VISIONES DE LA CATSTROFE

Documentos del Noise Industrial en Per (1990-1995)

Hacia mediados de la dcada de los 80s estall en Lima un movimiento de

hardcore punk que recibi el nombre de Movida de Rock Subterrneo. Para
fines de dicha dcada la movida haba diversificado sus opciones musicales
hacia el post punk, la fusin, el techno y el noise. El escenario poltico y social
en el que se haba desarrollado dicha movida estaba determinado por una
profunda crisis econmica y un entorno violentista producto del enfrentamiento
entre grupos terroristas y militares que haban sumido al pas en un clima de
inseguridad y caos. El nihilismo que expresaban las letras y el sonido spero y
visceral de muchas agrupaciones del rock subterrneo era significativo de un
sentimiento generacional. La tica del Hazlo t mismo del punk encontr eco
entre dichos jvenes que empezaron a gestar su propio circuito musical. En
poco tiempo empezaron a publicarse maquetas y fanzines, y a organizar
conciertos autogestionados. Como tena que ser, el punk los haba liberado de
toda regla y pericia instrumental: lo importante era la expresin por encima de
la destreza. Y eso llev a que de la noche a la maana muchos cogieran una
guitarra y armarn una banda. Es aqu que se encuentra el germen para lo que
ser el pequeo movimiento de noise industrial en el Per.

Quienes seran luego los encargados de activar un circuito de noise en Lima

haban sido todos adeptos a la movida subterrnea de hardcore punk como
tambin a la escena paralela, tan o ms grande, de metal en sus vertientes
extremas. La aparicin internacional del disco Scum (1987), de los ingleses
Napalm Death, haba sentado las bases para el surgimiento del grindcore, un
gnero que consista en la aceleracin rtmica del hardcore y el trash metal
hasta niveles inimaginables. Se poda tocar ms rpido y fuerte que esto? El
grindcore prendi como reguero de plvora en el underground alrededor del
mundo y dio vida a gneros como el grindnoise o el noise core. Grupos como
los australianos Seven Minutes Of Nausea ya estaban fusionando la velocidad
con el puro ruido y sera otro gran referente para el noise en Lima. Y es que la
bulla se hizo notar tambin al interior del Rock Subterrneo, para luego
establecer su propio territorio, como lo prueba la aparicin de fanzines
especializados como Ruido Mundial o Bulla Extrema. Grupos como Atrofia
Cerebral, Audicin Irritable, Pulverized Necro Brain, Spasm, MDA, Obstruccin
Intestinal, inauguran esa movida grind noise, que aunque pequea supo
generar lazos importantes con el circuito internacional y participar activamente
de la red de intercambio mundial de casetes.
Y es justamente aqu que empiezan a darse a conocer bandas y proyectos,
estticamente vinculados a los grupos de grindcore y noisecore, pero
snicamente alejados de cualquier estructura rock, aun subyacente en dichas
bandas. Ya la suma de velocidad ms baja fidelidad, de un disco como Matanza
Extrema, de Atrofia Cerebral, significaba un hallazgo respecto a los niveles de
radicalidad a los que se poda llegar a pesar de la desventaja tcnica. La
portada del casete estaba ilustrada con una imagen de la matanza de los
penales, acontecimiento que marca un terrible captulo de la guerra interna en
el Per, en la que tras el amotinamiento de presos acusados de terrorismo,
perdieron la vida ms de 300 reclusos de manos de fuerzas militares.

Y es que estos duros acontecimientos, como los coches bomba, los toques de
queda, y atentados y sus consecuentes respuestas militares, llenaban las
pginas de los diarios y se convertan en el cruento imaginario grfico para una
generacin.

