[ aquarius records — Japan Noise Free Psych ]

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Showing results 651 through 700 of 1109.

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SORRY. Deep pulsing bass drones with creepy slow metallic percussion, and lots of interesting noise-making, featuring voice and cello and appearences by noise-greats Masonna and Merzbow, being not so balls-out noisey, but contributing effectively to the album as a whole.

After years of silence, Zbigniew Karkowski (former Hafler Trio collaborator) joins Masami Akita (of Merzbow, who knows nothing about years of silence) for 55 minutes of signature Merzbow noise processed into heavy chugging pulses and brutal psycho-acoustic drones...not for the faint of heart.

Geeze! Can't believe it, this must be the most melodic, "normal" (ahem) album from Japan's Melt-Banana yet, but it's still ALSO totally spastic and unhinged and extreme. Actually the more melodic, non-hyperspeed elements here make the other stuff all the more insane sounding. There's (only!) 18 caffeinated tracks on this disc, chock-a-block with bug zapper guitars, thrashing drums, and yelping vox, of course. But also: catchy hooks, sing-a-long choruses? Yes. It's been four long years since their previous album, Cell-Scape, and we guess we'd forgotten just how listenable that one was, surprising us at the time too. Melt-Banana had taken their trademark manic Boredomsey hardcore sound and tamed it just a bit. Well they do that here too, turning in a speedy, spasmodic pop-punk masterpiece that sounds something like the Ramones or Green Day bouncing off the walls in a bizarre experiment somehow involving chipmunks, crack cocaine, and computers... ok, dunno what that means either. But the point is, this is making us crazy in a good way, it's as if the more "conventional" Melt-Banana becomes, the more paradoxically disturbing they really are. And if you really want pure old school M-B HC noisiness, well there's a batch of shorter, seizure-like songs on the second half of the disc (tracks 11-17) that should do the trick. Well worth the wait.

MPEG stream: Cracked Plaster Cast
MPEG stream: Cat Brain Land
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A new record from spazz-prog-punk rockers Melt-Banana and while the overall sound is not all that different, they continue to get better and better, and dare we say more listenable with each record. Less ear splitting high end skree this time around, and a much warmer production, as well as some really catchy songs and great riffs make this possibly the best MB record yet. Plus there's a bunch of strange midtempo 'breakdowns' as well as some bizarre production and electronic fuckery that add even more dimension to MB's already unique sonic palette. But fear not, still present are the fingernails-on-a-chalkboard guitars and the hyperspeed chipmunk vocals and the spazzy rhythms, it all just sounds much more refined. Allan thinks the new Melt-Banana sounds like a bizarre hybrid of three other records on this weeks list: the Simply Saucer, the Agoraphobic Nosebleed and the Cats And Kittens cds. Which is actually not all that far off the mark! MPEG Download: "Shield For Your Eyes, A Beast In The Well On Your Hand" [/audio/meltshield.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Shield For Your Eyes, A Beast In The Well On Your Hand" [/audio/meltshield.m3u] MPEG Download: "A Dreamer Who Is Too Weak To Face Up To" [/audio/meltdreamer.mp3]

MPEG stream: Shield For Your Eyes, A Beast In The Well On Your Hand
MPEG stream: A Dreamer Who Is Too Weak To Face Up To
MPEG stream: Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold

Out of print for a few years now at least, the third album from these frenetic Japanese spazz-mongers has just been repressed on vinyl!! We originally reviewed it back in 1998 when it first came out, giving it the following brief but enthusiastic write-up: With every release, you wonder how Melt Banana is going to make their records just as fierce and brutal as the last without indulging in banal formulas. Yet their sound has evolved into complex shards of Dadaist hardcore played with hyperkinetic precision. One of the highlights on this album is their insane collaboration with Mike Patton and the rest of Mr. Bungle on "Area 877 [Phoenix Mix]"! Highly recommended! To that, what need we add? Perhaps about those shards, yes shards is the word - splintered shrapnel of yelping vox, wiggly guitar, octopoid battery, all spinning around in a blender at 100mph. Everything you like about Melt-Banana, Charlie delivers!

