Fsck (album)

For the UNIX system utility of the same name, see fsck.
fsck
Studio album by
Farmers Manual
ReleasedAugust 1997 (1997-08)
GenreElectronica, Glitch
Length1:01:24
LabelTray
Farmers Manual chronology
No Backup
(1996) 		fsck
(1997) 		Explorers We
(1998)

fsck is the second full-length release by Farmers Manual, published in August 1997 on Tray (a sister-label of Ash International). A 2nd edition was reprinted in 1999 on OR (another sister-label of Ash International).

Album title

The album title refers to a command of the Unix operating system, where fsck stands for file system check[1] – a command used by system administrators if there is believed to be a problem with the file system (the term's tongue-in-cheek use among the hacker subculture is referenced in the Jargon File). Nevertheless, some critics took the title as a misspelling.[2]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]
Vital Weekly(favorable)[4]

Fsck was hailed as an "abstract genre abuse", and compared to acts as Pan Sonic, Merzbow or Photek.[5] The album was included in the "top 50 albums of 1997" by British music magazine The Wire.[6]

In 2021, in Pitchforks "Favorite Albums of the Last 25 Years" anniversary feature, Fennesz names Fsck as the only album that "actually influenced" him. "Their punky attitude was something new and fresh for computer music. fsck sounds to my ears like free-jazz-computer-techno—nobody else was attempting this at that time".[7]

Track listing

  1. "363" – 5:05
  2. "364" – 1:18
  3. "365" – 3:51
  4. "366" – 3:58
  5. "367 mix" – 1:57
  6. "368 mix" – 4:57
  7. "369 fin" – 3:58
  8. "370 magic leise mix" – 10:15
  9. "Nuk (mix)" – 1:26
  10. "371 adv3" – 1:05
  11. "Frog dies in sunlight.aif" – 3:16
  12. "I out" – 1:39
  13. "Klopp01.proc (mono)" – 0:56
  14. "Loop der.II.proc" – 1:29
  15. "Untitled" – 5:37
16–98. "Inter #001 (Mono)" – "Inter #043 (Mono)" – 0:04
99. "Myself ii" – 5:05

Notes

Track 16 to 98 all have a duration of 4 seconds, and contain nothing but silence, interspersed with occasional digital static. The band's interest in pushing the limits of any given medium will also appear on the subsequent releases, Explorers_We and RLA.

References

  1. ^ "Stefan Possert: File System Check, it's the UNIX thing when you have a crashed system and you need to repair it." Sjogren, Klas (1998-11-29), Farmers Manual Interview @ Nature is perverse, Stockholm, angbase.com, retrieved 2007-12-26
  2. ^ "a misspelling like Mego group Farmers Manual album title "fsck" (...) says as much as any manifesto. In fact a misspelling that makes you disbelieve your eyes is an entire manifesto, one compressed and abbreviated, encrypted and delivered under the Trojan Horse of derision and sarcasm." Eshun, Kodwo (1999), Music from the Bedroom Studios - Prix Ars Electronica 99 / Jury-Statement, Ars Electronica Archive, archived from the original on 2008-01-28, retrieved 2007-12-26
  3. ^ Allmusic review
  4. ^ Vital Weekly review
  5. ^ Cooper, Sean, Allmusic - fsck, Allmusic, retrieved 2007-12-26
  6. ^ "Rewind 1997", The Wire (167), January 1998, retrieved 2007-12-26
  7. ^ "33 Musicians on Their Favorite Albums of the Last 25 Years". Pitchfork. 2021-10-13. Retrieved 2021-12-12.


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