RECORDINGS OF VOLTAGE ERRORS, MAGNETIC FIELDS, ON-SITE TESTIMONIES & TAPE TENSION
LP, Misanthropic Agenda (USA), may 2011
THE LP EDITION IS SOLD OUT !
Cdr, Neus318 (Japan), oct. 2010
THE CDR EDITION IS SOLD OUT!
Track listing
-Introduction To Track Number Two
-The Persistent Lack Of Self-Esteem
-Reel To Reel, End To End
-Mainstream Portable Music Device's Electromagnetic Field
-Various On-Site Testimonies
-The Sweet Smell Of Failure
-Incomprehensible Recording Of A Red Wall And A Painting With Two Birds
All tracks assembled at Shiver Mobile, audio and visual data gathered in Switzerland and Spain by Francisco Meirino in 2010.
Using : computer, reel to reel tape recorder, analog synth, field recorder, various home electronics, piezo transducers and electro-magnetic sensors.
REVIEWS
The Wire
This is a shockingly good album from Swiss power-acoustician Francisco Meirino. Track titles like "The Sweet Smell Of Failure" and "The Persisten Lack Of Self-Esteem" allude to the artist coming to grips with the failings of his equipment and the sputtering sounds they produce. Electrostatic bursts of energy bristle against squealing piezo transducers handling more voltage than they are designed to carry, only to collapse into dead-eyed thrumming from poorly grounded circuits. If internal disintegration weren't enough, some passages sound like Meirino is actively grinding his destroyed circuit boards between two cinder blocks. None of the passages explode with a grand violence. Instead, much of Meirino's gear unceremoniously ceases to function. The sense of psychic and existential corrosion is something to behold.(Jim Haynes)
Vital Weekly
This is the CDR version of a LP that was released by Misanthropic Agenda in a super small edition of 90 copies only, but then its twelve minutes longer than the LP. In recent times I became quite a fan of the music of Phroq, especially at the turning point when he calls himself by his own name. Maybe it has to do with my own private interest in a more noise based approach these days, but going back to the strictest harsh noise is not my cup of tea. What I do like is that fine combination of loud and soft. Meirino is one of those composers who does just that. Like the title of this suggests, he uses recordings of electric means that go wrong, broken cables, defective plugs, picking up magnetic fields and crackling tape hiss. Amplified to the max - at times - carefully low humming at other times. Sometimes looped around for a small amount of time, but then brutally interrupted by a loud burst and swiftly moving into something new. Excellent use of collage techniques here. I am not sure if I should regard getting this as a CDR and not as a LP, but somehow I think a CDR is better. No extra-static charges from the vinyl, and the dynamics are bright and neat.(FdW)
Touching Extremes
Naming an album with a 10-word review of its content is an excellent idea to assist poor scribblers. In fact, I was just given a chance of avoiding the umpteenth repeat of preposterous depictions, and concentrate on other types of analysis. For instance, Meirino’s ability of producing modern-sounding brilliance from such kinds of viciously callous emanations. In this release – originally a CDR in super-limited edition, now a luscious vinyl, unfortunately lacking a chunk of the pre-existing material and STILL issued in mere 90 copies – the ruthless ear-quake promoter decided to focus a little more on spacing. This he did through competent grouping and deployment of malfunctioning apparatuses and location recordings (the latter collected in Switzerland and Spain in 2010). The results appear at the same time carefully constructed, perfectly natural and rather startling; when Meirino follows the crunchier discharges with a magnificent drone in “Reel To Reel, End To End” we even get pretty near DanielMencheLand for about thirty seconds, before the usual discombobulating assortments of dizzying frequencies and pumping-from-within subsonics reclaim the possession of our (un)balance. As far as social relation-killing composers are concerned, the guy is approaching the very top of my personal list.
Massimo Ricci