Eskimo (album)

Eskimo is an album by American art rock group the Residents. The album was originally supposed to follow 1977's Fingerprince; however, due to many delays and arguments with management, it was not released until 1979. Upon release it was hailed as the group's best record to date.

Eskimo
Studio album by
the Residents
ReleasedSeptember 26, 1979
RecordedApril 1976 – May 1979
Genre
Length39:01
LabelRalph
ProducerThe Residents
The Residents chronology
Duck Stab
(1978)		 Eskimo
(1979)		 Commercial Album
(1980)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Ultimate-Guitar.com[3]

The pieces on Eskimo feature home-made instruments and chanting against backdrops of wind-like synthesizer noise and miscellaneous sound effects. The work is programmatic, each piece pairing music with text detailing a corresponding pseudo-ethnographic narrative.[4] While Eskimo is officially maintained to be a true historical document of life in the Arctic, the stories are deliberately absurd fictions only loosely based in actual Inuit culture, and the chanting is a combination of gibberish and commercial slogans. The album satirizes ignorance toward and mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[2]

Diskomo

A companion piece, Diskomo, was released in 1980 as a 12-inch single, featuring a remix of the songs backed by a disco beat. In 1988, Diskomo was covered by Belgian new beat group L&O, and retitled "Even Now". Diskomo 2000, a follow-up EP featuring the original remix, its B-side (Goosebump, a collection of children's songs played on toy musical instruments), and several other versions, was released in 2000. The EP's title track, "Diskomo 2000" redoes Diskomo in the style of "Even Now".

Track listing

All tracks are written by The Residents

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."The Walrus Hunt"4:01
2."Birth"4:33
3."Arctic Hysteria"5:57
4."The Angry Angakok"5:20
Total length:20:47
Side two
No.TitleLength
5."A Spirit Steals a Child"8:44
6."The Festival of Death"10:20
Total length:19:56

1987 CD bonus tracks

Tracks 7-10 taken from the 1979 album Subterranean Modern. The album also featured the music of San Francisco bands Chrome, MX-80 Sound and Tuxedomoon.

No.TitleLength
7."I Left My Heart in San Francisco"2:02
8."Dumbo the Clown (Who Loved Christmas)"2:07
9."Is He Really Bringing Roses? (The Replacement)"2:34
10."Time's Up"2:54
Total length:48:38

2019 pREServed edition bonus tracks
Disc One
No.TitleLength
7."Eskimo (1978 demo)"14:19
8."Eskimo acapella suite"20:52
Total length:1:14:12
Disc Two
No.TitleLength
1."Kenya"2:28
2."Middle East Dance (from ICE2)"3:22
3."Scottish Rhapsody"2:55
4."Diskomo (demo)"3:00
5."Diskomo"7:55
6."Disaster"3:51
7."Plants"3:15
8."Farmers"5:26
9."Twinkle"2:01
10."Heart in SF"2:08
11."I Left My Heart in San Francisco"2:02
12."Dumbo the Clown (Who Loved Christmas)"2:09
13."Is He Really Bringing Roses? (The Replacement)"2:36
14."Time's Up"2:56
15."The Sleeper"3:27
16."Eskimo suite (1982 rehearsal)"8:22
17."Diskomo (1982 rehearsal)"2:41
18."The Festival of Death (live 1986)"4:38
19."Diskomo (live in San Francisco, 1987)"3:18
20."Eskimo Opera Proposal"5:27
Total length:1:13:57

Personnel

References
  1. Fitzgerald, Colin (April 9, 2020). "THE 50 BEST POST-PUNK ALBUMS EVER: PART 4, JAMES CHANCE TO THE POP GROUP". PopMatters. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  2. Allmusic review
  3. Ultimate-Guitar.com review
  4. "The Iceman Just Took A Turn For The Better (Eskimo)". The Cryptic Corporation. September 26, 1979. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014.
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