{"id":10719,"date":"2021-02-11T10:43:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T09:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/?p=10719"},"modified":"2021-02-11T10:43:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T09:43:14","slug":"francisco-lopezs-dsb-reviewed-by-aural-aggravation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/?p=10719","title":{"rendered":"Francisco L\u00c3\u00b3pez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153DSB\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reviewed by Aural Aggravation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From the very opening seconds, Francisco L\u00c3\u00b3pez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest offering assails the ears and scorches the brain: the first track \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which hits the magical running time of twenty-three minutes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is nothing short of explosive \u00e2\u20ac\u201c literally. Opening with a roaring blast of brutal harsh noise, it soon separates into a series of samples and sounds, whereby propeller engines swoop low, spitting machine-gun fire and dropping detonations all around and bomb blasts tear the air. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve previously described certain noise works as sonic blitzkriegs, but this is actually nothing short of total war \u00e2\u20ac\u201c captured in audio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DSB<\/em> is the accumulation of a decade\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work, which was, apparently, created at \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmobile messor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (worldwide), 2009-2019. Mixed and mastered at \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcDune Studio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (Loosduinen), 2020.According to the press release, L\u00c3\u00b3pez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s objective over the forty years of his career to date is to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcDestroy boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with DSB<\/em>, L\u00c3\u00b3pez doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just destroy boundaries. It destroys everything in an obliterative sonic attack that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sustained for some forty-five agonising minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it does pull back from the eye-popping extremes, it presents a dank, ominous atmosphere, and one minute you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re underwater, as if being drowned, the next, your head\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s above water and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re surrounded by a roaring sonic assault that lands blows from all sides. The quieter moments are tense and oppressive, and with unexpected jolts and speaker-shredding blasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A low rumble and clodding thuds and thunks, like slamming doors and hobnail boots create a darkly percussive aspect that dominates the start of DSB-B\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but then you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re under water again and everything is muffled\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hear or breathe, but all around there are bombs and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re feeling the vibrations in your chest. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all too close and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re terrified. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eighteen and three-quarter minutes of ominous atmospherics and tempestuous crescendos of noise, raging storms with protracted periods of unsettled turbulence in between as strong winds buffet away. The dynamics are extreme, as is the experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something has clearly shifted here: L\u00c3\u00b3pez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work a decade ago was predominantly experimental, wibbly, electronic ambient in its leanings, predominantly layerings of drones, hums, and scrapes. Interesting enough, exploratory, but not harsh. Yet DSB <\/em>is so, so harsh, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s positively brutal. But these are harsh times, and when everything is a grey monotony, same news on a roll on every outlet, the instinct is to slump into an empty rut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DSB<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0will kick you out of that and kick you around unapologetically, landing boots in the ribs, and then more. It will leave you dizzy and drained. But it will make you\u00c2\u00a0feel<\/em>. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s essential. Christopher Nosnibor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

via Aural Aggravation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n