V/Vm
Pig

A record composed solely of pig sounds? Possible, indeed very possible when you are dealing with the entity V/Vm, the radical project curated by James Kirby, famous to many for the irreverent work performed on popular 'classics' (completely destroyed, or abstracted – in any case with results systematically superior to the original -) or the decidedly less noisy (but equally inhuman) project, The Caretaker, which has enjoyed considerable exposure, particularly at the hands of Wire.

V/Vm has made experimentation its undisputed credo, a constant that is not abandoned in this ingenious EP, where the pig noises are first captured (with an adventurous field recording operation at one of the UK's largest farms), then disfigured by a massive digital sound processing operation, which is complemented by a 'stomach processing' operation (several fragments are indeed recorded at the noisy moment - so noisy that it reduces Merzbow to harmless background music - when they eat), resulting in surreal output where pigs (about two thousand!) become not a dish, not slaughter meat, but Daliesque illusions, insane pseudo-infernal creatures, spastic ducks, inhuman screams more suited to the worst B-grade horror, generating aberrant mass noise that Kirby likens to human chaos in everyday life, specifically in situations where a large number of humans (aka masses) are in the same place together, just as it happens with pigs in their pens. In this case, the farm is equated with squares, venues, factories, shopping centers, etc., and in its own way, V/Vm delivers the message, reiterated multiple times in the dedicated notes, that we are nothing more than pigs, whatever that means.

Mockery or some sort of improbable revolutionary theory? Who knows... we're talking about a definitely foolish and controversial (often over the top) character as brilliant and disturbing, who easily transitions from the sharpest concept to the most evident mockery (you only need to think of when he pretended to be Pole, sending a demo to FatCat, which was then actually printed - unleashing the anger of the actual Pole), but what is certain is that "Pig," contrary to what one might expect, is first and foremost a delight to listen to, an almost metaphysical experience where in the dusty industrial-noise chaos one can even smell these future juicy and reassuring dishes, reaching its peak in "Uncle Ernie", where, preceded by an unclear monologue by this character about pig vaccines, there’s a deafening sonic collage completely out of this world (likely depicting the moment when they are slaughtered), stuff not even Nurse With Wound at their best. Credit must be given to V/Vm who with "Pig" has not only philosophized, in a more or less sensible way, on the concepts of mass, herd, and homogenization, but has in fact created one of the most experimental works ever appeared on media, a sort of (pig)noise taking on even larger dimensions when noticing how, amidst such pig-chaos, a subtle yet perceptible level of drone/ecstatic musicality is detectable, which, as you might expect, is not at all obvious given the source.

The absolute manifesto of the V/VM reality.