Jul 31, 2021
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FURIOUS PIG
"Furious Pig"
(12". Rough Trade. 1981) [GB]
furious pig - i don't like your face (1980) man this is like the gnarliest thing i've heard today. an acappella group that performed with pere ubu, the fall, and the slits. this was their only single and it was released on rough trade, with bruce gilbert (wire) involved in production. seriously, this is strange shit. i love it!
Post Five: Furious Pig and the Human Voice (Ubu 3)
I stumbled upon Furious Pig's self-titled EP through sheer curiosity of the band name. I did not anticipate hearing such a grating yet engrossing audio experience. The UK experimental band, active in the early 80s, created a cappella tracks that directly replaced instruments with guttural human sounds. Both absurd and abject, the music is at times hilarious and excruciating, but the complexities of the sounds and layers of sound cannot be dismissed. From one band member: "We'd spend 8 hours a day for months working on extending our vocal ranges, often in grotesque and hilarious ways - we had fun!"
Fun indeed. However, this particular sound makes me question the power of the human voice. I'd like to draw attention to the caption provided on Ubu for the Furious Pig EP:
Recording: 'I DON'T LIKE YOUR FACE' [1980 Rough Trade EP] Stephen Kent - Vocal, Guitar, Percussion, French Horn Cass Davies - Vocals, Percussion, Pause Button FX Martin Kent - Vocal, Drums and Percussion Dominic Weeks - Vocal, Electric Piano, Bass, Bass-Clarinet
The caption explicitly mentions instruments even though the group is clearly a cappella. It's easy to infer that the vocalists are trying to directly mimic the sounds of instruments unlike traditional a cappella performances. This fact is ironic considering that instruments were modeled after various ranges of the human voice. In this context, I think Furious Pig's voice work is incredibly smart. The variety and intensity of each sound, as absurd or abject as it may be, provides great contrast with one another. If the tracks cannot be considered pleasing, then I would at least like to shine appreciation on their technique.
Furious Pig's work pushes the human voice as a medium to its limits. I wonder how easily distinguishable human sound can be made from other sounds. Perhaps it is the familiarity of the human voice that makes work like Furious Pig's or actors who do impressions or sound effects so strange to listen to.
The timbre of the human voice is unique and incredibly hard to mimic. Even the most advance of synthetic vocals fall short. Whereas Furious Pig quite literally uses the human voice as an instrument, Vocaloid software responsible for Japanese virtual pop star Hatsune Miku attempts to do the opposite: using software -- an instrument -- literally as the human voice. One might think voice software that sounds incredibly robotic would be a poor substitute for the real thing, but these very qualities attracts many listeners. Vocaloid music has gained a large following in Japan and the outside world.
Generally speaking, I think people love a good singing voice, but perhaps other qualities of the human voice can be considered for appreciation as well.
