Campo-Formio

Luego del impresionante one-two punch que fueron los EP’s 28/11/2008 y AZ’s, la presión para Campo-Formio repetir el impacto de esas producciones debe haber sido algo agotadora. Nos llega justo al final del año el tercer EP de la banda, titulado Spooky Fools, como una propuesta totalmente diferente. Se trata de un trabajo de menos duración – un poco más de 16 minutos en lugar de la acostumbrada media hora – pero mayor impacto. Y como prometido, la banda hace su primera incursión a los formatos análogos.

Campo-Formio se dio a la tarea de publicar “Spooky Fools” como un vinilo de 10? en edición limitada – 500 copias en dorado o ‘amarillo traslúcido’ con su código para descarga digital también – en busca de una mejor conexión con los amantes de su música y de nuevos seguidores alrededor del mundo. No son los primeros ni los únicos en Puerto Rico en adoptar el formato, pero al parecer son de los más que se han gozado el proceso en un buen tiempo. Según leen los créditos del proyecto, el camino a “Spooky Fools” fue toda una aventura: La música se grabó en vivo (como acostumbrado por la banda) de 4:30 a 8:30pm el pasado 13 de junio junto a Hector “Stone Tape” Hernández y Jorge Mundo en su Dorado Recording Studio; luego enviada a Lucky Lacquers en Portland, OR para recibir la masterización adecuada para el formato de vinilo; y finalmente publicada bajo el propio sello de la banda, Dead Mofongo Records.

El disco cuenta con cuatro temas – dos en cada lado – a ser tocados en 45 RPM. El lado A podría ser considerado un ‘double A-side’ ya que contiene las mejores dos canciones que haya grabado la banda hasta la fecha. ‘Duende’ recoge en sus casi siete minutos de duración varias facetas de la banda: el ataque sónico agresivo, a veces pesado y lento, otras veces tocado a velocidades impresionantes – pero sin perder precisión; la constante progresión dentro de sus canciones, con cada bloque de segundos encerrando un nuevo espacio para los integrantes ocupar, recorrer y destrozar; la cohesión rítmica y melódica con la que Ricardo Pérez (bajo) y Diego Bernal (batería) ejecutan estas transiciones; los tonos y el ‘strumming’ característicos de Fernando Quintero (guitarra, teclados, letras) y la maleabilidad de su voz.

En aparente contradicción, le sigue ‘Orgasmo Pixelado’ - lo más cercano que Campo-Formio ha estado a escribir un sencillo para la radio. Dentro de sus 3 minutos la banda pinta una escena de infidelidad que justo antes de estallar en violencia se convierte en una plegaria para ‘aprender a amar’, irse a ‘buscar paz mental’ y reflexionar. Es una de las composiciones más maduras y mejor realizadas dentro del repertorio de Campo-Formio – una que su tocadiscos le va a agradecer cada vez que la toque. - Puerto Rico Indie