Odio de Audicin Irritable, haca del desgaste del sonido un elemento

fundamental para la generacin de una masa de ruido, donde ya no era posible
reconocer tan claramente los instrumentos utilizados. La radicalidad del grind
por ir tan lejos como se pueda estimulaba a un grupo de adolescentes a
explorar otro tipo de sonoridades menos convencionales, ms cercanas a esa
utpica destruccin musical, que era el lema del gnero, representado por el
smbolo de una corchea tachada y que sin falta se encontraba en todo demo o
publicacin vinculada a dicho movimiento. Rupture Chaotic de Phlegm, se
alejaba tambin del binomio guitarra batera y reemplazaba la base rtmica por
una secuencia electrnica a la vez que estiraba la intro, caracterstica de las
canciones de estos grupos, en un largo pasaje de collage de sonidos.

La aparicin de artistas como Atresia, Distorsin Desequilibrada, Esperpento,

Demencia Senil, Glaucoma, Sangama o Pestaudio, dan el salto hacia el ruido
puro. Y es que los artistas de noise industrial (como se hacan llamar), son aqu
el resultado de la radicalidad a la que haba llegado tanto la escena grind como
la escena metal. Y no parece gratuito que su surgimiento coincida con el fin de
la movida del rock subterrneo, pues de alguna manera los artistas de noise
industrial son la manifestacin de un rechazo a todo valor musical, y el smbolo
de una atomizacin a la que la propia movida subterrnea haba llegado.
Curiosamente ninguno de estos artistas toc en vivo, fueron proyectos
esencialmente concebidos para la grabacin, para la escucha en solitario.

Ataque sensorial auditivo fue el ttulo del primer demo de Distorsin

Desequilibrada, proyecto de lvaro Portales publicado en abril de 1991. Al
interior del casete poda leerse el subttulo: A manos de un siniestro comando
policial. Y es que sin duda el uso del ruido a niveles extremos poda
conectarlos con toda una tradicin del noise japons. De hecho en los fanzines
locales de entonces se poda leer sobre artistas como KK Null, The
Gerogerigegege o Merzbow, quienes a su vez mantuvieron vinculacin con el
sonido del grindcore y el metal, y con la generacin de artistas de industrial
conocidos como power electronics. Pero no era slo la adhesin a una nueva
ola de noise industrial internacional la que mova a los ruidistas locales, para la
movida local el ruido era una forma de manifestar su descontento, y a
diferencia del hardcore punk precedente, era en lo abstracto, en lo irracional,
en el puro ruido, donde hallaban sus logros expresivos, la encarnacin en un
estallido snico, una representacin del estado de alerta del da a da.

Toda herramienta para generar sonido poda ser utilizaba, sopesando con ello
la carencia de equipo profesional o instrumentos electrnicos que les
resultaban inaccesibles. Alvaro Portales escriba entonces en un manifiesto
sobre la posibilidad de explotar los objetos para una carcter auditivo. De ah
que en las grabaciones podamos encontrar procesos de seales de radio y
televisin, voces guturales, feedbacks, generacin de ruido con todo artefacto
domstico posible, collages de vinilos y cassetes, golpes a metales. No haba
lmites en su bsqueda de radicalidad. P.A.M (Proyecto Anti Musica), firmado
por Miguel Tipacti (Atrofia Cerebral, Esperpento), fue uno de esos tantos
experimentos que de tan radicales terminaban por rozar la excentricidad (y por
qu no la genialidad): consista de un casete con tres minutos de silencio, para
demostrar la total destruccin musical. Glaucoma, del guitarrista Edgar Umeres
(integrante del grupo de metal Hadez), se basaba en feedback de guitarra y
efectos para crear masas de ruido en un encuentro insano entre el Metal
Machine Music de Lou Reed y el sonido grind. Demencia Senil, de Christian
Bernedo, era el hallazgo del ruido en donde sea posible: gritos, golpes,
juguetes fuera de control, saturacin en la grabacin, etc.

