Fluid Sonic Fluctuations Review 100
Fluid Label Focus on Genot Centre 17
FAUSTO MERCIER: FULLSCREEN (2019)
Catalogue number: GEN038
Cover design by Marick Roy
Reviewed format: download review copy in press kit kindly provided by Genot Centre
Hello and welcome to Fluid Sonic Fluctuations Review 100 in which I’m reviewing FAUSTO MERCIER’s debut album on Genot Centre titled FULLSCREEN. FULLSCREEN is a nicely long form album featuring 13 tracks, 10 of which are FAUSTO MERCIER originals while the 3 other tracks are remixes of several of the tracks featured on this album by Genot Centre family names that will be familiar if you’ve followed my blog before. These are r hunter, Ice_Eyes and Forces who have created some lovely manipulated, clubified and plundered remixes which add a good flow of variety within the album and integrate really well in the listening experience as original elements of the tracks are recognisable in these remixes but the three remixers also contribute a lot of fresh sounds and production to the album as well, enriching it in a way. In the description in my press kit, FAUSTO MERCIER (Roland Nagy) describes the album as being a collection of various ideas, drafts and sonic objects and indeed the album’s sound varies from track to track as the music often has a strong sense of experimentation still in progress and the tracks have an interesting independency between each other but the album retains a good coherent consistency in sonic approach as well. The cover of the digital version and limited edition C52 tape was designed by Marick Roy this time, matching MERCIER’s liquid, abstract and 3D sound design and productions which combine Deconstructed Club elements with a more ambient approach to abstract experimental electronic music with the glassy plastic like forms, manipulated type and blue objects floating within them on the cover of the album. FULLSCREEN was supplied to me in 24-bit/44.1kHz high resolution WAV format in the press kit, one of the options to download on Bandcamp and included with purchase of the tape there too. Now let’s move to the music on FULLSCREEN.
FULLSCREEN starts with FIRMEST FINE, a piece which uses a recognisable Deconstructed Club approach in its structure with EDM like melodies building towards a drop that’s very fragmented and abstract in nature. MERCIER’s approach to sound shaping is much more diffuse, liquid and metallic than some other Deconstructed Club artists however, going for an approach of layers of dissonance and “subtle harshness” than doesn’t entirely mask the melodic aspect of the music too however. In FIRMEST FINE MERCIER’s sound palette consists of fat drum sounds, screechy morphing synths, time-stretched percussion hits, various sound effects like female vocal samples and bells all produced within a nicely spacious stereo image and the beats are nicely punchy combined with the sharp synth melodies, definitely a winning opening track. GLUT moves into a more texture based direction with bending synth tones forming sci-fi drones backing a fun scattering mass of mangled synths, samples and drums sounds into what sounds like a futuristic Trap deconstruction into a kind of cyberpunkian soundscape. There’s a lot of variation in the rhythmic patterns and sonic manipulations which gives the piece a great fluid movement and sonic development, very nice. REVEIN is an abstract Deconstructed Club soundscape made up of stuttered synth sounds, liquid sound manipulations, chopped vocal samples creating wooden kinetic like structures of sounds which in the second half get especially intense as the get mixed with frantic sounding Geiger counter like sounds totally overloading mixed with eerie hissy pads. Like the structures literally melt into a mess of radioactive substances, radioactive melt-down translated into remarkably playful sonics. Afterwards we have the r hunter Remix of LAZZZZERISM which in a way does improve on the more abstract and repetitive original track (I’ll mention more about that when we reach the original track) the squelchy metallic percussion from the original is blended in here with a catchy straight groove made up of bassy bouncy kick, noise-sculpted hats and and laserific snare hits. Funky metallic synth melodies carry the piece and give it a great energetic drive that glues together the layers of percussive mayhem into quite a club like track, albeit a pretty quirky club track, very nice. HYPER follows which matches its name quite well, mostly consisting of wild stereo plunder phonics style glitches, liquid sounds and bleeps, mysterious eerie tones fade into the sonic image soon enough however giving the piece an intriguing alien feel. Quite a lot of great sonic manipulations in this piece and the mysterious tones give the music a great deep distant ambience that works as a sweet juxtaposition of elements and allowing the listener to focus on either or both layers of sound, making for a texture, rhythm or mixture based listening experience. SOWROW continues quite a bit of that alien / sci-fi vibe that this album often has with some delicious squelchy sonic manipulations, eerie airy pad tones and diffuse synth chops. It’s like a moving plastic “divine” creature (with divine pointing at the airy ambience) that keeps changing its form, with different sonic details happening left and right all over the place. GREY GAP is like one of the recent years Autechre glitchtastic fuzzy piece