Sense Of Space: Richie Beirne's 'Meat Factory Earworms'

Click To Play 'Meat Factory Earworms' by Richie Beirne

Piece: Meat Factory Earworms (The Curious Ear)

By: Richie Beirne

Year: 2008

Length: 13 Mins 47 Secs

This sound project by Richie Beirne follows a young man who feels trapped in his job at a meat factory in Ireland. He works on the slaughter process and has trouble coping with it. The piece shows how music keeps him going, as throughout he explains that he has songs that are stuck in his head, which he calls the 'ear worms' - because you can't get it out.

There appears to be several layers of soundscape used - one for the dialogue, knives sharpening, machinery as well as background noise and voices in the factory. Not forgetting the music layer. 

Throughout the piece, you hear the machinery working and revving up, ambience of other people working to make the piece feel like you are there listening to him - almost like he's the voice in your head, juxtaposing the idea of him having music 'earworms' in his head. 

The music is used throughout his story and silenced at others. The songs are cheery, almost dream like, suggesting that the songs allow him to switch off from the dead end job he can't escape. The songs tend to be about love or dreams, which create an empathy affect on the audience. The music seems to be soft and calming, but also uses quite horrific lyrics to help link it back to the story of the piece.

The sound effects are carefully juxtaposed with the dialogue of the piece. For example when he talks about someone 'giving a lift', you hear a car pull up and screech to a halt. It creates an image in the audience's mind - making it more realistic in the audience's mind - they create the image - the space themselves. Also, when he explains when he stabbed himself in the knee by accident, you hear a squeal coming from the machinery, which sounds similar to a man's scream of pain, making it slightly scary to it's audience - more tense than empathy.

The piece also likes to create tension, to show his hatred and anger for this job, for example, when he talks about the factory being a 'blood bath', the knives are sharpening louder, there is a high-pitched saw in the background and the machinery is slightly louder. Makes it feel closer to you, makes you unsettled in the situation. 

The use of accent gives the person character straight away. You know where he's from, most likely a working guy, who lives a regular life, who has a job he doesn't enjoy. If he did enjoy it, you would hear the enthusiasm in his voice at the beginning of the piece. 

The dialogue and the music are juxtaposed, the music is sweet and calming, whereas the dialogue is sour and almost disturbing - it makes the story itself more shocking and allows the audience to portray the place.  

Also, the editing is quite jagged. It gives the piece an unsettling and uncomfortable feel to it. However it is clever as it reacts to the way our human minds work - we don't think linear thoughts, our minds flit between various things - therefore the piece gives the audience a more realistic experience.

I enjoy the piece, it's clever and works well to create the unease in it's audience. The layers work well together and the way it is edited is realistic to us - it's less predictable too, which makes it much more interesting. We expect it to flow - but the jaggedness is intriguing as well as unsettling.