DISKOMO

Having recorded an innovative album that drew on Inuit culture and which conjured up images of arcane rituals carried out in an icy, windswept landscape, the obvious thing to do was a 12" disco remix, and Diskomo was the result. As amusing as the idea is, the novelty actually wears off pretty quickly, although the Theme from the Walrus Hunt works surprisingly well in this context. What saves this release is Goosebump, the B side of the vinyl original, which was played entirely in instruments purchased at Toys R Us. Assorted nursery rhymes and children's favourites are put through the Resident's mangler and come out sounding menacing and sinister, with a toy guitar grinding out some Snakefinger like lines. Worth picking up if you're a fan, but not for the unconverted.

The Residents recorded their critically acclaimed album "Eskimo" in 1979, and no one was probably more shocked than they were that everyone seemed to love it so much. In response, a year later, they decided to ruin it by condensing it down from album size to around 7 minutes and setting it all to a disco beat and calling it "Diskomo". Of course, the disco beat is intentionally cheap sounding and adding snips and loops of pieces of the vocals and melody from the entire "Eskimo" work they produced, just as a brush off to the critics. Strangely enough, the stupid track ends up being a bit cute and silly, and you can't help but want to listen to it.

This particular EP also came with the 4 track suite called "Goosebumps" which was recorded years before as a sarcastic look at children's music. These four tracks are actually the best part of this EP as the nursery rhyme tunes that are mish mashed on these four tracks are hilariously scary and dark. The Resident's humor runs amok on these tracks, and make the whole thing worth getting. It might scare your kids if you accidentally confuse it for one of their records some day, but it will make you, as a mature responsible adult, laugh.

In 1990, a re-release of this EP included 3 more strange tracks, "Whoopy Snorp", the Christmas non-classic "Saint Nix' and a live version of Diskomo which will be sure to make you glad you never seen one of their shows from that time. The unknown lead singer even goes for growling/yelling vocals, which was way ahead of their time. But that was an accident, to be ahead of their time. Ha Ha. Who would have thought in 1980 that The Residents would be so influential? The EP is fun, and is worth searching for, but you probably won't find it. So The Residents get the last laugh after all.