| fsck | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Farmers Manual |
| Cover: | fsck_cover.jpg |
| Genre: | Electronica, Glitch |
| Length: | 1:01:24 |
| Label: | Tray |
| Prev Title: | No Backup |
| Prev Year: | 1996 |
| Next Title: | Explorers We |
| Next Year: | 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).
The album title refers to a command of the Unix operating system, where 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]
Fsck was hailed as an "abstract genre abuse", and compared to acts as Pan Sonic, Merzbow or Photek. The album was included in the "top 50 albums of 1997" by British music magazine The Wire.
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".[3]
16–98. "Inter #001 (Mono)" – "Inter #043 (Mono)" – 0:04
99. "Myself ii" – 5:05
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.