Meurs - Blooze, Hazards, And Off- Keys [ - 2021]Meurs is a recent/ new project from French noise maker/ derange-dada sound crafter Romain Perrot- whose most known venture is his black wearing 'n' nihilistic wall noise project Vomir. Blooze, Hazard’s and Off Keys is the projects first release- and what we get here is two lengthy slices of hazed ‘n’ deranged soundscaping that blends in moments of wonky guitar and keyboard jamming, ugly improv, melted easy listening, simmer church organ dwells, mad-man ranting, and all manner of lose/ unwell sound making. It’s very much a release that drifts ‘n’ shambles along, like a bad- though-curious smell put into sound form, that you can’t seem to stop sniffing/playing. So very lop-sided and unwell, though at the same time odd appealing. The release appears as a CD/ digital download on Perrot’s own label- the CD comes presented in a monochrome/ lo-fi looking cover. This features on its front what looks like it could be a close up low-grade picture of the base of an aroused male member, and inside we get a painting of a nude woman tired up, Romain in his studio, and on the back abstract black and white shapes.
Romain is listed as handle here keys, guitar, voice, tapes and electronics. With the only other collaborator been Austrian weird ‘n’ wonky sound maker Rudolf Eb.er- who does stuff on the end of the final track. The two tracks are simply entitled Blooze Medley 1 & 2- "1" lasts just over the twenty-minute mark, and "2" nearing the twenty-nine-minute mark- we do get a list of sub-titles on the inside sleeve, though what ends where/ starts where is unclear as it presents its self as just two melting and melding sonic suites of unwell-ness and sluggish derangement.
So "Blooze Medley 1", opens with a hazed and mixed blend of distant unevenly tolling keys, churning- yet very rudimentary guitar scaping and ranted French vocals. As we move on you can make out traces of waving horn-based improv, snapping-yet-unset beats, melted/ sad muzak, church organ plod, forking and warbling guitar tones, distant muddled beats, and other layers
Moving onto "Blooze Medley 2", and we begin with a mix of hissing churn, very distant 'n' wonkily shambling paino, and muffled lovelorn vocals- it feels like dripping and gone off singer-songwriter fare, heard through a deturned radio. As we move on more layers of lulling angular piano and keyboards get added to this mix, these are joined by slowly pressing noise forks, and running down harmonics plods. There is such a tangible feeling of wondering ‘n’ hazed wonkiness here, with things like sudden vocal trails appearing-then-prompt disappearing, church organ hoovers, more shambling piano work, lo-key noise hiss ‘n’ buffet, later abstract horn darts, and even some more even/ semi grooving/ beats plus warbling almost felt vocals.
With Blooze, Hazard’s and Off Keys Romain very much creates his own distinctively lopsided sonic place, that is neither here nor there when it comes to genre labels. I enjoyed the whole hazed and shambling quality of the release, and I do hope this isn't a one-off release for the Meurs project. To buy a copy directly from here Roger Batty
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