I Murdered Mommy (2004)

The 1990s saw The Residents release a series of groundbreaking CD-ROMs. Freak Show was followed up by interactive album Gingerbread Man and then role playing game Bad Day On The Midway. All of these stood head and shoulders above the drivel which increasingly clogged the CD-ROM market and all featured Residential music as an integral part. I Murdered Mommy would have been no exception.

Inscape, the company which had released Bad Day, had some reservations with the proposed concept, "an interactive game based on the fantasy life of an emotionally abused 13 year old boy" but as the previous title had sold well they green lighted the project. Unfortunately, shortly after this the aforementioned mountain of inferior titles plus the limitations of the medium (poor capacity) caused the bottom to drop out of the market and Inscape went with it. Musically, all that was left of IMM were some "sketches". Until now the only thing we have heard is the track on on the 'dot.com' album. Now, The Residents have taken those sketches, fleshed them out and offered them to us in a very nice package with a booklet and the usual high quality Pore No Graphics artwork. It's expensive, musically fragmented (understandably) and short (ditto), but there you have it.

It's interesting to note how various body parts have been pillaged over the years to make other monsters, most notably the final section of Spaghetti Sunda which completely nicks 'IMM's main theme. I also spotted the guitar from Wormwood's 'KILL HIM!' on track 3 and possibly the closing refrain of that same project's In The Beginning on track 6. Most tracks seem to contain several sections, many have Bad Day type atmospherics which would suit a game. I believe stuff has been added/tampered with more recently due to the inclusion of WB:RMX type beats and world music samples. Some of this stuff is a bit underwhelming and it's a relief when one stumbles across a tune, though there are some bits that stand out and a nice sneaky Harry Lime Theme inclusion.