Various Artists ‎– "The World Does Not Fit On A 21" Screen" (Sound Of Pig ‎– SOP 42) 1986

The modern version of this would be "The World does not fit on a 110inch screen",as Televisions start to take over at least one room in the home of today.
From the home's of the late 20th century,when the cathode ray still ruled, transmits this beyond fine compilation from the impeccable Sound Of Pig label,with a superb collection of the weird and wacky.Worth the entrance fee alone for one of Roberta Eklund's excellent word collages, among the abstract industrial,minimal synth and post hardcore avant rock tunes.
It's Sound Of Pig, you know what to expect by now, so I'll shut up.

DOWNLOAD from a decent sized TV screen to your ears HERE!

Merzan / Zanmerz ‎– "Frightened And Ecrasez L'Infâme" (ZH27 ‎– 010) 1992

This works more as a collaboration than the previous two cassettes by Merzan/Zanmerz.Whereas the earlier tapes sounded like two separate sides by two different artists,this one merges far more as an album.
The side mixed by Luis Mesa is more of a conventional scraping drone,like claws down a blackboard;but,again the Zan Hoffman mix side is far more inventive.It takes you in several unexpected directions,twisting and squirming like a trapped eel out of water.Always maintaining the listeners interest,rather than being bored by another Drone.

Arranged By, Mixed By – Luis Mesa (tracks: A), Zan Hoffman (tracks: B)Featuring [Audio Sources] – Merz , Zanstones

 

Tracklist:

A	Merzan Frightened	29:01
B	Zanmerz Ecrasez L'Infâme	31:16

DOWNLOAD L'Infame,L'Infame,they've alllll got it In fer me! HERE!

Merzan / Zanmerz ‎– "First Affaire" (ZH27 ‎– 074) 1991

This, predictably, is Zan Hoffman and Luis Mesa's first mail collaboration. The usual noisy droney vortex of tarnsformed sound sources,that fit snuggly into the "Other" category. Zan's the man,mixing humour and a great sense of image with the avant garde.....and because of this remains roundly ignored,despite releasing around 1200 albums.Founder of the adage,"if you throw enough mud at the wall none of it will stick".....I made that one up,but very applicable to Zan,and probably Luis Mesa too.The difference is Zan Hoffman isn't giving up,and Mesa has disappeared.

Tracklist:

A1	A Letter To L.M.
A2	Climax
A3	Black Dream
B1	Rumor De Registro Secreto
B2	Religiones Blanco

DOWNLOAD more mud to throw at the teflon coated wall of opinion HERE!

Merzan / Zanmerz ‎– "Hell City And GoGoCrash" (Tonspur Tapes ‎– TT 43 /ZH27 016) 1991

There aren't many artists in the cassette culture universe that Zan Hoffman hasn't collaborated with in his 27 years of sonic exploration; and Merz,or luis Mesa isn't one of them. Under the merged oneness  of Merzan/Zanmerz they combined by sending each other tapes in the post,an extension of the Mail Art umbrella. Essentially,this is basically a Merz track on side A, and Zan Hoffman remixing soundsources from Minoy,Agog,1348,Merz,and himself,to create something unique and extraordinary on side B.
The humour of Zan Hoffman is always to the fore on any of his thousands of releases,and he always has a talent for a funny title or two. Its a whirlpool of unexpected and unconnected sound bytes,swirling in an unstructured soup of effects and mixer manipulation.This has more in common with free jazz than any other experimental musics. Anything goes in the search for the 13th note when Hoffman's in town.

Tracklist:

A	Hell City
B1	She Plays A Mean Car Crash
B2	Gogominoymadreadmetal

"Hell City", composed by Merz in Madrid, 1991.
"She plays a mean car crash", recorded by Zan in Louky. Featuring "no title" (Merz), How loops, Agog viola, John Wiggins (fresh wig), Runzlestirn & Gurglestock.
"Gogominoymadreadmetal" (remixed 11/17/1991), featuring 1348, Merz, Minóy & Anika.

DOWNLOAD this car crash of a cassette HERE!

Recursos Ajenos / Merz ‎– "Una Exposición" (IEP ‎– IEP 07) 1985

Luis Mesa appearing as two bands.On side A he is Recursos Ajenos, and on side B,he is his usual self as Merz.
Recursos Ajenos is the melodic side of Mesa,with synth melodies,drum beats and choir samples.There's even a chorus laden guitar, plucking a melancholic melody on 'Juegos Blancos'. This side of the cassette finishes with a discordant keyboard marching stomp.All very accessible,so i'm sure the other side will be the 'normal' Merz/Luis Mesa dysfunctional experimentation.......just listened to it and yes it is.

Tracklist:

	Recursos Ajenos:
A1	El Himno De Los Muertos
A2	Juegos Blancos
A3	Cánticos
	Merz:
B1	San Remo '84
B2	La Cólera

DOWNLOADtwo sides of luis mesa HERE!

