Documentary Releases: 23rd Century Giants: The Story of Renaldo & The Loaf (2021) - Reviewed

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Images courtesy of MVD Visual

2021, besides being the year the world was still picking up the pieces after the outbreak of COVID-19, was in hindsight really the year eccentric musical duos got to have their fair say on the cinematic stage.  Starting with Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers about the most “British” band to come out of America and followed by indie filmmaker turned documentarian Alex Wroten’s eccentric 23rd Century Giants: The Story of Renaldo & The Loaf about the British avant-garde musical duo, it was the year peculiar if not unusual music kicking around for the last several decades and their creators finally got to talk about their mutually overlooked artistic legacies.  While the name and discography of Renaldo & The Loaf comprised of an architect and a biomedical scientist isn’t as well known or expansive as the aforementioned The Sparks Brothers, Wroten’s wonderful little documentary will ensure their unusual experimental music is imprinted on your brain well after the end credits have rolled by.

 
In the early 1970s, Brian “Renaldo Malpractice” Poole an architect and David “Ted the Loaf” Janssen a scientist met in college where they bonded over their mutual adoration for the English band Tyrannosaurus Rex and began playing around with guitars.  Eventually working their way up through tape loops and experimental sound engineering including detuning their instruments as well as incorporating common household items into their music, what started out for them as a side hobby eventually blossomed into a deal with Ralph Records who sponsored such avant-garde countercultural music groups as The Residents who Renaldo & The Loaf themselves would eventually collaborate with.  Working up to their first record release in 1980 with Songs for Swinging Larvae accompanied by a bizarre, still terrifying 16mm promotional film, the unusual musical act of Renaldo & The Loaf succeeded in doing three more albums together until 1987 when they disbanded pursuing their own careers.  Despite a near twenty-year hiatus, the two finally reunited and even started touring with the release of their latest album Gurdy Hurding.

 
A very straightforward and linear examination of what is widely considered by music aficionados to be the weirdest music band on the face of the Earth, 23rd Century Giants while not necessarily one to convert nonbelievers into fandom is nevertheless a highly enjoyable if not heartwarming celebration of eccentricity in musical composition.  Distinctly British with sometimes Cornish dialect only native listeners will pick up on, both figures of Renaldo & The Loaf come across as chipper and candid about how their respective intellectual journeys culminated in some wonderfully bizarre creations.  Filled with extensive newly shot interviews with many of the key figures involved in Ralph Records alongside animated segments recreating the unusual musical duo shopping their work around hoping for a distribution bite, the short documentary (running only eighty-three minutes) is as extensive of an overview of who these guys are and what their music represents to them and to listeners.

 
MVD Visual’s blu-ray release in conjunction with Well Dang! Productions is jam packed with more material than you’d expect from such a niche musical act to have, including but not limited to the original full 1981 Ralph Records 16mm short film fully restored and two more music videos for their post-reunion works.  Also included is reversible sleeve art for those who want their shelves to look weirder than usual.  There’s also well over twenty-five minutes of deleted scenes and extended interviews previously trimmed to meet the film’s running time.  All in all, if you’ve never heard of Renaldo & The Loaf, this documentary might not leave you as a fan of what they do but it will absolutely make you want to root for their cause.  The disc release is great and the unedited restored 16mm short is more than well worth the price of admission. 

--Andrew Kotwicki