----
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What first attracted you to Noise?
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Merzbow & Genesis P-OrridgeA Perfect Pain (Cold Spring Records): ''This is a whistle-stop journey through the redded tooth and claw of Natural Selection, where the strong survive and the weak are incapable of stemming the bloody flow that Masami Akita has induced from their beleagured eardrums. A long-awaited masterpiece.' -- Synthesis
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Alec Empire vs. MerzbowLive at CBGB's 1998 (Digital Hardcore): 'The CD races through all 58mins at a phenomenal speed, leaving a burning trail of splatter breaks and white noise in its wake. There are many moments when the sheer volume of different layers of beats and screaming machines threatens to collapse under its own weight but its fascinating to listen to and spot where the underlaying substructure of cohesion is coming from. Often this is supplied by the strong and driving rhythms which alternate between styles such as drum n bass, industrial and hip hop loops, but at other times its the job of the pounding synths to maintain at least a shadow of order over the run-away percussion.' -- amazon review
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Merzbow / Carlos Giffoni / Jim O’RourkeElectric Dress (No Fun): 'Whirring static, spurting effects, heavy drones: everything you'd expect from three prolific noisemakers is here, all doled out in big, dense brush strokes. Yet Electric Dress is no oppressive onslaught. Each participant is careful to share and trade sonic space with the other, and what could have been claustrophobic or suffocating is instead a balanced improvisation, akin to a thoughtful free jazz session.' -- Pitchfork
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Maldoror (Merzbow & Mike Patton)She (Ipecac): 'I think the last reviewer, who gave one star, was possibly expecting something a bit more musical from mike patton, or perhaps has never heard merzbow.' -- amazon review
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Merzbow & BorisSun Baked Snow Cave (HydraHead) 'In all likelihood, you'll have to take a break from Sun Baked Snow Cave halfway through and listen to some mainstream pop to cleanse your palate -- otherwise the degenerating sine waves and disintegrating guitars will start to sound like the showers at Auschwitz.' -- Splendid Magazine
----
Documentaries
Beyond Ultra Violence, a Merzbow Documentary (1998)
MERZBOW - Part of Viva2 documentary from 2000 [VHS rip]
Live
Masami Akita's supergroup Bust Monsters live '91
Merzbow 'Minus Zero' music video
Merzbow live at the No Fun Fest 2007
Masonna and Merzbow live in Osaka w/ interview
Sonic Youth w/ Merzbow @ Roskilde Festival, 2005
Boris & Merzbow Boiler Room Tokyo Live Set
Merzbow with Wolf Eyes live at Kings Raleigh NC 8/6/13
Merzbow & Balazs Pandi - Saint Vitus 2012
Recorded
Merzbow - Pulse Demon (Full Album)
Merzbow - 1930 [Full Album]
Merzbow - Venereology [Full Album]
Merzbow - Electric Salad [Full Album]
Xiu Xiu + Merzbow - Merzxiu B
Merzbow / Mats Gustafsson / Balázs Pándi / Thurston Moore - Divided By Steel
*
p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Indeed. That last Oliveira film looks really beautiful. I'll watch it ASAP today. Thank you, David! ** Steevee, Hi. Great! Fascinated to read that! Everyone, Here's opinion master Steevee on Roy Andersson's new film 'A Pigeon Sat On a Branch Reflecting On Existence', which is on my most-excited-to-see short list, and maybe yours? Check it out. People love that Jim O'Rourke album. I haven't been able to get into it at all. Even though they're very different records, it's kind of like, for me, how everyone was so gung-ho about '69 Love Songs', and I could never ever get it. I'm sure it's just that I'm not being receptive for whatever reason, but it does make me wonder how much of the appeal has to do with the charisma of the idea of an experimentalist going bared-boned and singer-songwriter. I don't know. I've just found the album dull so far. But one of these days. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, T. Yeah, he had totally escaped my radar too until a few days ago. More Sparks than Franz is a very good thing, in my humble opinion. So, they're essentially Ron and Russell's band on the record? I'm not so into FF's music, but it's twisty and muscly, which sounds right. I do so and still love the Sparks w/ rock band era, i.e. 'Angst in My Pants' and prior, especially. That stream isn't available here in France, but I'll find something. Thanks a whole bunch, Tosh! ** Scunnard, Hi, J-Man. I'm good, real good. No, dang, I need to order Broken Grey Wires zine today. Thanks for the reminder. Kier is indeed in it, yes! Where in Switzerland? Man, Rome, awesome. Other than the July heat, or even with. Sorry, I'm a heat wuss. Rome is awesome. You been there before? Sweet to get to talk to you! ** H, Hi. Oh, I hate photos of myself, but I guess most people do. And I'm okay with the 'TotW' cover photo, mostly I guess because it shows my 1981 bedroom 'shrine' in the background. Wow! Congratulations to say the least! Whoo-hoo!!!!!! I sure hope your friends have made the fuss that such a momentous, long awaited achievement deserves! Great! Hugs and skies full of fireworks to you! ** Keaton, They