- Futurismo
- Dada X
Merzbild schwet was recorded after 'To the quiet men from a tiny girl' But was release at the same time. It’s quite different from the first album and from 'To the quiet men…' Here we see Stapletons nod to two other post WW1 artistic and ideological movements. Futurism and Dadaism. Seen here in the albums two tracks Futurismo and Dada x. The songs are long, both around twenty-five minutes and are more subtle and atmospheric than the songs on chance meeting.
'Dada X' is built around, backwards and forward piano sounds. Strange samples of a girl talking about some sort of post apocalyptic scene and again some more female French reciting. Also present are the strange distant and reverbed scratching and banging of objects and metal. They maybe made by tinkering with a guitar but im not sure. There are various areas of silence but the track never gets boring. It is one of nurses darkest pieces, mostly due to the really creepy piano interludes and the way the French vocals are treated to make them sound mutated. The young girl describing the apocalyptic scene is repeated a few times but the track does flow well and is not really repetitive.
The second track 'Futurismo' is more bizarre. If I had to describe the sound, to me it sounds like they recorded the song then slowed it down to about half speed. I know this is not true, but it’s just the dreamy slowness of it that gives this impression. The track uses a lot of samples of brass instruments, some bass sounds at the start, crashes ect, all slowed down. The occasional burst of hyper speed music in one ear keeps you from getting to comfortable. And when the odd French song appears it’s quite ghostly. This time the French vocals are sung but in a vary strange fashion and the music that goes with it is a strange mix of Rhodes piano and light percussion. The vocals are resampled and delayed giving a very hypnotic effect. Other voices join the mix, some irate Spanish woman. (I would love too know what all these people are saying) Some more melodic but no less alien sounds float in and out of the mix. I would note that the production really is quite exceptional. About half way through the song, we are joined by some angry electronic static sounds and the occasional loop.
The foreign voices continue to enter and leave and more synthetic sounds begin to make themselves present. The slow bassy elements also begin again. At about 21 minutes the whole thing stops and the last three minutes are filled with some very prominent and odd piano playing a repeating melody (sort of melody) some electronic effects buzz around.
Like the first album this is mad as a hatter but if you liked the first and 'To the quiet men...' you will dig this.
