Night of the Hunters

Night of the Hunters is the thirtieth studio album by The Residents, initially given a limited release in 2007 as part of Ralph America's eL Ralpho Archive series.
The double album consists entirely of instrumental ambient tracks, allegedly based on material written by the group in 1993-94 for a project titled That Slab Called Night, which eventually became the soundtrack to the 1995 Discovery Channel documentary series Hunters: The World of Predators and Prey.
==History==
During production of Gingerbread Man, The Residents were commissioned to write and record 10 hours' worth of music for a Discovery Channel documentary titled 'Hunters' for premiere in December of 1994. 
Although the group had recorded 10 hours (Or around about that) by that scheduled time, they felt that it was undoubtedly unfinished and continued to work on it during their off time. Eventually, The Residents submitted the complete soundtrack album in December of 2004.Gingerbread Man pREServed liner notes (2021) 
A few years later, in early 2007, The Residents searched through their archives to find the next release in the eL Ralpho Archive to follow their Best Left Unspoken trilogy, where they rediscovered the 'Hunters' recordings. Enjoying the material significantly, The Residents thought it would be a great subject of their next album as a treat for fans before The Voice Of Midnight was released later that year. The group began reworking the recordings, and came out with a 2 hour long epic dark ambient masterwork based around human perceptions in the dark. Night of the Hunters - Historical - The Residents
Then, to stir up interest in the album, The Residents began crafting a story around it, involving a 'lost' Residents album, intended for release between Gingerbread Man and Wormwood titled 'A Slab Called Night,' with the final album being a supposed reworking of A Slab Called Night.
Although the album did feature reworked selections of material originating from that era, the truth was that The Residents added the 'darkness' concept much later and that the material was indeed initially intended for the Hunters documentary series. As a matter of fact, there was a real unreleased instrumental album recorded between Gingerbread Man and Wormwood, titled Scattered Unfinished Music Sketches, released in 2009.
==Release ==
Ralph America announced the album on May 4th, 2007,The Residents' Official News Blog, archived May 15th 2007 by archive.orgRalphAmerica at The Wayback Machine following the Best Left Unspoken trilogy. The album was eventually released through Ralph America in a limited quantity of 1,000 as a 2xCD set. 
The album quickly went out of print but was eventually made available through The Residents' Bandcamp page on March 17th, 2015, with new artwork.Night of the Hunters | The Residents It was removed from the site within a year.In 2021, Night of the Hunters was made available through digital streaming by Cherry Red Records.Night of the Hunters - The Residents - Spotify 
== Reception ==
=== Contemporary ===
In a negative review, freelance music reviewer Mark Prindle derided Night of the Hunters as a collection of "boring, chintzy keyboard instrumentals", opining that "there is NO POSSIBLE WAY that more than one person was involved in the creation of this music", also noting that the album is "really really really long".Mark Prindle, "Night Of The Hunters", Mark's Record Reviews, September 12th 2008
== Track Listing==
====Disc 1 (Dusk)====
#Dark Found Light Lost (2:06)
#The Wrong Path (3:08)
#Dropped Pain (1:27)
#Broken Irony (12:36)
#Night of Lost Sight (2:27)
#Crystal Shards (1:23)
#In The Way (2:59)
#Flying Blind (8:37)
#Held Loosely (0:40)
#Rediscovered Lust (3:54)
#Stalking Dream (2:17)
#Dark Light (1:47)
#Mind Sight (2:31)
====Disc 2 (Dawn)====
#Scattered Thoughts (5:48)
#Doubting the Past (9:30)
#Memory of Light (5:59)
#Seeing What's Gone (3:46)
#Dreaming of Night (1:41)
#Refusing the Final Light (1:05)
#Failed Eyes (7:25)
#Slabs That Shine (10:27)
==Liner notes==
Somewhere between 1994's The Gingerbread Man and 1998's Wormwood, a Residents album disappeared.
Actually, it didn't disappear, it was usurped. The Residents received an offer to write some music for a television series and they couldn't pass up such an intriguing opportunity. Suddenly the album they were writing became a wholly different project.
That album, which had a working title of That Slab Called Night, was to be a concept project based on the effect darkness has on perception, the world of the shadow. Though never completed, in 2007 The Residents thought it would be insightful to sort through the then over ten years old music and create something new... Night of the Hunters.
==Credits==
*Written & Recorded By: The Residents
*Published By: Pale Pachyderm Publishing
*Produced By: The Cryptic Corporation
==See also==
*Hunters: The World of Predators and Prey
*List of unfinished projects
*eL Ralpho Archives
==External links and references==
*Night of the Hunterson The Residents Historical
*Night of the Hunterson Discogs
Category:Albums
Category:Remix albums
Category:That Slab Called Night
Category:Hunters
Category:Night of the Hunters
Category:2007
Category:Ambient Albums