Es con Sangama que los ambientes atmosfricos intuidos por Glaucoma,

Distorsin Desequilibrada, Pestaudio y Esperpento dominan por completo.
Sangama inaugura el sonido del ambient industrial en el Per. La visceralidad y
violencia snica cede a la introspeccin y al estado de trance. Sangama se dio
a conocer en una compilacin llamada Infamia, aparecida en 1997, donde
tambin participaron artistas como Maximum Terrorem, Pychulator e
Insumisin. Los dos primeros incluyeron tracks tambin en la compilacin
Estudios Embriolgicos de Deformaciones, aparecido ese mismo ao. Por
entonces se dan a conocer proyectos como Jardn Vrtigo, Inversor Demente,
Sadomasters, Jardn. El post industrial y el aislacionismo haban llegado a Lima,
a la vez que una escena de msica electrnica experimental empezaba a
asomar con fuerza. Pero esa ya es otra historia.

El periodo del noise industrial en el Per abarca de 1990 a 1995 y se gest

como parte de un movimiento mayor de grindcore. Constituye la llegada de un
gnero musical, donde visceralidad, amateurismo, y el total alejamiento de la
meloda, llev a estos artistas a explorar sonoridades extremas, abrindose
totalmente a la experimentacin. Ms de veinte aos despus aparecen dichos
proyectos compilados en cd dando cuenta no slo de un original sonido sino
sirviendo tambin como testimonio de una poca crtica. (Luis Alvarado)

VISIONS OF CATASTROPHE
Documentation on Industrial Noise in Peru (1990-1995)

In the mid 80s a hardcore punk movement burst in Lima under the Movida de
Rock Subterrneo moniker, meaning Underground Rock Movement. By the end of
said decade the movement had diversified its musical options toward post punk,
fusion, techno and noise. The political and social ecosystem in which that
movement had developed was determined by a deep economical crises and a
violent environment which had sunk the country into an insecure and chaotic
condition as terrorist groups and the military clashed. Nihilism expressed in lyrics
and the harsh and gutsy sound of many underground rock groups highly
represented a generational feeling. The DO IT YOURSELF punk label was echoed
by these youngsters who began to brood their own musical circuit. In a short time
many demos and fanzines were published and self produced concerts were
organized. As it had to be, punk had freed them from every rule and musical skill:
what mattered was expressing oneself beyond skills. In no time many took a guitar
and formed a band. Here we find the germ for what the small industrial noise
movement in Peru shall be.

Those who would later be in charge of activating a noise circuit in Lima had
previously been followers of the hardcore punk underground movement as well as
the, as big or even bigger, parallel metal scene in its extreme versions. The
international appearance of the album Scum (1987) by the English band Napalm
Death had set ground for the surfacing of grindcore, a genre that consisted of
rhythmic speeding up of hardcore and trash metal to unimaginable levels. Could
you play faster and louder than that? Grindcore set the ground ablaze in the
underground all over the world and it gave birth to grindnoise and noise core.
Groups such as the Australians Seven Minutes Of Nausea were already blending
speed with pure noise and they would become another referent to noise in Lima. It
so just happens that the roar made itself heard loud and clear within the
Underground Rock to then establish its own territory as proven by niche fanzines
such as Ruido Mundial or Bulla Extrema. Groups such as Atrofia Cerebral,
Audicion Irritable, Pulverized Necro Brain, Spasm, MDA, Obstruccion Intestinal,
started this grind noise movement which, even though small, would have important
ties with the international circuit, participating actively in the exchange of cassettes
in the world networks.

It is precisely here that bands and projects become known, aesthetically connected
with grindcore and noisecore groups, but soundwise far detached from any rock
structure still reminiscent in these latter bands. Already speed added to low fi of a
record such as Matanza Extrema by Atrofia Cerebral was a finding related to the
levels of radicalism you could reach even in spite of technical disadvantages. The
cover of the cassette case showed a killing in prison, an event that marked a
terrible chapter in the internal war in Peru in which after a mutiny by prisoners
accused of terrorism, more than 300 inmates lost their lives to the hands of the
military.

And it is these tough events such as car bombs, curfews and assaults with the
aftermath of military response that filled pages in newspapers and turned into the
bloody graphic imagery of a generation.