but produced with a more compressed and fuzzy Deconstructed Club production style with the sharp sounds and manipulations being created. Very intense, hard-hitting and exciting. Then on KNOWTOHOWTOKNOW we have what sounds like “a big lurking mystery” which is put into sounds through the ghostly main melody played by glassy ringing fuzzy distorted synth tones, liquid stereo sound design and monstrous growls. A richly detailed cinematic piece of music, very nice. Next we have Ice_Eyes Remix of MIND BUSINESS which turns the original into an atmospheric Club track but with plenty of distorted Industrial percussion sounds in it as well. The remix has quite a bit of general fuzzy edge to its sound and the bassy kick combined with the Grimey synths make for a track that’s quite a bit more straight in its Club style than some of Ice_Eyes recent original tracks but there’s plenty of cool abstract elements to the track as well like the many synth squeals and filter effects Ice_Eyes applies within the track. Smooth warm pads feature in the remix at points but Ice_Eyes also gets particularly into banger mode in the second half as they change the groove to an Industrial Techno like 4x4 groove which works in a great driving manner, great remix. The original track MIND BUSINESS then follows which more of a mixture of Industrial elements into deconstruction and quirky vocal and synth chops. The Grime element is also apparent in this original version which the screechy synths and fat drum sounds making for a particularly big punchy groove, but this groove changes up in more radical manners, perhaps even having a bit more of a “live performed” kind of feel like old Industrial tracks also tended to not use sequenced drums as driving force but life performed metal percussion and drums. Definitely a great original track and this original version and the Ice_Eyes Remix compliment each other really well and in the reverse order they’re sequenced in make for a great “deconstruction into original” kind of listening experience. LAZZZZERISM follows in its original version which at the start sounds like its a continuation straight from MIND BUSINESS as it follows the same tempo and even seems to contain the melody, albeit in very short tones within its intense metallic rhythms. The track is quite the rhythmic exercise with the focus laying completely on a series of variations on one main rhythm pattern on a whole array of metallic, bassy and squelchy laserific filter sweeping synth drums and screeches. The beats are quite enjoyable definitely but near the end I did feel like this track is just about the right length as the beats do feel a bit repetitive as the track progresses but I do appreciate FAUSTO MERCIER’s enthusiasm for experimentation in textures in tracks even if the end result is a tad long for its minimalist nature. Afterwards we have Forces Remix of first track FIRMEST FINE, which is a particularly bouncy and banging Plunderphonics style stutterific remix of the original track. If I compare it to the style of Forces’ earlier release Plastisphere on Genot Centre this remix has more of a feel to it like being build out of both organic elements (the squeaky synths and sound effects) and stacks of large and thick squares (the barrages of stuttered drum hits). The whole remix is pretty much one big thunderous relentless beat bonanza, but it’s definitely very enjoyable and varied enough, great remix. Final track CHECK REALITÉ is a surprising Noise like piece from FAUSTO MERCIER, its textures much darker, harsher and submarine like than in other tracks on FULLSCREEN. The piece is a subtle moving soundscape made up of the aforementioned submarine texture in the sonic form of filtered low pitched rumbles, a piercing continuous high pitched tone and the recognisable squelchy liquid synth sounds which subtly move from left to right in this piece matched with the rises and falls of the submarine rumbles. A great piece of music to close out the album, especially because it’s so different from the other tracks and there’s an enjoyable intensity and richness in the moving textures in this track.
To conclude this review of FULLSCREEN by FAUSTO MERCIER I’d say that it’s definitely great that he was so open about his working process in creating music by sharing it through this selection of pieces in album format but also succeeded in making it sound like a great coherent album through its sequencing and the remixes by r hunter, Ice_Eyes and Forces. I can definitely feel FAUSTO MERCIER’s got a great ear for balancing sci-fi Club deconstructions of sound with diffuse, mysterious but also lush atmospherics and can easily switch from more straight beats to abstract soundscapes. FULLSCREEN’s definitely a great album of varied experimental electronic music and the recognisable personal sound of FAUSTO MERCIER gives of a good impression of where he might be headed next in music. This is definitely a great album for fans of Deconstructed Club, Glitch and abstract electronic music but also listeners who are into Braindance or contemporary Plunderphonics explorations. There’s plenty of textures and beats to be enjoyed on this album so it’s also a recommended listen for fans of experimental music in general. Go check this album out.
The limited edition tape and digital version of FULLSCREEN are now available from the Genot Centre Bandcamp page here: https://genot.bandcamp.com/album/fullscreen
