That Merzbow’s music seems accessible is one of the merits achieved by ‘a formidable circuit. From the Kinks to Merzbow: a noise continuum ‘, the book by Oriol Rosell that reviews the history of noise in popular music. And, after knowing the story of, for example, a band called Nihilist Spasm Band, the reader will also seem.
From the accidental distortion of ‘You Really Got Me’ of the Kinks – the starting of the book – to the auditory terrorism of Japanoise, through the always claimable ‘Psychocandy’ (1985) by Jesus and Mary Chain or the extreme metal, the noise has served the artists to denounce the status quo and claim the production of art outside mainstream, either in recordings like above the stage.
In ‘A formidable short circuit’, Rosell (known for its program ‘The flammable library’ of Ràdio 4 and for being a member of the normal Dead band) reviews the cultural production of noise over the decades contextualizing it in history, but never its review is excessive or indulgent and, in addition, it encourages it with personal anecdotes that humanize reading.
In his first essay, Rosell especially values the history of Noise, widely unknown to the public but fascinating, and does so deepening the proposals of a series of hidden or forgotten names, such as Smegma, but whose trajectories leave with their mouths open. In addition, Rosell illuminates the aesthetic and artistic value of a resource – the noise, distortion, the sound wall – that has been much more present in music than it seems.
On the other hand, Rosell brings the history of the Noise to the audience with an affordable but also very careful language in its use of metaphors and that exhibits a high literary value. ‘A formidable circuit’ is an excellent work of musical journalism and an example that cultural criticism also produces works of art like the ones she examines.
Special mention deserve: 1) Javier Blánquez’s prologue, one of the greats of Spanish musical criticism; 2) The informal feet of the book, which in some cases occupy entire pages. And ‘a formidable circuit’ is not a long book, but, in its careful selection of names, it shows that noise can also be written ink rivers. 9
