CHUCK'S GHOST MUSIC

Chuck's Ghost Music (that's him there in the picture) is a soundtrack album for ghost stories that Randy (the singing Resident) just narrates and sometimes is deeply involved as a character in them. Now, this album are not the stories themselves, and I'm not sure in what format were they introduced in THE RESIDENTS discography (probably as a Live DVD of the "Talking Light" tour or some other video DVD) but I happened upon some videos of these stories that were made freely available on youtube so I had the opportunity to check this one out. Since this music's purpose is background for Randy or some other actor to tell the story, it's really quiet and non-eventful as it mustn't take attention from the story going on (which is always in storyteller spoken word style of someone who talks about the events rather than a plot and dialogue going on like "Voice Of Midnight", which calls for even less captive music than a radio drama). Music itself is repetitive (not really a bad attribute for a soundtrack) and mostly electronic reminding me a bit of "12 Days Of Brumalia" which was wacky electronic experimentation all around.

I do recommend checking out the story videos as they are pretty interesting; sometimes video editing and effects might seem amateurish but they back that up with them being just insanely disturbing (as are their ghost stories disturbing, rather than being horrors using cheap scare tactics). If this album contained the stories themselves I would rate it good and same as the "Gingerbread Man" (and with video I would be maybe tempted between 3 and 4 stars), but as it is it's a boring listen.

If you love odd, original and quirky music and you haven't heard The Residents yet, then you are definitely missing the boat and you have a LOT of catching up to do. Their discography and output is infinite.

This particular offering from these oddball eyeballs is mostly instrumental. It is actually a soundtrack. It is comprised of music used as background for one of their character's ghost stories. If I understand it correctly, The Residents called one of their tours "Talking Light" and in the tour, a character named Randy Rose tells some very strange ghost stories and this is the background music they use. Now, in this album, we only get the music, electronic music and sounds, without any narration. So we have to listen to this album to critique the music only.

So, how does this music fare on it's own? I have to say that when I listen to this, I actually enjoy it in a strange kind of way. It is spooky and atmospheric. I can't call it ambient, though their are ambient passages, because there are several loud passages also. Throughout a few of the tracks, you hear subdued pieces of advertisements that sound spooky in and of themselves which must have something to do with the show that goes with this music. In the track titled "Perchance to Dream" you hear parts of the song "(All I Have To Do is) Dream" with the original vocals and with scary synth fading in and out throughout the track. I have to say that for some people, this might be hard to sit through. But I found it quite intriguing and worthy of more listens. There is enough here in the songs that keep them moving forward and you are always wondering what is lurking around the next corner.

I think the people that might find this appealing would be those who love some of the more avant garde electronic music by Art Zoyd, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream or Univers Zero. There is definitely enough substance to this music to rank this album up there with the inaccessible music of those bands. If you like that kind of music, then you should give this a listen. I think this music would fit right in to the music collection of this kind of genre fan. I'm going to call it an excellent addition to a collection of that genre. 4 stars.