Merz ‎– "Aibre" (IEP ‎– IEP 101) 1985

Luis Mesa made, for some unknown reason, two different albums called "Aibre", one under his own name, and another by his Merz alias.Whatever the obsession with the word 'Aibre' was I don't really want to know, and all the info I could find on it is that is a place in France near the Swiss border!!/....uh?
This version sounds like a cross between the soundtrack to "Forbidden Planet", by Bebe and Louis Barron ,and a whole series of 'the Clangers'*. An electronic music without synthesisers that hark back to the early days of Stockhausen.

*An English kids tv series from the 1970's,which featured an Iron Chicken made from junk,a Soup dragon who made soup for The Clangers;who also ate blue string pudding,and went fishing in space powered by music notes from a music tree.......and now you know why the English are weird!......so what excuse have the Spanish got?.....I got it.....bull fighting.

Tracklist:

A1	Pájaros Electrónicos
A2	La Gran Señora
A3	Exclusión I
A4	Bajo La Lluvia
B1	Aibre
B2	Exclusión 2
B3	Kaleidoskopio
B4	Collage Mixto

DOWNLOAD from the  forbidden clangers planet HERE!

Merz – "Sonido Directo Nº 1" (Self Released) 1985

Sonido Directo No.1, more manifestations of the information overload techno-hell that this tape predicts for our present, and Luis Mesa's past future. The thing is with our information ,not so, super highway,is; there's is now so much conflicting information available at any one moment, that state secrets can be aired publicly, worldwide, and nobody could possibly believe it because the anti-viewpoint, the anti-fact, has already been put out there. So in effect the naked truth is cancelled out. Truth and anti-truth,lie and anti-lie conveniently annihilate each other,paving the way for a stealthy acquisition of world control,and nobody will believe it has happened. The more in your face the untruth is the bigger the truth that can be made to appear as lies.....The big lie as Hitler called it. The best example of this, post Reichstag fire,is obviously 9/11, and more recently the Ukraine situation.......does anyone really know what is going on there? No,and that's exactly what they want,conflicting information from a conflict zone in the information age;and we in fact know nothing!

Yes, this is another great cassette from Merz........or am I lying ?

Tracklist:

A1	Babilonia
A2	Direktionrecht
A3	Summun Lus, Summa Iniuria
A4	Plata
B1	Muerte Y Gloria
B2	El Sistema Mata
B3	La Columna
B4	La Cólera

 

DOWNLOAD información directa No 2 HERE!

Merz – "Bustos" (IEP) 1985

Merz brings us the sound of a close miked body,the claustrophobic sounds of a heartbeat and blood flowing through narrowing arteries. The title track on side one, is basically the flesh jail that we are all incarcerated in solitary confinement for a life sentence; we protest our innocence but no-one is listening,because there is no-one there to hear our screams.

“Fe y Sol” is the loneliness of life fading away from isolation,only then do the cold cell walls rot to release the prisoner.

OK, so I'm feeling a tad negative today......its not as bad as all that......well in fact it is;so just get on with it because its all we've got and this is how it is, because it IS! The best advice I can give is 'Don't waste your life looking for answers because there isn't any'. The closest anyone's gonna get is on this cassette(one among thousands of others).

Tracks:

A		Bustos	14:25
B		Fe y Sol	18:15

DOWNLOAD this fine body of work HERE!

Merz ‎– "Meditacion" (IEP ‎– IEP 10) 1985

More from the twisted tape machine of Luis Mesa,aka Merz. There are times when this cassette sounds like its being chewed up by the tape player.Just as you reach for the pencil to rewind the creased and mangled tape from the pinchers, you realise...."No,it's meant to sound like this!".
You can't do this with digital recorders,there's nothing to touch,and any tape simulators can't match the smooth curves of the analogue sine wave.Its strictly square waves,steps and blocks; which has its uses, but is basically shit for real time manipulation,knob twiddling and general mucking about.
Basically excellent minimal sound source fuck-upery from the Iberian peninsula.

Tracklist:

A1	Tentaciones
A2	Voz
A3	Una Confesion
A4	El Sur
A5	La Otra Babilonia
B1	Moral
B2	Vida Interior
B3	Inunda Mi Ser
B4	Martires
B5	El Estado Alfa

DOWNLOAD some noise for meditation HERE!

Merz ‎– "Justicia Divina" (IEP ‎– IEP 01) 1983

Well we've had Merz-Bow, now we naturally must move on,or backwards, to Merz, and some Spanish Industrial noise.
Luis Mesa is Merz (Not to be confused with Protag's side project of the same name),and he produced plenty of minimal distorted noisescapes around the mid eighties.This being the earliest from 1983.
Various droning synths,and found sounds are all fed through some budget distortion unit and manipulated well into the VU red zone. At times it sound quite like those spy transmissions on short wave radio,best heard on the Conet Project,but glitched up into a grinding noise not too far removed from a pitchshifted dentists drill approaching your healthy tooth next to the rotten one.

Tracklist:

A1	Carne Para El Matadero
A2	Penitencia I
A3	Fisura En El Cerebro
A4	Líbano
A5	Sexta Edición
B1	Matando Ancianos
B2	Penitencia II
B3	Justicia Divina
B4	Penitencia III
B5	Perdón, Señor

DOWNLOAD some pain from the plain in spain HERE!