There is something unabashedly sinister rising through the cracks, crumbling and annihilating any sort of anatomical order. It’s not the sequel to the Christmas Eve shakedown, it’s Campo-Formio’s latest release. “Spooky Fools”, the power trio’s latest extended-play (rocking under 20 mins.) installment to their canon of sonic chaos, is a little demonoid of caustic, and eclectic, screwdriving rock n’ roll which will stuff you with delectable riffs, if you weren’t stuffed enough from the holiday smorgasbord. And as if that wasn’t enough, the vinyl pressing ( a 10’ released on their own record label, “Dead Mofongo Records”) will be more than happy to work as a plate.
The record kicks out the jams with “Duende”, a snarling power punch to the gut that starts out unassumingly with instruments syncing up for the barrage, then moving into a manic drive through sweet licks and tight drumming before segueing into a sludgy breakdown. The rest of the track is a juggling act between sinister interludes and more upbeat crashes before finally shifting to an all-out garage-like blow-up. The lyrics epitomize the absurdly relentless challenge of the mythological beastie: “no hay una solución al problema” (“there is no solution to the problem”).
“Orgasmo Pixelado” follows with an angsty opening depicting a scene of marital infidelity. This torturous ( in the “rubs you in a good way” kind of way), angular and mathematical introduction makes a full 180 degrees turn promptly: instead of unleashing the structural violence which is expected out of such a cuckolded rendez-vous, it jumps into the foray of catchy phrases and riffs before transforming into a dreamy hypnotizing movement. The tracks kicks back into a traditional Campo-Formio pulverizing cakewalk, with chants urging spiritual transcendence over the amorous turncoat maneuver saying “no te rindas mas” (“don’t give up anymore”), “aprende!” (“learn!”) and “tu puedes!” (“you can!”). This potential single represents a maturing of the band’s songwriting: exploring more subtle dynamics, using at their will ferocity with precociousness, textural distortion with chiming riffs.
The second side of the EP is more of experimental nature, exploring the aural tenets which the band is capable of. The first track, “Soundcheck”, is a mutating and evolving study on fuzz and feedback which gets into gear with revving vocals. Pounding drums and punishing strings grow exponentially in the song (barely reaching the two minute mark) before the distortion caves in on itself, flowing into “The Xibalba Dance Proposal” a Casio-heavy composition (part of a dance piece co-written with Cristina Lugo)indulging everyone with vibrating synths galore. This odyssey into the Mayan underworld moves between the chambers of the spiritual world, exposing the adventurer to the trails of the beyond. The piece gravitates between the onerous and horrible, between a nightmare and a dream.
In terms of production, the record is decadently loud and lascivious. The trifecta-combo is mixed wonderfully. The bass and drums, courtesy of Ricardo Pérez and Diego Bernal respectively, set the foundation to all sound but are not limited to their wallflower demeanor, for they have ample elbow space and moments where they both bop and bump unto colorful and upbeat bass licks and thunderous drum rolls while Fernando Quintero’s guitar and synth playing add extra levels of depth and shining hooks to the savage mix. The vocal duties are split between the string section, complementing the dual singing with a playful relationship of brutality and joviality.
Vinyl pressing, by today’s standards is rare, but it’s slowly and begrudgingly to all tech nuts, making a comeback. The record sports a tasty golden transparent pressing and its cover is a beautiful technicolor bacchanalia (thanks to artists Javier Román) featuring an aging Fool (from the Tarot tradition) trotting on a treadmill-cum-conveyor belt which powers the torture of a cybernaut tied to the machine (while two other cyberpunks await to pummel the poor lad.) The elfish-ears on the mad Fool-doctor make him synonymous with the opening track’s protagonist, working furiously towards a non-existing goal or solution. For those without a record player, fear not, the album comes with a digital download.
“Spooky Fools” is clearly the year’s best local rock production, hands down (if they haven’t yet been chopped off because of the EP’s razor-sharp barrage). Cohesive, multi-facetious and most importantly, it’s explosive. The record takes you, tells you you’re a horrible person, then it’s an “I love you” then it leaves and does its own thing, and what’s great is that you go with it. Now what’s left is for the band to follow up this endeavor with a full-length release to take the stakes to a higher level.
Campo-Formio will be releasing “Spooky Fools” this Thursday at La Respuesta (Fernández Juncos Ave.) alongside the bands Los Petardos, Unidos NO, Tach. De. The album will also available for purchase as a digital download at www.campoformio.bandcampo.com/album/spooky-fools. - The Modern Addendum

<i>Duende</i>'s rat-a-tatting drums and arch-<b>Pixies</b>-esque riffage are a perfectly delicious introduction to this playful, self-effacing band from South America; the track begins spiky and full of life before lurching, <b>Sonic Youth</b>-like, into stunted huge slobbery punctuation marks of guitar, bass and drums. This trio perform gloriously together, a knowing, wry sense of humour enveloped in their music as much as it rocks. This track inparticular going on a number of pleasingly demented and toe-tapping tangents, shifting tempo with disorientatingly danceable abandon, as Diego Bernal's drumming adopts the immediacey of a 70s car chase and Ricardo Perez's bass grumbles eagerly behind. When Fernando Quintero's vocals enter the mix they're a beserk combination of <b>Jane's Addiction</b> and <b>Pavement</b>, sometimes burbled from the depths of Hell, occasionally barked and squawked with indie-hero abandon.

After this epic journey, second track <i>Orgasmo Pixelado</i> is a psych-dirge plunge into a nightmare, with Quintero spitting on vocals aggressively over a looping guitar line, before everything turns a bit <b>The Beatles</b> gone awry with a dizzy Carousel-like guitar line off-set by breakneck drumming that tumbles into a woozy ballad. It's raucous and stuffed full of so much imagination, ending Side A on a pulse-pounding frenzy that could cause fits.

