recreate everything with a kind of
licence. As if the weather were sultry. The vault of the Cryptic
Corporation is not a reliable repository in the way that the
compilers of Nibbles would want to ossify and pickle music.
Which is why I sometimes listen to Icky Flix online without ever
really wishing to purchase it. To be honest, my curiousity has
never really been piqued enough. Icky Flix is merely a station
in a journey. An imaginary station.
#Post#: 421--------------------------------------------------
Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (8th of May): ICKY FLIX
By: moleshow Date: May 15, 2017, 12:46 am
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Icky Flix was sort of a marker in terms of the timeline of my rz
obsession. my friend told me that she had seen it in her
parent's basement and i went on over and we watched it.
i think what im interested in is mainly the live renditions- the
whole operation has always been strangely interesting to me. it
all feels like i'm not seeing some aspect of it, some piece of
the inspiration for the project, some part of the creative
process. and that's fun. according to the Kettles of Fish DVD,
the theme for Singing Resident and Molly's costumes was "beauty
and the beast". i just thought that was interesting- i'm not
sure that it holds much relevance to the content. it's similar
to The Way We Were in how it doesn't really have to make sense.
it just is.
there are certain covers that stick out- the TR&R Concentrate,
which warmed me up to the whole thing, the cover of
Constantinople with the Nigel Senada-esque sax riffs, the dreamy
Man's World... i might just end up naming the whole setlist.
the one that struck every chord with me was the rendition of
Benny, with the section from Nobody Laughs When They Leave so
wonderfully put in there. the slow, almost winding guitar plays
nicely with what seems to be MIDI harpsichord. the way Singing
Resident tells the story of the man who's head was halfway eaten
by a shark really has a hazy feeling to it. the second half of
the song seems to slow down time itself. i really love how
Singing Resident does the little kissy kissy noises after
"still... half... a kiss". it's very silly and very cute.
since this project is really based entirely on other projects,
it's not one that you can get really deeply into. but it's good
anyways.
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