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Saturday, August 24, 2019

Merzbow, Kapotte Muziek - (1993) Continuum LP

Cheeses International ‎– 003

Alessandro Cortini & Merzbow - (2017) Split 2xLP

Important Records ‎– 431
Alessandro Cortini (NIN) and Japanese noise architect Masami Akita aka Merzbow elicit previously unheard voices from the classic EMS Synthi; a British synthesiser from the early ‘70s which has been extensively used by a panoply of prog rock legends such as Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd and Heldon during its influential lifespan. Trust that Cortini and Akita’s efforts sound absolutely nothing like the aforementioned and boldly put a bracing, refreshing new spin on its classic sound.

Making thorough use of the now rather rare and expensive classic model, highly regarded for its tactility and portability, the duo coax out a coarser voice than we’re used to hearing from the EMS Synthi, as though there’s a whisky swilling, 60-a-day roadie trapped in there since the ‘70s and they’ve only just realised how to get his voice out.

The result is a retching, sputtering beast of a record wresting jittery animations of white noise and spooling oscillators into chaotic briar patch of pure analog synthesis making the machine wail, buckle and cough up its least salubrious secrets in four extended parts.

If you’re familiar with each artist, respectively, you’ll find it perhaps leans closer to Merzbow’s putative aesthetics than the more layered appeal of Cortini, but when when it does congeal into more viscous puddles of bass and perceptibly sweeter harmonics, one can hear Cortini’s touch come clearer into play, but ultimately they’re both goading each other into a tornado of ferocity.

Merzbow - (2019) Hermerzaphrodites 2xCD

Old Europa Cafe ‎– 269 
An unusual Merzbow double CD album, in lovely (digipak) packaging! Two very different CDs bounded in one unique release. While on one disc the sounds are more "ambient style", with a free piano, many field recordings, far and rumbling rhythms and noises (The Piano Lento Ma Non Troppo Madness), the other disc's sounds are diving deep into "poly-rhythmics", continously beating and popping plus additional sequencing and 'exploding' sounds (The Pop-Corn Psychedelia). The soundtrack
for a new psychedelic dance! Special "hermaphroditic" artwork by Lilian Pelizzari Giust, full of colours and hermaphroditic images for a complete psychedelic experience.

Merzbow + Opening Performance Orchestra - (2018) Merzopo 2xCD

 Sub Rosa ‎– 472
MERZOPO is a collaborative 2-CD album of a Japan noise legend Masami Akita alias Merzbow and a Czech seven-member ensemble Opening Performance Orchestra based in Prague. The first CD contains four compositions by Merzbow. 'Futaomote' means 'double face' and it was originally titled 'Janus'. 'Yasugibushi' is a Japanese old folk song which was sampled. The second CD contains two live tracks from Opening Performance Orchestra which were played live in Tokyo and Prague in 2017 and studio edited at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018.
--- no melody no rhythm no harmony - this is fraction music ---

Merzbow
Vegan Straight Edge Noise Project of Masami Akita who Born lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. In late 70s, he gradually withdrew himself from the rock scene and began experimenting in his basement with broken tape recorders and feedback and founded own Noise music and Started a project "Merzbow" in 1981. Merzbow began as the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, who met Akita in high school. Akita started releasing noise recordings on cassettes through his own record label, Lowest Music & Arts, which was founded in order to trade cassette tapes with other underground artists. In 1984, he founded a second record label called ZSF Produkt. During this era, Merzbow found much wider recognition and began making recordings for various international labels. He also started touring abroad with the help of various collaborators. Merzbow performed in the USSR in 1988, toured the USA in 1990, Korea in 1991, and Europe in 1989 and 1992. Kiyoshi Mizutani left Merzbow after the 1989 European tour and continues to pursue a solo career. During the European tour in September-October 1989, Merzbow could only bring simple and portable gear; this led to the harsh noise style Merzbow became known for in the 90s. Recordings from the mid-1990s onwards are mostly of extreme volume, some mastered at levels far beyond standard. Merzbow's sounds employ the use of distortion, feedback, and noises from synthesizers, machinery, and home-made noisemakers. While much of Merzbow's output is intensely harsh in character, Akita does occasionally make forays into ambient music. Contrary to most harsh noise music, Akita also occasionally uses elements of melody
and rhythm. During the 90s Akita's work became much harsher and were generally mastered at a louder volume than usual. These were heavily influenced by death metal and grindcore bands of the time. In 1994, Akita acquired a vintage EMS synthesizer. From 1996, plans were made to release a "10 (or maybe 12)" CD box set on Extreme Records. In 2000, Extreme Records released the 'Merzbox' a fifty CD set of Merzbow records, twenty of them not previously released. Since 1999, Akita has used computers in his recordings, having first acquired a Macintosh to work on art for the Merzbox. Also at this time he began referring to his home studio as "Bedroom, Tokyo". At live performances, Akita has produced noise music from either two laptop computers or combination of a laptop and analog synthesizers. Since 2001, Akita started utilising samples of animal sounds in various releases starting with 'Frog'. Around 2002, Akita became a vegan. Also in 2002, Akita released 'Merzbeat', which was seen as a significant departure from his trademark abstract style in that it contains beat-oriented pieces. In 2009, Akita reintroduced the drum kit, his first instrument. This could be heard on '13 Japanese Birds', a thirteen disc series recorded and released one-a-month throughout 2009. At this time he changed the name of his home studio to Munemihouse. Beginning in November 2009, Masami Akita started releasing archival material from the 1980s and 1990s, both reissues and previously unreleased material, several of which were released on cassette. Merzbow has also released several archival boxes; 'Merzbient', 'Merzphysics', 'Merzmorphosis', 'Lowest Music & Arts 1980-1983', and 'Duo'. Merzbow has released more than 300 Records & CDs. Merzbow performed concert/sound installation in all over the world. Merzbow played international music festival such as 'Sonar' (Spain), All Tomorrow Parties (UK etc), FIMAV (Canada),Super Sonic (UK), Molde Jazz Festival (Norway) etc. Merzbow also played at contemporary art event such as 'Westbunt Biennale', Shanghai(2013), 'Yokohama Triennale', Yohohama, Japan (2001),'3rd Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art', Berlin(2004) etc. Merzbow also work collaboration with different kind of artist such as Balazs Pandi, Mats Gustafsson, Thurston Moore, Boris, Keiji Haino, Richard Pinhas, Duenn, Nyantra, Jim O'Rourke, Lawrence English, X iu Xiu, Gezan etc.