MPEG stream: Spathic!
MPEG stream: Giggle On The Stretcher
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We were looking back at our review of the last Melt-Banana record we reviewed, Initial T., which we listed way back in 2009, and yeah, it was just an ep, but even then we were bowled over by how these masters of grinding math pop / noise rock, continued to reinvent themselves and surprise us with every record. The surprise that time was a dramatic shift, into a sound more electronic, one that at the time we described as sounding like a sped up Deerhoof, or like Fuck Buttons. And goddamn if they haven't taken that sound and pushed it even further, transforming their sound, which was already insanely unique, and ridiculously difficult to describe, and literally unlike ANY other bands out there, into something even MORE. Just the first track alone should convince you, it's a total mind blower, a dizzying collision of a million different genres, and so many seemingly incompatible sounds, brilliantly woven into some total next level electro-metal-grind-pop weirdness, that manages to be both the weirdest thing we've heard from M-B, which is saying a LOT, and possibly also the catchiest! That track bears some in depth description, since it pretty much sets the template for the rest of the record. Opening with some glistening kosmische shimmer, some field recorded waves lapping on the beach, some swirling heavily effected guitars, those guitars gradually coalescing into some seriously crunchy riffage, laced with thick sinewy bass-lines, kick ass drumming, weird sound effects and wild FX, before splintering into insane mathiness, the song swinging wildly from indie rock groove, to mathy psychedelic tangle and back again, those super distinctive ultra high chirped vox, before the song breaks down, the guitars locked into digitized loops, peppered with blasts of metallic guitars, more swirling sci-fi FX, some wild double kick drumming, that drumming getting more frantic and chaotic, slipping into full on metal briefly, before launching into a final burst of mathy psychedelic noise pop. It's insanely complex, and impossibly dense, and how the fuck do they cram all that into just 4 minutes? No idea, but we LOVE it. And we won't say it gets weirder, or better, cuz that's not really possible, but it DOES stay that weird, and that good, which is a feat in itself, frenetic, hyper, chaotic, mathy, metallic, poppy, crazy catchy, confusionally fractured, some songs slipping into impossibly soaring epic electronic flecked majesty, others collapsing into dizzying grind-pop freakouts, still others getting all avant experimental WTF? Boredoms style noisiness, and even still others exploding in gouts of wild electro-punk jangle-metal weirdness. A few songs find dreamy guitar shred devolving into long stretches of field recordings, or blossoming into super melodic pop experimental video game krautpop, what a fucking amazing and totally weird record! After all these years, Melt-Banana continue to confound, confuse, inspire, freak out, inspire and blow us the fuck away. Every M-B record is so good, it's hard to proclaim this as their best yet, but you be the judge, cuz, really, we're beginning to think it most definitely is. So totally and absolutely recommended!

MPEG stream: Candy Gun
MPEG stream: The Hive
MPEG stream: Infection Defective
MPEG stream: Then Red Eyed

It's been almost 2 years since we last heard from Japan's mighty Melt-Banana, our favorite purveyors of manic spastic grinding ultra complex math pop, and we were all ready to just write a generic review saying how we loved them but what else could we say, their sound hasn't changed that much, but then we threw this on and the opening track blew our fucking minds. Not sure why exactly, big buzzing bassline, all sorts of weird almost electronic sounding guitar parts, it almost sounds like a super charged sped up Deerhoof, the song soaring and epic, weirdly produced, processed, almost dance-y actually, and when the song kicks in it's just incredible, wild and catchy and frantic and heavy and so goddamn good, the sound lush and expansive, maybe like Melt-Banana doing their best Fuck Buttons or something. Whatever it is, it's just about the most delirious 2 and a half minutes we can remember. Both the cd and the 7" are short short short, as in 5 minutes, but lots of parts and radness jammed into those 5 minutes and 3 songs. The second track is a bit more classic punked up MB, but that one too is more poppy and twisted and bouncy and electronic than we remember. The last track is another warped tangled pogo pop grind jam that RULES. Shit, maybe we've just been away from these guys (and gals) and just forgot how amazing they were. Regardless, this is just about the raddest 5 minutes we've rocked out to in forever!

MPEG stream: Loop Nebula
MPEG stream: Leeching

It's been WAY too long since we've seen Melt-Banana live, they are definitely one of THE raddest live groups ever, sonically brutal and precise and manic and impossibly complex, their stage presence unbeatable, the whole band bouncing around wildly non stop, the guitarist perpetually clad in surgical mask, the vocalist a tiny whirling dervish, it's pretty awe inspiring, and wild pogo pit inspiring too. So this killer live set might tide us over, the sound is incredible, you would never know it was a live record unless you were told, and might not even believe it then! They are in fine form, the record opener is awesome, about as slow as they get, a killer midtempo jam, all freaked out effects and processed vox, lots of buzz, squiggly guitar weirdness, all set to the frenetic drumming, before the band launch into a burst of lightning fast hypergrind, insanely manic and frantic and frenzied, the vocals a staccato chirp, the drums spastic and chaotic, the guitar though, spitting out incredible riffs, then all sorts of impossibly tangled squelches and glitchy fragmented melodies. The songs blow by in a blur, which makes the slower tracks all the more powerful. "Cat And The Blood" is a droned out prog jam, all wooshing synths, and surprisingly restrained vocals, and muted guitar squiggles, before once again spitting out a handful of manic metal grind microjams before finishing off with two epics (4 and 5 minutes respectively), first "Last Target On The Last Day" a gorgeous tripped out space jam, super atmospheric and heavy, long drones, and warm swirls of synth underpinning an almost doomic groove, finishing off with the super atmospheric and cinematic "Humming Jackalope, Waiting For The Storm", all Theremin-like melodies, clouds of cymbal sizzle, washed out bass rumble, and streaks of total Tangerine Dream like synth shimmer before finishing off with a burst of white noise crunch. Phew. Epic and incredible and heavy and wild and wonderful. Definitely don't miss MB next time they come to your town, and check this out to remind yourself what you've been missing.

