Songs for Swinging Larvae (1980–1981)

While on Holiday in San Francisco, Brian Poole visited 444 Grove Street, the headquarters of Ralph Records and The Residents. While there, Poole unknowingly met with a member of The Residents, and gave him copy of Struve & Sneff. The Resident listened to the first three tracks, and told him it was excellent. Shortly afterwards, the two began a mail correspondence, where The Resident expressed interest in signing the band to Ralph.^[6] During these correspondences, the duo recorded and sent Ralph Records two demo tapes, Songs For The Surgery recorded from November 1979 to Mid 1980,^[7] and Hats Off, Gentlemen! completed in Autumn of 1980.^[8] These, combined with Struve & Sneff, were enough for Ralph, and Jay Clem, representative for the label, was sent to England to sign them.^[6] After this, the two started working on their first LP, Songs For Swinging Larvae, recording and writing new songs for it throughout late 1980, as well as overdubbing material from their Ralph demos. The album was finished in November 1980,^[9] and production on its follow-up, Arabic Yodeling, began almost immediately afterwards in December.^[10]

Lyrically, the album was inspired by classical European literature, with Medical Man being a direct adaption of the first chapter of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of the Four, Spratt's Medium being inspired by Samuel Beckett's Endgame and Ow! Stew the Red Shoe! taking lyrics from four short stories by Beckett found in a collection titled 'First Love'. The album title is a play on Frank Sinatra's Songs For Swinging Lovers.^[11]

Prior to the album's release, Poole and Janssen travelled to San Francisco in late February^[12] to film their Songs For Swinging Larvae music video in March.^[13] The idea was originally to film a video for 'Is Guava A Donut?', but Ralph suggested making the video a narrative about a recent abduction story.^[14] The video, directed by Graeme Whifer,^[15] would combine three songs recorded during the album's sessions, Spratt's Medium, Lime Jelly Grass, and an outtake, Melvyn's Repose. They knew the video would be controversial, but thought it would get them noticed.^[16]

After the video was completed^[13] The Residents invited the duo to their studio, where they jammed. After the session, The Residents suggested that they record an album together in the remaining three days of their visit, by taking the jam and adding overdubs.^[12] On the second day, they were split into two groups. Brian Poole and his half of The Residents were set to devise lyrics and singing, while Dave Janssen and his half were set to consider overdubs. On the third day overdubs would be recorded, and on day four it would be mixed. This demo tape was titled '4 Daze' and was left incomplete when the two returned to England.^[17] A few weeks after they had returned, they received a cassette tape of the demo with additional overdubs made by The Residents.^[12]

Songs For Swinging Larvae, along with the music video, were released in the US through Ralph Records on April 10, 1981,^[18] and in the UK two months later in June.^[19]

Arabic Yodeling and Title in Limbo (1982–1983)

Following the release of Songs For Swinging Larvae, the two began working on their third demo tape, titled 'The Serious Collection', which was sent to Ralph after its completion in July 1982.^[20] The material on this tape developed into much of their third album, Arabic Yodelling. The album was inspired by Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry and the works of Charles Baudelaire.^[21] It was completed in January 1983,^[10] and was the first album by Renaldo & The Loaf to feature a guest musician, violinist Dave Baker, who was a friend of Brian Poole's. Baker and Janssen never met.^[21] It was also their first album to feature traditional keyboards, as the group had purchased a Casiotone 202 for use as Renaldo & The Loaf. Unlike Songs For Swinging Larvae and Struve & Sneff, the album would not have a U.K release, and would have had to have been imported from Ralph in the US by British fans.

When The Residents visited London on their Mole Show tour on June 28, 1983,^[22] David and Brian met with The Residents backstage to discuss their '4 Daze' collaboration that they had worked together on 2 years prior. The Residents had time in their schedule to finish it in September, and so three weeks of the month were chosen for them to complete the album. Unfortunately, Janssen was unable to get time off to visit San Francisco and so Brian went by himself, taking with him tape loops created by Dave, a Bouzouki, a Rababa, and a reed instrument known as a Mesmer. Sessions for the album continued over three weeks, with The Residents' usual equipment being in transit^[23] from their Leicestershire Mole Show performance in July.^[22] They used a Yamaha Keyboard, a 'Resitar' electric guitar, a drum machine^[23] and a violin, used by Snakefinger on the track 'Africa Tree'^[24] The album, titled Title in Limbo, was released in November 1983.^[25]

The Elbow Is Taboo (1984–1987)

Title in Limbo had made more money than any of their previous projects and gave the duo the budget they needed improve their recording set up. Brian Poole created a home studio which, unlike Janssen's bedroom, featured full mixing equipment. Poole felt this somewhat stifled his creative input, now that he was no longer able to record whenever he felt like. The duo also now had a sampler, a Roland TR-606 drum machine and a Korg SDD-1000 digital delay unit.

They began recording their follow-up to Arabic Yodeling in early 1984, with sessions continuing throughout the entirety of 1985 and finishing in late 1986.^[26] During this period the duo released two archival works, a re-edited LP version of Struve & Sneff, which included five outtakes from the original sessions was released, and, in 1985, a compilation titled 'Olleh Olleh Rotcod.' This compilation contained rare tracks by the band, as well as two excerpts from the Elbow is Taboo sessions, "Critical/Dance" and the title track.^[27]

By the time The Elbow Is Taboo was complete, Ralph were no longer acting as the duo's primary record label, as they had moved on to the UK based Some Bizzare records, Ralph would still release the album in the US, but were significantly less involved in the product's creation. With their previous albums, Poole and Jansseen would begin work on the follow-up as soon as the master tapes had been sent to Ralph, but in this case, the duo were not pleased with the proposed artwork created by Bizarre and had to take new photographs to be used instead. This caused significant delays in the album's release and exhausted the band. They discussed ideas for a follow-up at the time, but found it difficult to start anything.^[26] The album was inspired partly by French band Ptôse, whose song 'Boule' was covered by the duo.

In 1987 they recorded a cover version of "Haul on the Bowline" for the Ralph Records anthology album Potatoes, shortly after, the duo retired.

Gurdy Hurding (2016–present)

In October 2016 the duo released their first studio album in 30 years, Gurdy Hurding.^[38] In June 2018 they performed at the Klanggalerie 25th Anniversary celebration, for which they performed their second ever live show since their formation.^[39] The following year they released the EP Song of the Lungfish,^[40] and in 2020, released two singles relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[41][42]