Funeral Souvenir | La Noche del Anhídrido
Verlag System (LP/DL)
This re-issue of an original 1987 six track quintessential Spanish industrial noise tape is further fueled with a peppering of other re-issues. Totaling ten tracks, the additional tracks are taken from compilation releases from 2009-2011. With cover art re-contextualizing Ed Clark’s original photo of Graham W. Jackson weeping while playing accordion during the procession of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s corpse, Miguel Angel Ruiz’s experimental electronic compositions betray an inferred blend of kitsch and mourning.
Siegmar Frickle (Pharmakustik) writes of Funeral Souvenir, “the clattering rhythm produced by ZX spectrum computer processed by Ibanez analogue delay, the muddy radio- and TV-voices, sombre ambient loops and uneasy feedbacks… [La Noche del Anhídrido is] an apocalyptic information-overdose of radiovoices from reporters and politicians, shredded by machinistic rotations.” Verlag System now presents the compositions on vinyl with a digital bonus. Of the first six original tracks, the uptempo/downtempo split is half and half. While the opener, Naftalin II and the notable Doppler máxima establish a gothic danceable core, the others mellow the tone with more noise-dark-ambient structures and sounds. Schlamm being an obtuse exception to the not less noisy latter half.
As for the bonus tracks, more great cuts! La noche del raíl (Jove’s en el Horno), an echoic dub atmosphere, continues with muddled radio voices. Segunda noche del anhídrido (Feria del Flanger) clearly features flanged rhythmic noise tattering. The mesmerizing Episcopalizer VI emulates heavy machinery setting – as industrial a track as imaginable. Finally, an alternative take of Naftalin II.
This album contains formative blends of percussive electronics and loose noise evolutions. At times, the tracks evolve slowly over time; occasionally there is a rash shift. Throughout the compositions a wonderfully syrupy reverb is present. A predecessor to bit-oriented process music, this hymnal to first wave electro-cultism.
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