MPEG stream: Feedback Deficiency
MPEG stream: T For Tone
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MPEG stream: One Drop, One Life

While on a grueling tour of the States (something like 40 shows in 50 days), MB dropped in the studio one day to quickly record an album. The Japanese foursome brutally deliver 28 songs of hyperkinetic spastic hardcore complexities, which pretty much comprised what their set was during those shows... A few songs had as of yet not made it on to any albums, the rest had... also including a version of their cover of "Surfin USA" for the Japanese Beach Boys cover album.

Latest blast of squeak and skronk and blast and grind from these ultra cute, but totally dangerous Japanese pop punk grind craziness. This is the perfect way to experience MB, two ultra short, but still impossibly complex blasts of chaotic grind pop. Like getting beaten to death with a big fuzzy sack full of bunnies, cute but still fierce and freaked out as fuck. Or imagine being eaten alive by a gaggle of glow in the dark, rainbow colored cartoon characters, painfully cute, anthropomorphous fuzz balls, all soft and cuddly, but with sharp fangs and a truly deranged look in their eyes. NO ONE sounds like Melt-Banana, well okay, sometimes Fantomas does, but when they do, we just wonder why they're copping MB's style. We love Melt-Banana. Super limited 5" vinyl, released on HG Fact (the same label that releases all the Corrupted records!).

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SORRY. Second chance on this, last copies EVER!! We hate to do this to you, but there's not much we can do about it. THIS IS INCREDIBLY LIMITED!! WE ONLY GOT A HANDFUL OF COPIES, MOST LIKELY NEVER TO GET MORE! SO ACT FAST. This 10" is limited to a couple thousand worldwide, only 700 or so made it to the US and only 20 made it to AQ. So definitely don't dawdle. Yet another split from masters of the split record, Japanese ultra spaz rockers Melt-Banana, this time teamed up with another unlikely, but still quite cool band we've never heard of. The strangely monickered Chung offer up short sharp bursts of angular post punk on their side, kinetic new wave rhythms, fuzzy organs and yelped vocals. Like a punkier mix of the Fall, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and all those sorts of bands. Melt-Banana counter with some of their most unlikely music to date, confounding and confusing with their three tracks (be sure to play their side on 45 -- we were WAY more confused when we mistakenly played it at 33 the first time). Strangely sparse, with a bouncy minimal rhythm, poundiing piano (!) and even some horns all sort of new wave-y and abstractly angular with lots of blooping space sound effects, rockabilly guitar and a trippy tweaked out production. Definitely MB's most melodic and least spastic record to date. But just to remind us who we're dealing with, they finish things off with a mega distorted blast of classic Melt-Banana style spaz-grind-pop weirdness. Comes packaged in an amazing sleeve, thick screened cardstock, and affixed to the front is one of those lenticular stereo 3D cards that moves when you shift the image, the image just in this case is a cartoon city and a giant fly and a madman with a flyswatter and an explosion.WOW. And once again, VERY LIMITED!

Writing as many reviews as we do each week, trying to sell records to the people who will like 'em, we really appreciate it when a band makes it easy, as in this case, like, by being from Japan. And from the early '70s. Playing acid folk. And then they've got a cool name like Melting Glass Box. All that really remains is for us to tell you if is as amazing as it seems it might be - and it is. Of course, though they're pretty obscure, you may have heard of them already, as this 1970 album has quite a deserved rep among connoisseurs of Japanese psych stuff - though it's mysteriously given short shrift in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler book, though he does praise albums by another band, Five Red Balloons (Itsutsu No Arai Fusen) from whom comes the main Melting Glass Box guy, singer-songwriter Takasi Nishioka, who is the pretty sharp looking denim clad hipster gent in the Melting Glass Box cover photo. MGB was a one-off studio project (though Takasi made many albums with Itsutu No Arai Fusen, and a bunch of later solo records as well) that also featured folks from such crucial underground Japanese psych acts of the era as The Jacks, Apryl Fool, and AQ faves Blues Creation. There's three members of proto-metal heavies Blues Creation on board here, actually, including Iommi-esque guitarist Takeda Kazuo. Not that this is at all heavy, it's actually a mellow, melodic record, quite gentle and pretty and placid, the lazy la la la's of their folky flowerpowered pop punctuated with such surreal details as the sound of shattering glass that startles the listener halfway through the lead off track "Anmari Fukasugite". Likewise, electronic FX, tape speed manipulations, ethnic instruments, and some stinging acid guitar licks are sparingly stirred into the mix throughout, this album one of many interesting, dreamy details and odd arrangements, but that still succeeds especially due to Takasi's balladic songs, that are so very melancholic and emotional - even though we can't understand the lyrics. We bet Masaki Batoh and Ghost grew up listening to this record! Definitely a thrilling reissue that all of us here at AQ are digging, it's been getting a LOT of in-store play. Nicely done, too, by the Erebus label, with liner notes, original sleeve shots, and discographical information in the cd booklet.

