Beru
Objetos de Ficción EP
SCORE: 7
Like a cross between Throbbing Gristle, Skinny Puppy, Eli Kezler and Greg Fox, Jorge Berumen’s pieces are harsh, machine-like; he has created something not entirely unique, but instantly recognizable.
Jorge Berumen, the Mexico City-based drummer, composer and improviser, does not thread lightly. He debuted with three EPs in less than a month, and while they might not be too dissimilar from one another, the effort to deliver is to be applauded, taking into consideration that Berumen keeps himself very busy among the live circuit, collaborating with numerous artists. The current confinement finally presented him with the time to put down his own ideas in a more controlled setting, and the results are somewhat mixed; nonetheless, they are worthy of exploring, as the way he fuses noise, industrial, and even a little bit of techno, is really interesting.
Like a cross between Throbbing Gristle, Skinny Puppy, Eli Kezler and Greg Fox, Beru’s pieces on this EP are harsh, machine-like and repetitive exercises; the drumming is restrained and is constantly surrounded by grainy, abrasive textures that end up burying its natural timbre making it sound like programmed drums under a bit-crushing filter. The voice is also presented in a very distorted manner, completely erasing Berumen from the picture. He has gone full android on an EP where everything is alive, but painfully fused to a mechanical suit, much like a musical equivalent of a H.R. Giger painting.
The first track might be the most engaging from the bunch, but this doesn’t diminish the quality we’ll find in the rest of the EP. “Objetos de Ficción” summarizes Beru’s main aesthetic, but he does manage to find different ways to present it throughout these six songs; there might be a lack of variety, but each piece feels its own, and the whole album has personality because of that. Berumen has created something not entirely unique, but instantly recognizable: the transience of every drum hit shakes with hissing aggression, as if it were trying to scare you off; the vocals sound menacing, but we cannot make up if its a friendly invitation or a threat. Uncertainty is a constant in Objetos and it is also one of its best features.
The drawback may be that some of the ideas get dragged on for too long without any real sense of resolution or direction. This makes the songs sound like sketches instead of finished products, but still, they work as a great peek into Berumen’s enormous potential as a composer. He is aiming to stretch the sonic possibilities of his main instrument while still maintaining its main purpose: Objetos is very rhythm-driven (but it does not feel like a drumming lesson). All the while, it is adventurous enough to make this a wild and interesting listening experience.