Opening Performance Orchestra
Seven-member ensemble encompassing a wide genre span - from the 20th-century electronic thrusts of the musical avant-garde as far as contemporary Japanese noise music. Its own creations are based on fraction music, with the
initial sound being digitally destroyed, fractured, and uncompromisingly rid of all its original attributes within the spirit of the credo "no melodies - no rhythms - no harmonies". The results are original compositions (such as Spring Ceremony or Fraction Music, Evenfall, Creeping Waves) as well as reinterpretations of other composers' pieces that the ensemble feels to be in the same vein - cases in point being Inspirium Primum, referring to the material by Hiroshi Hasegawa, a Japanese noise music representative; Re:Broken Music, based on the destroyed music of the Czech Fluxus artist Milan Knizak; Chess Show, a distinctive John Cage reminiscence; Perceived Horizons, a tribute to musique concrète; The Noise of Art and Futurist Soirée, originating from the ideas and texts of the Italian Futurists and bringing to bear authentic instruments known as intonarumori. During of its existence, Opening Performance Orchestra has given a number of concerts, for example, at MaerzMusic, a contemporary music festival in Berlin (2014, BROKEN REBROKEN); at the New Music Exposition international festival in Brno (2014, BROKEN REBROKEN); at the Minimarathon of electronic music held as a part
of the Days of Ostrava festival of contemporary music (2013, The Noise Of Art); at the NEXT festival of progressive music in Bratislava (2014, Fraction Music VII); at the Prague Industrial Festival (2006, Fraction Music and 2008, ASTROPO); at the Wroclaw Industrial Festival (2007, Fraction Music II); at several previews of the Czech Concretists' Club, including a retrospective at Topicuv salon in Prague (2015, The Contours of Sounds); at the opening of the Membra Disjecta for John Cage exhibition at the DOX gallery in Prague (2012, Chess Show); at the National Gallery in Prague during the Art's Birthday party given by Czech Radio (2016, Futurist Soirée); and at Ostrava Days, in co-operation with Reinhold Friedl (2017, Chess Show). Since 2010, Opening Performance Orchestra has regularly organised NOISE ZONE, an open audio-visual project mapping the noise scene, which has hosted, among others, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Astro, Merzbow, Schloss Tegal, Einleitungszeit, Birds Build Nests Underground, Instinct Primal, Magadan, Napalmed and others. Since 2006, Opening Performance Orchestra has released CDs, mostly as self-publishers, but also with the Belgian label Sub Rosa (BROKEN REBROKEN, together with Milan Kní_ák, October 2015) and the German label Psych KG (Fraction Elements, together with Hiroshi Hasegawa, August 2016). At the beginning of 2016, Opening Performance Orchestra recorded the composition Futurist Soirée, commissioned by Czech Radio, which was performed within the EBU international exchange network in November 2016. Futurist Soirée, for three intonarumori and two narrators, could be heard in June 2017 at the opening of an exhibition at the Museum of Art in Lodz,dedicated to Enrico Prampolini and Polish avant-garde theatre.

Merzbow + Hexa - (2018) Achromatic LP

Dais Records ‎– 118 
Merzbow goes beak-to-tail with Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Lawrence English’s HEXA duo, producing each other’s sides to find a noisy black hole at the centre of their putative styles. Don’t miss the whooping ace, ‘Merzhex, Pt.4’!

“The esoteric noise duo known as HEXA is the sonic union of Xiu Xiu’s focal point Jamie Stewart and sonic provocateur Lawrence English. Forged out of a mutual interest in exotic birds and the decaying charms of the post-industrial age, their collaboration explores the physicality of sound and its abilities to infiltrate and occupy the body. Their collaborative work has been described as being possessed by cascading low frequency pulses and tectonic plates of sound, suspended in cavernous cathedral-like spaces.