MPEG stream: Anmari Fukasugite
MPEG stream: Kimi Ha Dare Nanda

Kiyoshi Mizutani began his career working in Merzbow (when Merzbow wasn't just Masami Akita alone). After parting ways with Akita in the late '80s or so, Mizutani released a number of solo recordings, most recently focusing on field recordings. His first foray in his search for natural sounds was the less than perfect Bird Songs, but since then Mizutani has blossomed into an exceptional contextualist of found sounds. Garden is his collaboration with Portland noise veteran Daniel Menche, who has been struggling for several years now to calm his work, but can't quite seem to shake his preternatural talents for explosive noise. On this recording, Menche handled all of the low frequencies, while Mizutani was responsible for all of the high frequencies. The source material was a finely captured field recording of Japanese locusts and crickets, presumably from the Mizutani archives. The slow organic chorus of those insects starts out with a very hypnotic, natural introduction; but Mizutani offers small clues to his manipulation by first repeating the choral phrases which would never be so precise in a natural setting, and later by filtering out everything but the timbral roots. Mizutani's gradual shift from these environmental sounds to almost mechanical ones is particularly unsettling, especially in communion with Menche's ominous bass plod which slowly emerges over the course of this recording. Within this metamorphosis of sound, Mizutani and Menche rewrite insect languages as metallic, inorganic, and alien ones where apocalyptic implications abound. Really gorgeous. Released on Randy Yau's immaculately designed Auscultare label.

MPEG stream: Garden

Not sure who Todd Merrell or Patrick Jordan are, but we sure as heck are familiar with the third part of this drone trio, the Baker in question is none other than Mr. Aidan Baker, he of Nadja, Arc, and a million or so releases under his own name. This live set finds Baker handling guitar duties, but you'd never know it from the sound, augmented by short wave radios, electronics, and various bits of processing, the sound here is deep and dark, a crumbling and epic expanse of rumbling shimmering low end. Roiling clouds of murky melodic fragments, distant swells, throbbing low end pulses, barely audible bits of static and washed out glitch. Very cinematic, if you were watching a film that was almost entirely dark, with just barely visible shifts in the various shades of black and grey. Lovely though, minimal and haunting. Think Coleclough, Chalk, Lustmord, that sort of ambient darkness. But the second track is an entirely different beast. Simple guitar strums, minimal melodies, the strings struck softly, the metallic buzz and clang ringing out into the ether, some sort of underwater slow motion Fahey, smeared and soft and dark and dreamy. The final half of the track, the guitar disappears completely, leaving streaks of feedback that sound like the cries of gulls, grinding slow motion slabs of shifting low end, whirling windlike whirs, almost like a manufactured nature recording. The guitar returns for the third track, drifting gently, while the background noise builds into a slow motion wash of sound, the track culminating in a cloud of chimes and reverbed percussion, seasick swirls and struck steel strings, before slipping languidly into the final track, a lugubrious underwater crawl, all of the sounds muddy and indistinct, a sonar like ping buried way down in the mix, underneath it all a thick blanket of constant whirring drones, quite lovely. Packaged in one of those cool, 6 panel, gatefold aRCHIVE sleeves, glossy paper, super striking image of forest and clouds, LIMITED TO 600 COPIES!!

MPEG stream: Undertow
MPEG stream: Half-Life

Let's settle this bullshit once and for all. The best Merzbow record of all is of course the Merzcedes -- the legendary (perhaps to the point of being mythical) conceptual artpiece of raw Merzbow noise permanently fixed into the cassette deck of a Mercedes sedan. No, we haven't actually had the pleasure of experiencing the Merzcedes; but the Merzcedes is the best Merzbow album regardless of all comers!!. It's not "Amlux" (which was claimed to be the 'definitive' Merzbow album), it's not the "Merzbox" (the massive, ridiculous 50 cd retrospective), and it's not "24 Hours - A Day Of Seals" (hyped as the 'most satisfying' Merzbow album). It's the Merzcedes. End of argument. This illogical rant is not to say that any of those aforementioned albums are bad; but, it should illustrate the point that any quantification of the Merzbow's massive catalogue into generic superlatives is not only stupid but also useless to any critiques about Merzbow. "Most satisfying"? How could you ever know? But, this new mini Merzbox is indeed a fine addition to his canon. As has been the case for many of the contemporary Merzbow albums, the four-CD set "24 Hours - A Day Of Seals" centers on mechanical loops of volatile grindings, ugly digitalized flanges, and cascading white noise. Is it manipulated field recordings of harbor seals? It could be. It could also be a guitar, or a vibrator, or just some analogue synth twaddle, or a seal playing a guitar! Whatever it is, it should "satisfy" your Merzbow/noise jones for at least as long as it takes to listen to all four cds. Those partial to heavy guitar-based drone noise rock a la old Skullflower or Ramleh might find portions of this particularily enjoyable.

RealAudio clip: Mincle No Uta
RealAudio clip: Rising King Penguin

A very eclectic and adventurous offering from the Ryori No Tetsujin of noise. "A Taste Of Merzbow" serves up a smorgasbord of sonic catastrophe, texturally shifting from Akita's current digital synthesis practices to the jagged cut'n'paste aesthetic that harkens back to the days of "Ecobondage" and "Batztoutai With Material Gadgets". Conceptually, Akita has assembled a collection of recipes that correspond to each track, though the relevance and/or significance of the relationship between composition and cuisine is unknown to us. Most unusual is the use of distinctly digitally rendered randomizations and algorithmic structures, not of common practice in the past. While not as powerful as the recent "Hard Lovin' Man" or "Amlux", this is still an extremely potent mÈlange of furious vehemence and elegance. Very Mego, very Merzbow. Seconds, anyone?