Side B begins with <i>Soundcheck</i>; an expanding wail of vocals, accompanied by an instant reboot of tempo picking up where Side A left off; you can feel the energy of the band so vividly you can practically feel their sweat! Once that brief track is done and dusted the kooky <i>The Xibalba Dance Proposal</i> opens with melodious and retro keyboards, it has a strange sense of positivity and joy oozing from every note, which is contrasted nicely by the grumbling bass and drums. It shifts into a near anthemic and optimistic little ditty that blasts off into hi-speed punky bursts, winding up sounding like the theme music to <b>The Legend of Zelda</b> through a twisted filter.

Campo-Formio are stuffed with creativity and vitality and this is palpable on record, constantly pushing and pulling themselves in a variety of directions, this record is a consistent treat from beginning to end, leaving you desperate for more.

You can order this fantastic, anarchic, transparent 'gold' vinyl EP from: http://deadmofongo.myminto.com/

P.S. First time around I listened to the first side of the album at the wrong speed (33rpm) and it still sounded great, that's how good this band are!

5/5
- God is in the TV Zine

http://www.electricroulette.com/2009/05/new-band-campo-formio.html

Waaargh! WWAAAAAAAAAGH! Yessir, we got some serious noise right here, comin' straight outta Puerto Rico! A band obsessive about makin' a racket enough to make '7&7 Is...' look like the lamest Radio 2 schmaltz you ever did hear... ladies and gents, Campo Formio are here and they're taking names and numbers.

Before the CD even hits the tray and a single fuzz assaults your ears, the EP cover takes care of business. Screwed up paper with a grinning mouth fulla rotten teeth greets your eyes... then the sound hits you like a claw-hammer in the top of your skull. 'Intro del Outro Tedioso/Outro Tedioso' kicks things off with a stream of wails, a barrage of noise and cranked up surf over three million miles an hour rhythms. Tight and tough, just the way you like it... before slowing down into a languid Sonic Youth style jam.

It's not even the tuffest track on the EP. 'La Meira' is a ferocious attack of lightspeed snot-punk which sounds like a whole buncha hooligans rioting in your head. 2 seconds in, these little fiends are throwing chairs through your synapses, kicking the backs of your eyeballs, giving the old grey matter the hack and slash treatment. Supreme fuzz onslaught, megaphone vocals and jaw-shattering goodness all 'round.

There's more of the same with instro 'Dying Breed' which sounds like The Fall... if players took more speed and kept it together... and invested in some Big Muff pedals. Still, it's not all No-Fi kickass rock 'n' roll... Campo Formio have time for some tuneful Television/Richard Hell jangly pop-punk. 'Ambigud Soledad' is a tuneful racket that couples the sneers with the hooks... 'El Joke' starts off like some Tropicalia track, before ripping off the shirt to kick on with some more jangled nerve janglepop.

This is one tough nut of an EP, one you'll dig a lot if you like noisy American rock from either '66 or '93. It ticks the garage punk boxes of MC5 nuts... it'll tick the boxes of fans of New Bomb Turks and The Saints... it'll tick the boxes of those that dig Sonic Youth and CBGB's bands... it's all killer. Murderous even. Go buy it. Prepare some space in the house for leaping around and trashing everything in sight. [mofgimmers] - Electric Roulette

http://godisinthetvzine.co.uk/content/content_detail.php?id=3593&type=Demos

Campo-Formio - EP 28/11/2008
Owain Paciuszko

Recorded live between the hours of six and eleven in the evening on the titular date at Monopolio Records in San Juan, there is obviously a real sense of a band playing together and an energy that is often lost on other releases by young bands. Opening with the sprawling instrumental wig-out of Intro del Outro Tedioso/Outro Tedioso the band set out their stall as being an inventive, lively and experimental three-piece; fusing elements of Sonic Youth-like feedback drenched guitar with some classic rock inspiration.

Drifting into Aqui, a track which asserts itself via a hi-speed drum line that rattles by like scenery outside a fast-moving train, before being accompanied by skittering, jazzy bass lines and feverishly stabbed guitar. When lead singer Fernando Quintero's lyrics stumble in drunkenly, but elegantly, like a Latin American Julian Casablancas the track suddenly hops up to another pedestal, moving from winningly avant garde instrumentalism into post-punk ramshackle pop.