Odio by Audicion Irritable turned the wear and tear of sound into a fundamental
element to generate a mass of noise where it was not possible to distinguish clearly
the instruments played. The radicalism of grind by going as far as possible
stimulated a group of teenagers to explore other kinds of other less conventional
sonorities, closer to that utopia of music destruction which was the motto of the
genre, represented by the symbol of a crossed out quaver note which needless to
say was present on each demo or release connected with this movement. Rupture
Chaotic by Phlegm parted from the guitar drum combination replacing it with
electronic sequences at the same time intros were elongated in endless sound
collage passages, a characteristic trait of these groups.

Artists such as Atresia, Distorsin Desequilibrada, Esperpento, Demencia Senil,

Glaucoma, Sangama or Pestaudio come forward, leaping into pure noise. These
artists of industrial noise (so they made themselves be called) were the result of
the radicalism to which the grind and metal scenes had arrived. It is not gratuitous
that the surge coincides with the end of the underground rock movement as in
some way the artists of industrial noise were the representation of the non
acceptance of any musical value and the symbol of the atomization to which the
underground movement had itself arrived. Curiously enough none of these artists
played live, these were projects basically conceived to be recorded, to be heard in
solitude.

Ataque sensorial auditivo was the title of the first demo by Distorsin
Desequilibrada, a project by lvaro Portales which was released on April 1991. In
the inner sleeve of the cassette box one could read: In the hands of a sinester
police squad. Undoubtedly the use of noise to extreme levels could connect them
with an entire Japanese noise tradition. Needless to say in locals fanzines of those
times one could read about artists such as KK Null, The Gerogerigegege or
Merzbow, who in their turn had links to the sound of grindcore and metal and the
generation of industrial artists known as power electronics. But it wasnt only a
bond to the new wave of international industrial noise that moved local noise
artists, for the local movement noise was a form of showing their dissatisfaction,
and differently from preceding hardcore punk, it was the abstract, irrationality, and
pure noise where they found their expressive achievements, the incarnation of a
sound blast, a depiction of the day to day state of alert.

Every tool that generated sound could be used, pondering the lack of professional
equipment or electronic instruments which were inaccessible. Alvaro Portales
wrote back then in a manifest on the possibility of exploiting objects for a hearing
purpose. Thus in the recordings we find radio and television signal processing,
throaty voices, feedbacks, generation of sound with any imaginable domestic
artifact, vinyl and cassette tape collages, banging on metals. There were no limits
to their search for radicalism. P.A.M. (Anti Music Project for its initials in Spanish)
signed by Miguel Tipacti (Atrofia Cerebral, Esperpento) was one of many
experiments which were so radical they wound up as eccentricities (and why not a
geniality): it consisted of a cassette tape with three minutes of silence, to
demonstrate the total destruction of music. Guitarist Edgar Umeres (member of the
metal band Hadez) based his Glaucoma on guitar feedback and effects to create
masses of noise in an insane encounter between Metal Machine Music by Lou
Reed and grind sound. Demencia Senil by Christian Bernedo was the find of noise
in any possible source: shouts, bangs, out of control toys, overloaded recordings,
etc.

It is with Sangama that the atmospheric environments intuited by Glaucoma,

Distorsin Desequilibrada, Pestaudio and Esperpento take total control. The
ambient industrial sound begins with Sangama in Peru. A visceral position and
sound violence give way to introspection and a state of trance. Sangama made
itself known with a compilation called Infamia which was released in 1997 and in
which artists such as Maximum Terrorem, Pychulator and Insumisin also
participated. The first two also included tracks in Estudios Embriolgicos de
Deformaciones, a compilation released that same year. Jardn Vrtigo, Inversor
Demente, Sadomasters, Jardn also make themselves known at this time. Post
industrial and isolationism had arrived in Lima at the same time and experimental
electronic music scene had strongly made itself present. But that is another story.

Industrial noise in Peru goes from 1990 to 1995 and it was part of a major
grindcore movement. It was the arrival of a musical genre where visceral positions,
amateurism, and complete disregard of melody took these artists to explore
extreme sonorities by opening themselves completely to experimentation. More
than twenty years later we see a compilation of those projects in a CD which gives
count not only of an original sound but also serving as a testimony of a critical
moment. (Luis Alvarado).