RealAudio clip: Turban Shell Blues

In the continuing onslaught of Merzbow releases (and considering the emphatic reverence displayed by the attendees at Akita's All Tomorrow's Parties performance, as well as Sonic Youth's seal of approval, there will no doubt be tons more to come), Newbury,

RealAudio clip: Takemitsu
RealAudio clip: Looping Jane

If you made a graph of Japanese noisician Merzbow's career, the zig zagging lines of both consumer interest and product quality would definitely be on the ascendant of late, even as his volume of releases remains steady, and large. Here's another one, to be greeted with "yay, a new Merzbow!" rather than the "oh god, another Mezbow?" response that might have been appropriate a few years back. Nope, he's happenin' right now, and Animal Magnetism further continues these positive Merzbow trends. The obi blurb provided by label Alien8 implies that this record is either inspired by Merzbow's pet chickens (as pictured on the cover) or utilizes them as a sound source for sampling. Perhaps. But pet chickens, pet rocks, whatever, you can't tell. Wildlife meets white noise? It works as a description anyway. As does: pulsing and grinding, in large part this disc is an attack of static somewhere between and beyond the distorto spazz of Lightning Bolt and a television set on the blink. Hissing, howling, and heavy, even haunting -- as noise goes, this is both wonderfully, uh, noisy, and interestingly varied. A lot is going on. It's not without layers of rhythm as well as texture. Really, Animal Magnetism approaches "music", psychedelic music, as close as Merzbow ever does. No disappointment!

MPEG stream: Quiet Men
MPEG stream: Pier 39

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SORRY.

Batten down the hatches! From the Japanophile Polish label Vivo, here's a pair of new cds from everyone's favorite Japanese noisemonger, the mighty Merzbow. On Bloody Sea, Masami Akita (for he be Merzbow) displays his softer side. Not sonically, no not at all, but in his concerned efforts to save the whales via his "protest-noise". Yes, this is an anti-whaling album, hence the title, and we'd imagine that if Greenpeace were to find some way to blare it loudly at the Japanese whaling fleet whenever they tried to leave port, they might be forced to call off the whale hunt for the season. There's three cacophonous parts to this 50-minute disc, composed of battling blown-out chattering rumble and sizzling synths. Very abstract and assaultive, as if Merzbow is trying to channel the pain and suffering of all the whales into a song they never could sing. Meanwhile, the more recently released Coma Berenices contains five lengthy, throbbing machine-screams of dense distortion, zapped with high-end skree... it'll wax yer ears but good. Fried and frenzied, but also carefully looped and layered with sonic detail. It is (relatively speaking) quite listenable as harsh psychedelia, the dark-drone-doom thing taken to the extremes of Merzbowian methodology!

MPEG stream: Anti-Whaling Song Pt.1
MPEG stream: Anti-Whaling Song Pt.3

MPEG stream: Earth Worms
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Merzbow's intense noise attacks continue with this release on the noise subsidiary of Hydrahead. Like his more recent recordings, Merzbow infuses his white-hot grinding distortion with bursts of frenetic shards and ominous low end pulses. The major departure for "Dharma" is his sporadic repitition of a very clunky, purposefully avant-garde sounding piano riff, sprinkled with generous

RealAudio clip: Piano Space For Marimo Kitty

Merzbow's Dust Of Dreams is another bludgeoning record of scalding noise for all of those raw nerve endings that need to be damaged just a little bit more. Compared to the almost jubilantly rhythmic Senmaida (one of many Merzbow records alongside this one to hit the stores in the early fall of 2005), Dust Of Dreams is a far more dour recording, with the rasping haze of mechanical wasps constantly swarming above seasick marching rhythms. If you've always been confused when Merzbow is pegged as being psychedelic, Dust Of Dreams will only perpetuate that confusion as the kaleidoscopes of swirling noise are of a leaden grey, as opposed to dozens of other Merzbow records which explode with a molten synaesthesia of nauseating flourescence. Nonetheless, Dust Of Dreams is still miles above almost every other recording of the globe's massive population of Merzbow wannabes.

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MPEG stream: Dust Of Dreams

Yep, that's right, Masami Akita exploits the powerful and hypnotic depth of everyone's favorite musical amphibians. The record begins, simply enough, with the soothing rumbling croak of the webbed feet wonders, gradually evolving into an explosive demon that only Merzbow can conjure up. Handsomely packaged in a gatefold sleeve adorned with colorful baby frogs and layered with a

Possibly the first deconstruction (re: remix) effort from Akita-san (unless you count that disc supposedly based on free jazz drumming?). Yes, that fragment of guitar you'll hear looped and processed on "Hard Lovin' Man" is that of Ritchie Blackmore, from

RealAudio clip: Hard Lovin' Man

Although it says that this is not a remix record on the sticker, not sure what else you could call it. A bunch of folks incorporate bits of the Merzbow record Amlux into their original compositions. The sound is all over the place. From hip-hop instrumentals to crazy turntablism to glitched out big beats to all out noise to malfunctioning video game sounds to riot grrl-ish techno to droning soundscapes and beyond. Features: DJ Spooky, DJ/ Rupture, Plug, Alec Empire, Negativland, Hrvatski, Mouse On Mars, KK Null, Kim Cascone, Kim Hiorthoy, Nobukazu Takemura, E.A.R./Sonic Boom, Cornelius, Atom, Custom Drummer, Bola, Jack Dangers, Freiband and a bunch more. Two discs!