The General Passed Away has some neat Casio keys wobbling in the background of its quirky, sprightly inide riffage. It's almost frustratingly slight, feeling like the intro to a song that never happens. El Joke bounds straight into action, with Fernando's vocals croaky and haphazard through layers of fuzz and grime, the song itself suddenly switches on a pleasingly angsty guitar line with blasts of pseudo-twee shouting to off-set the gutter-sound all around it. It continues to stagger wondrously along a tight-rope that threatens to collapse the band into a dischordant mess at any second, but they keep balance well.

A light and summery guitar introduces Ambigua Soledad which suddenly lurches into what Captain Beefheart being filtered through The Bees would sound like, with its arch chorus of 'Oh no, no, no.' 'Si, si si!' Final track proper La Mierda is ninety seconds of Puerto Rican punk and a fitting and fun way to close this record before the 'bonus track' Dying Breed, a sweat-drenched nine minute jittering, explosion of relentlessly strummed and smashed instruments that swaggers lazily into the kind of sexy, sleazy rock that Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Raveonettes are notable for.

Not really a live recording, even though it - technically - is. Campo-Formio smartly recorded this with speed to best capture their fantastic, anarchic and live-wire sound. A true off-beat gem. - God is in th TV Zine

http://www.papelmag.com/reviews/ohcd/138-campo-formio-disgustingly-attractable.html

Bursting out from the underground indie scene comes this new band called Campo-Formio. The bizarre album art cover induces us with an image of the collateral sounds we might expect from this EP, recorded live on November 28, 2008. The band origins began on August from that year, joining Fernando Quintero, the one responsible for the simple-minded lyrics, electric guitar and vocals mixed with band members Diego Bernal on the drums and Ricardo Pérez playing the bass.

The album engages with Intro del Outro Tedioso/Outro Tedioso where they set their foot on the rock-n-roll rhythms to continuously fusion with the track Cover ArtAquí.On this one they use lots of punk-styled guitar riffs, analogous to Vampire Weekend, giving off a college rock vibe experience through a rough punk performance. Cover ArtEl Joke starts off with a stylish classic rock approach, reminiscent of The Pixies, which uses electric guitar riffs and harmonious whispers that Fernando adds into the rock assembly. This EP has tremendous songs that you can’t help but to bop your head to the rhythm of this rock torrent.

Like a true punk band, with its energetic sounds quick and straight to the point, La Mierda, enjoys a very young piece of hard-core punk and in your face attitude, with its shock-value checked from the list. The guitar solo in Dying Breed sounds very classical in its hard-rock line of attack and works great into the transition it makes to the Hidden Track featuring Harry Rag.

These guys have a golden ticket to stardom with this awesomely made EP, and this Treaty of Campo Formio marks a new regimen of conquest in the indie scene. The band will have a digital release for this album on November 1st. Overall the EP thrives in great quality to be a ‘live recording’. The songs are great, in them being short and precise. This young folks have something to stand on and they could manage to accomplish a lot as musicians. Definitely looking forward to hear them live. - Papel Mag

http://www.boricuasbestiales.com/index.php/resenas/54-campo-formio-ep-28112008.html

Tras varios meses de enérgicas presentaciones en vivo, esta joven agrupación saca a la calle su primera producción, confirmándolos como una de las bandas más prometedoras de la escena local. Combinando la energía del Punk Rock con la experimentación sonora del Post Punk, Campo-Formio nos ofrece siete temas que de seguro deleitarán a cualquier fanático de Sonic Youth, the Fall, y Mission of Burma. Busca este EP cuanto antes, o mejor aún, trata de ver a la banda en alguna de sus frecuentes presentaciones. No te arrepentirás.

Translation:

After several months of live energetic presentations, this young group takes their first release out to the streets, making them one of the most promising bands of the local underground rock scene. Combining the energy of Punk Rock with the (sonorous?) experimentation of Post-Punk, Campo-Formio offers us 7 tracks that will definitely delight any fan of Sonic Youth, The Fall and Mission of Burma. Get this EP as soon as possible, or try seeing the band in one of their frequent presentations. You wont regret it. - Boricuas Bestiales