Legendary noise artist Merzbow needs no introduction, given his prolific output and notorious experiments within the realm of human endurance and audible extremes. While Merzbow has remained a solemn figure within the canon of noise, and he is no stranger to the members of HEXA. Jamie Stewart and Merzbow worked together as a duet on a collaborative Merzxiu LP in 2015. On the other side of the spectrum, Lawrence English has curated numerous concerts for Merzbow across his native Australia.

A partnership of these three artists was born out of the collective goal of framing their work against particular sonic and visual architectures. HEXA’s initial utilization of this idea, Factory Photographs, was a commissioned piece to soundtrack the photography of film maker David Lynch. HEXA approached Merzbow with the idea of a collaboration that sought to collide their particular approach to physical sonics against Merzbow’s resoundingly ontological noise practice.

The result of this collision turned into a full length album, aptly titled Achromatic. Focus laid on the severe reverberation of relative noises, brandishing extreme frequencies familiar only to Merzbow and coupled by HEXA’s brutalist pulsation. Each side of the album is produced and mixed by the other, making their audio interpretation of Achromatic a sort of reverse exquisite corpse. A true snapshot afterthought from the decay of the modern age.”

Merzbow - (2019) Yahatahachiman CD

Other Voices Records ‎– 045
True hidden treasure of Merzbow-Music! Recorded in 1983 it's for sure not your another typical Merzbow album. It was buried deep in artist's archives for the past 35 years. Masami Akita never liked them as it had too much synth (!), too much guitars (!!), too much rhythm box (!!!). This remastered version was previously released as a part of Lowest Music & Arts 1980 - 1983 10x LP box on VOD label. Now you can taste it on CD. Enjoy psychedelic atonal guitar-noise in combination with minimal synth and technoid rhythms. Let's get this droid party started!

Merzbow - (2019) Noise Mass

Room40 ‎– 108
In the late 1980s, Masami Akita’s Merzbow began to shift from being a studio project into a fully fledged performative undertaking. It was a decisive period that began opening up new possibilities for his very particular approach to sound.

Across the first half of the 1990s, Merzbow began touring extensively across Europe, the United States and also in his homeland. It was during this period that the dynamism of Merzbow exploded and the physicality of volume became a primary driver for the experiential capacity of the work.

Simultaneously, Merzbow began developing a range of self made instruments and techniques for exploiting found objects as sound sources, which he used in combination with amplifiers to create a unique spectra of noise and feedback both in the studio and live.

Noise Mass catalogues a critical period within the continuum of Merzbow. It typifies the radical approaches he developed not just through his music, but also through mastering, pushing the very medium of digital audio to its limit through extreme post-production approaches.

Of Noise Masami Akita remarks,
“This was around the time Venereology was released from Relapse and the work of Merzbow became more well known to the world. Far greater quantities of that Relapse release were pressed, and much more promotion along with it. In other words, the image of Merzbow's music as it is best known in the world today came from this time. The music of Merzbow has always been a continuum, the piece added this time to Noise Mass, the revised version of Hole, is a work utilising a voice similar in style to Venereology. Listening to both Hole and Venereology, one can appreciate how these works constitute a thread of continuity through this period.”

Noise Mass is just that, a ritual of intensity and ferocity that denotes the force that is Merzbow’s approach to noise in the absolute.

Merzbow - (2019) Kaerutope CD

スローダウンRECORDS ‎– 046
Kaerutope is a mashup of
Kaeru (蛙 = Frog)
+ Biotope

Merzbow - (2019) Dead Lotus CS

 No Funeral ‎– 009
This strictly limited edition cassette release for the tiny No Funeral Records label out of Cambridge, Canada is no exception – three shortish slabs of lush carpets of chaotic static and pure noise, interspersed with recognisable almost rhythmic bass ‘beats’ and shrieking high-pitched whines, feedback, squeaks, and machine noises on side one (which form a themed whole) and a longer, layered, and shimmering assemblage that is, dare I say it, almost tuneful. ‘Spirulina Blue’ is what I would call ‘classic’ industrial music, the kind I particularly gravitated to in the late eighties/early nineties. This one still has the Merzbow trademark nuclear granulation but also includes a keening ‘melody’ weaving its way through the noise. I’m even tempted to categorise this as dark noise ambient – labels are mostly useless when it comes to this Japanese artist but in this case it fits nicely.

Merzbow - (2018) Yantra Material Action CD

スローダウンRECORDS ‎– 036 

Merzbow - (2018) MONOAkuma CD

Room40 ‎– 419 

Merzbow - (1985) The Lampinak CS

ZSF Produkt ‎– none

Merzbow - (1985) Live Performance Feb. 85 CS

 Le Syndicat ‎– 014

Merzbow - (1983) Dying Mapa III CS

Aeon ‎– 006

Merzbow - (1981) Collection 001 CS

Lowest Music & Arts ‎– none

Merzbow - (1981) Colection 007 CS

Self-released ‎– none