We were all ready to pan this. I mean, do we really need more Merzbow? More ear splitting, speaker wrecking Japanoise? And is Merzbow's "last analog sessions" really all that newsworthy even meriting a triple cd box? And is Merzbow's 23,000-and-counting album discography in need of a 3 disc boost? Well, not sure we can answer any of those questions (um...yes we can..NO). So while this IS more of that shrieking crunchy fuzzed out white noise that is Masami Akita's trademark, that you've heard on perhaps hundreds of records, these three discs are actually pretty darn good. Textured and thick, lots of pulsing rhythms, throbbing rumble, shrieking hiss and fuzzy non-melodies. Casutic and face melting indeed, but also surprisingly listenable! Don't take that to mean that if you don't like 'noise' that you'll like this, 'cause you probably won't. But if you do dig stuff like Masonna, Merzbow, and the like, or even if you're a fan of Total, Skullflower, and other noisy drone and just want to try something a little more extreme, then this would most certainly fit the bill. Comes in a nice, silver-embossed slipcase with the cds in individually printed sleeves, with a patch (although, it's a bit of shameless promotion with Important Records embroidered right there next to Merzbow).

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SORRY. Meet DJ Merzbow! Yes, the famed Japanese noise-artist Masami Akita hops on the wheels of steel for this live Dutch radio broadcast. Wikky wikky woo. Which means that the turntables certainly come in for some abuse! Plus he deploys his usual noise electronics as well. Still, this is marginally more 'musical' than most Merzbow output, 'cause of the records being 'played'. Dedicated Japanese noise fans might recall the Flying Testicle project, that's what this reminds us of. Also featuring Merzbow members Bara (turntables, voice) and Reiko A. (theremin). Plus guest Radboud Mens on turntable as well. Comes in a handsome cardboard slipcover package. Limited to 500 copies.

Cute title, harsh noise!

Ah, another Merzbow disc. I'm expecting a good hour's worth of sheer audio fuckery from the king of noise Masami Akita, a.k.a. Merzbow. But what's this? MerzBEAT? And... is that really a Kid606 plug on the cover sticker? Hmm. I'm sure I can't be blamed for having been a little worried about what this was going to sound like. Fortunately it's *really* good. There's all the typical Merzbow-isms here -- cascading sheets of sonic screeches, shimmering metallic flutters, gritty distortion -- but he's gone a little percussion-happy and anchored each track with just awesomely satisfying muscular drumming that sounds like he's pounding on trash cans and sheet metal. Unpredictable and yet, strangely, one of his most accessible releases due to the grounding nature of the drums, reminding us, naturally, of Akita's countryfolk, the Boredoms who too know the power of the drum. Those of y'all diggin' the angular noise core of hipper than jesus duos like Lightning Bolt, Pink & Brown, etc. oughta give this a try. Loose yet right on target aggression. The hidden track, a remix by Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto, isn't quite so hidden since it appears right here in the track listing, but nonetheless it's the most punishing 8 minutes on the album. Oh, and it must also be mentioned that track one is a (totally unrecognizable, natch) cover of "Promotion Man," by obscure proto-metal hard rockers Highway Robbery. (Geez, that's like an Allan wet dream!)

RealAudio clip: Promotion Man
RealAudio clip: Forgotten Land
RealAudio clip: Tadpole

As you may imagine, it's sometimes tough for us to keep up with all of Japanese noise master Merzbow's releases...in fact, we can't claim we do, although Jim did review the entire Merzbox once upon a time so that's something! Anyway, let's get to this one: what's billed as the follow-up to the much-liked Merzbeat, released by Important in 2002. As with that, this is about the beats...squelching, crunching, distorted beats, immersed in a howling vacuum-cleaner din! Probably only Kid606 would seriously consider this dance music, but as Merzbow albums go, I guess it is (there really are breakbeats on here). But we're pretty sure that if, say, the US Army got their hands on it, it'd be getting blasted at insurgents holed up in some mosque in Iraq. Repetitive, insistent, very dynamic stuff that fans of Wolf Eyes, Nautical Almanac and all that ilk will surely dig.

MPEG stream: Black Swan
MPEG stream: Brown Pelican

This is for all the sane people out there who didn't buy the Merzbox (a massive 50 cd anthology offering a mere sample of Japan's most prolific noise artist), but who are interested in the wealth of information found within the box. The Merzbook, which was previously published for the Merzbox, is an equally impressive document delving into the history and critical analysis of his work. Edited by Brett Woodward, the Merzbook also features specially commissioned essays by admirers, collaborators, and peers, as well as a CD-ROM with tons of text, art, video, images, soundbites, and even a Merzbow game!

