HR119 - Merz - Meditacion - C60 — 1989
Side 1:
TENTACIONES VOZ UNA CONFESION EL SUR LA OTRA BABILONIA |
Side 2:
MORAL VIDA INTERIOR INUNDA MI SER MARTIRES EL ESTADO ALFA |
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Merz is the solo project of Luis F. Mesa. The Meditacion cassette album is a reissue of the set Luis originally released in 1985 on his IEP label. A lot of this feels like he’s having a good old time jamming away and experimenting as he gets to know his gear, but there’s lots of variety and some very cool space exploratory work.
‘Tentaciones’ begins the set with a playfully bouncy vibe, having an early Residents feel, plus some light Industrial and warped jazz seasoning. ‘Voz’ is different, being a raucously rickety, percussively electronic workout. Sounds like someone playing drums on a light beam accompanied by a robot voice. ‘Una Confesion’ heads in yet another direction, having a spacey, oscillating, minimal Berlin school feel. ‘El Sur’ is a chaotically spaced out, fun-with-electronics banquet of horns, wobbles, whistles, pulsations, speed ups/slow downs, and sonic blasts. And ‘La Otra Babilonia’ feels like a rumbling, throbbing, tornadic activity in space blend of the previous two.
Side B is a little more thematically cohesive. ‘Moral’ is a whimsical piece with a circus-in-space theme intermingling with weird alien voices. It’s like a hydraulically driven blend of 50s sci-fi and 60s psychedelic flick soundtrack. ‘Vida Interior’ is similar but more subdued, with a cool mixture of celestial dreaminess, reverberant pulsations, echoing child voices, and the Monster from the Id banging on his cage. ‘Inunda Mi Ser’ features a church choir singing over a cosmic drifting and palpitating drone. ‘Martires’ recalls ‘Tentaciones’ and ‘Voz’, with its laser beam rock ‘n’ roll, air raid electro jamming, and unglued pulse. Finally, ‘El Estado Alfa’ is a calm yet spooky glom of deep space ghostly wails and oscillations.
Merz is the solo project of Luis F. Mesa. The Meditacion cassette album is a reissue of the set Luis originally released in 1985 on his IEP label. A lot of this feels like he’s having a good old time jamming away and experimenting as he gets to know his gear, but there’s lots of variety and some very cool space exploratory work.
‘Tentaciones’ begins the set with a playfully bouncy vibe, having an early Residents feel, plus some light Industrial and warped jazz seasoning. ‘Voz’ is different, being a raucously rickety, percussively electronic workout. Sounds like someone playing drums on a light beam accompanied by a robot voice. ‘Una Confesion’ heads in yet another direction, having a spacey, oscillating, minimal Berlin school feel. ‘El Sur’ is a chaotically spaced out, fun-with-electronics banquet of horns, wobbles, whistles, pulsations, speed ups/slow downs, and sonic blasts. And ‘La Otra Babilonia’ feels like a rumbling, throbbing, tornadic activity in space blend of the previous two.
Side B is a little more thematically cohesive. ‘Moral’ is a whimsical piece with a circus-in-space theme intermingling with weird alien voices. It’s like a hydraulically driven blend of 50s sci-fi and 60s psychedelic flick soundtrack. ‘Vida Interior’ is similar but more subdued, with a cool mixture of celestial dreaminess, reverberant pulsations, echoing child voices, and the Monster from the Id banging on his cage. ‘Inunda Mi Ser’ features a church choir singing over a cosmic drifting and palpitating drone. ‘Martires’ recalls ‘Tentaciones’ and ‘Voz’, with its laser beam rock ‘n’ roll, air raid electro jamming, and unglued pulse. Finally, ‘El Estado Alfa’ is a calm yet spooky glom of deep space ghostly wails and oscillations.