We will admit, we've pretty much reached our Merzbow saturation point. For all the joking we do about bands who are WAY too prolific. Nobody come close to Merzbow. Not even counting the mighty Merzbox, Merzbow must average a release a month. For the last 20 years. Holy shit. You do the math. And some months there are 2 or 3 new Merzbow releases. Does anybody need every single one? We're pretty sure the answer is no. And there are probably a few people who could argue that nobody needs ANY. But c'mon, for every pointless disc of straight white noise feedback, there is a disc of weirdly chopped rhythms, or weird karaoke noise, or a record made from all jazz drums. Maybe the ratio is quite that balanced, but there are quite a few discs well worth checking out. And Metamorphism is definitely qualifies. Sure most of the disc is a head shredding barrage of brutal digital glitch and shrieking looped feedback and all sorts of caustic harshness, but even within a squall of such brutality, there are lots of cool little sonic subtleties and bizarre alien melodies, careening and getting all tangled up into impossible shapes and mixing to form even more unlikely sounds. The final track is our favorite though. Some damaged detuned Jandekian guitar buried under thick swirls of spacey FX and fuzzy white noise whir, all the while haunting ghostly stumbling melodies hover and drift within a lurching looped psychscape of tangled and garbled sonic splatter. So cool. So even after maybe thousands of records, he's still got it in him to surprise us with something super far out and surprisingly listenable. Another way in which certain Merzbow records stand out is their packaging. The Merzbox of course, 50 cds, a shirt a book, a poster a medallion, all in a weird rubberized case, the legendary Merz-cedes, an actual Mercedes with a Merzbow cd permanently stuck in the stereo, and a dizzying assortment of strange shapes and weird cases. But Metamorphism definitely has to be one of the nicest we've seen. A thick velvety bag, holds the disc, a printed insert on thick glossy cardstock, all housed in an incredible heavy marble box, hinged on one side, with a fossilized Ammonite engraved into the top. So amazing. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

MPEG stream: Metamorphism Pt. 2
MPEG stream: Metamorphism Pt. 4

Although the fine editors of this AQlist have been slowly releasing my rants on the Merzbox even though all of the writing and all of the listening has been long completed (fuck yeah! 'punching air' as The Wire would put it), Merzbow had to put out another Goddamn record. So after 50 discs of NoiseJunkEjaculationFuckCollage, you think I'd have nothing more to say... well you're right. Read all those reviews of the Merzbox if you care what I think about the Japanese noise god. This is late period Merzbow. It's 'limited' to 500. It's on a Swedish label. It's 39.32 times cheaper than the Merzbox. What more do you want?

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. From Jim O'Rourke and David Grubb's new Drag City imprint, the previously-unreleased companion piece to Rainbow Electronics, one of the classics that made the King of Japanese Noise worthy of his title. Fine stuff with lots going on, and "rainbow electronics" is as fitting a description as any.

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SORRY. Not just another Merzbow noise-blast disc, this is a remix compilation that lets folks like, among others, Jim O'Rourke, Panasonic, Autechre, Bernhard Gunter, and Masami Akita himself, take the noise and create something perhaps more obviously structured with it. As such, it's pretty interesting, and if you're not going to buy all 2,000 Merzbow releases this year, this one at least should be considered. In fact, even if you weren't going to buy *any* Merzbow this year or any other year, "Scumtron" might still be for you. Certainly fans of Panasonic-style beat-cruch won't be disappointed.

I really don't need to listen to any more Merzbow records in my life, as several years back I (Jim) took the task of enduring the entire Merzbox (all 50 CDs of monstrous, punishing noise.) Yet month after month, Masami Akita continues to churn out extraordinary records from his battery of noise machines. With the roll of the die cast in my direction, I strap myself in for some raw aural brutality. Senmaida stands out immediately with its galloping drum machine breakbeat that precedes the virulant boils of his signature seering noise, giving Merzbow a legitimate noise grooviness previously held by Christine 23 Onna and Aufgehoben No Process. The beat itself starts out a little stiff, which is not surprising as Akita-san is not really known to get down and boogie; but when the noise machines begin to explode with their volcanic psychedelia of molten noise, the breakbeat takes a step back and actually forms an excellent counterpoint to the noise. Out of this rhythm (which come to think of it really does sound like a Garage Band preset, ha!), our noise hero lays down several lumbering industrial loops of a percolated squiggle alternated with a menacing plod, out of which comes the shredding noise and a post-Neubauten metal bashed rhythm. And oh, yeah there's a track built out of a sample of a sheep's bleating which oozes with the danse macabre of Alec Empire. Be prepared to be impressed by Senmaida!

MPEG stream: Tract 1
MPEG stream: Tract 3

Another Merzbow. Another Circle. Another Acid Mothers Temple. It's like these bands are just daring us. Taunting us. But at least in the case of these three bands, they keep winning. We're all ready to unleash a "Who the fuck needs more of..." and they hit us with a record that kicks ass. Again. Which is fine. There will always be plenty of records deserving of a "Who the fuck needs more of...", we'd much rather hear more great music. And Sha Mo 3000 is pretty great. Admittedly, Merzbow has sort of painted himself into a corner with his straight noise records, as the noise crowd is pretty limited and noise as a genre and sound has existed pretty much unchanged for 2 or 3 decades. And there are only so many ways you can record and produce white/pink noise. But occasionally Merzbow will step out if his Japanoise persona and surprise us, and let non-noise folks in for a peek. Well, Sha Mo 3000 is NOT one of those records. Nope. This is definitely a noise record. Continuing in his exploration of the lap top, Merzbow contiues to punish and destroy. Thankfully, his sonic palette is much expanded by his shift to computer and years of noise has seemingly helped him understand the need for dynamics. Thus we have a very sonically engaging, very dynamic noise record. The sounds are amazing, grinding and throbbing, pounding and hissing, notes and melodies may be present, but they've been squeezed and stretched and tangled up into impossible shapes, which makes this record absolutely fascinating. Listening to it, I found myself not really "listening to a record", but sort of navigating a treacherous labyrinth, where around any corner could be a potentially dangerous spike of white noise or blast of barbed fuzz. Like a musical Indiana Jones. A very challenging, very satisfying listen, but only for the truly brave or those who consider noise to be their friend.

MPEG stream: Suzunami
MPEG stream: Ghost Hide Your Eyes

Merzbow must have a thing for office supplies. The 50 cd Merzbox didn't come in some crazy custom designed box or wrapped in human flesh or anything like that. It was in a regular old Case Logic cd carrying case. The kind you keep in your car. So it came as no surprise that this new four 3" cd set comes in a day planner. Yep. Like the kind your Mom scheduled your soccer games in when you were 12. Granted, the name and title are silkscreened in silver on the front. But it's still a regular old day planner. Inside are a calendar, much like...well, like a day planner, although the design is a little more sleek and stylish. And the occasional day is filled in with stuff to do. Although the stuff to do reads: 4:34/65#//32 or something like that. But it's all part of the concept. Time. Get it? The four 3" discs are mounted nicely (and securely, thankfully) on two pages of the calendar. We were super excited to hear this because supposedly the samples are from 70's hard rock bands like Golden Earring, Spontaneous Combustion and the like. Coupled with fierce breakbeats and mutated into walls of guitar drone. Yeah, sounds great doesn't it? Well, it is pretty great, but I don't think it necessarily sounds like it was described. It's definitely more dynamic than the majority of Merzbow releases (dynamics was, to me, always Merzbow's main failing) but it's not nearly as wall of guitar sounding as the recent "24 Hours - A Day Of Seals" 4cd set which definitely channelled the spirt of Skullflower or Earth, it actually reminds us way more of the recent "Merzbeat" cd we reviewed several lists back with some almost-danceable beats, and lots of murky rhythms and pulses. But there ARE moments of heaviness although they aren't necessarily heavy the way you might envision when you hear the word heavy along side the idea of samples of 70's hard rock. It's more like thick, corrosive waves of sound, that very well could've been guitars or something else organic at some point, but have shrugged off their mortal coils and became MERZ-sounds. Good stuff. Nice to see there's still some new ideas and new directions to be explored even after 152,342 releases. This definitely ranks as some of the more interesting/appealing Merzbow and it's certainly worth a listen. Especially if you're also in the market for a kind of expensive daily planner. MPEG Download: "Warhorse" [/audio/merzbowwarhorse.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Warhorse" [/audio/merzbowwarhorse.m3u]

MPEG stream: Warhorse
MPEG stream: Space Trackin'

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. The latest in this high profile series of split 12"s. Merzbow is at his most melodic, coming up with an almost hummable bit of white noise. The AMM side is all rhythm, primarily beautifully meandering chimes and bells.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Split disc between two noise giants from Japan via Kid 606's Tigerbeat6 imprint. Masami Akita furthers his explorations in the digital domain, appropriating the tranquil somniloquisms of Olivier Messiaen's "Mode De Valeurs Et D'intensite Pour Piano" and transmutating it into the unique extremity that is Merzbow. The Kouhei tracks are slightly more rhythmic, though somewhat static, DHR-style beat destruction. You might recall his work from the "Upside Down" release on Mille Plateaux to which Merzbow as well as Masonna contributed.

RealAudio clip: Nakesendow
RealAudio clip: Garden Of Earthly Delights (Center)

When is a Noise Record (tm) not a noise record. Well, 'V' is definitely not going to answer that question, because this is unequivocally, without a doubt, a noise record. Most of this sounds like vintage Merzbow. Shards of white noise and digital skree, sheets of feeding back effects processors, a mighty wall of head crushing sound. Good stuff, but nothing we haven't heard a thousand times before. Good thing Pan Sonic were on hand to mix things up a little. But only a little. No real rhythms or beats to be found, but Pan Sonic's rhythmic tendencies do come to the surface about 2/3 of the way through this hour long performance with pulses of white hot static and crunchy digital throbs, but ultimately they quickly dissipate and fade back into the thick wash of this Noise Record (tm).

MPEG stream: V