can be, god knows. And they can really not be. They're versatile. Piercing pic! I might just hit the grilled cheese restaurant down the street from me, now that you mention it. Don't know when you'll see the film. The length and structure of how we get from this point -- i.e, three or four days from being finished through screenings on the festival circuit to theater release to DVD -- is unknown to me, and our producers are not the most transparent people in the world, to say the least. ** Misanthrope, The best Mexican restaurant in Paris is a tiny corner place in the 10th, El Guacamole. I'll take you there if you ever come back here. I'm sure I've heard all of those songs in passing, but I had no idea who they were by or their names or anything. I've still never knowingly heard even five seconds of a Taylor Swift song. I heard a little Ed Sheeran which seemed dishwater dull. I didn't like anything about what I heard, but it's not thing, clearly. ** Etc etc etc, Hi, Casey. Lynne (Tillman) rules and is inimitable, vocally and writerly, yep. Sure, I've read a bunch of theory. I go through phases of reading little but, but not in quite a while, I guess. Zac loves Deleuze, so I read a bunch of him a while back after realizing I'd never read him before, weirdly. I always read theory for pleasure. I was only in university for a year, and it was a hippie school that talked about literary theory like it was a chandelier in some bourgeois palace. All I hear about the Noe is that it's an interesting to somewhat interesting failure. I want to see it, natch, 'cos I'm a huge fan of his, but my expectations aren't high. The new script is close to being finished, I think. I'm waiting for Zac to give me his notes, and, unless they wish for drastic changes, which I seriously doubt, I'll do another revision, and hopefully that'll be that. Zac wants to shoot the film in French, so the next step will be getting the script translated whereupon we'll start looking for a willing producer. Otherwise, new theater piece is very close to finished. And then, in addition to some other writing projects, finishing my novel will finally be the priority again. Bon day, man! ** Cal Graves, Hey, Cal! That was an interestingly truncated comment there. It perked me mysteriously. ** Armando, Hey man right back to you. I'm good. No, I haven't read your poems. I'm incredibly far behind. I've been working/ outputting non-stop and everything that will feed me is still waiting for me. Soon. Oh, okay, I'll read the new versions. Thank you! And thank you for your patience! I'm seeing Michael in Lyon this weekend, and I will tell him that. Love, hugs to you! ** Right. Someone here recently asked if I had done a Merzbow Day. And I had. And I went looking for it only to discover that I had made it back when, due to the strange way I was formatting posts at that time, it has been completely unseeable for seven years. So I decided to correct that. Today. And so it goes. See you tomorrow.
"I named my project Merzbow after a great work by the German
collage artist Kurt Schwitters which he called "The Cathedral
of Erotic Misery". He made an art from oddments
he picked up from the street, just as I make sound from the scum
that surrounds my life. I was very inspired by Dada and
Surrealism. Probably the greatest idea of Surrealism for me
is "Everything is Erotic, Everywhere Erotic". for me, Noise
is the most erotic form of sound...that's why all of my
works relate to the erotic."-- Masami Akita
collage artist Kurt Schwitters which he called "The Cathedral
of Erotic Misery". He made an art from oddments
he picked up from the street, just as I make sound from the scum
that surrounds my life. I was very inspired by Dada and
Surrealism. Probably the greatest idea of Surrealism for me
is "Everything is Erotic, Everywhere Erotic". for me, Noise
is the most erotic form of sound...that's why all of my
works relate to the erotic."-- Masami Akita
'Merzbow (Japanese; メルツバウ) is the name used by Japanese musician Masami Akita (秋田昌美 Akita Masami) (b. 1956) for most of his experimental noise records, and is considered by many to be the earliest project among others in what has become known as the 'Japanese noise scene'. He has released over 300 CDs, LPs and cassettes since the early 1980s.
'His earliest music was made with tape loops and creatively recorded percussion and metal, and has been compared to Throbbing Gristle and Nurse With Wound (an acknowledged influence). Early methods included what he referred to as "Material Action", in which he would closely amplify small sounds so as to distort them through the microphone; later, he made several albums of "SCUM" ("Scissors for Cutting Up Merzbow"/"Society for Cutting Up Merzbow"), for which he would cut up previous Merzbow albums until they resembled something new. His tendency to work in themed phases recalls his training as a visual artist.
'He released his music on cassettes through his own record label, Lowest Music & Arts, which was founded in 1979. In the early 1980s, after meeting the Italian avant-gardist noise artist Maurizio Bianchi/M. B. in Milan, he founded a second label, ZSF Produkt.
'He later began to use more electronic instruments and electric guitars, but his music still consisted of what most people would think of as "noise". In the past few years, Merzbow has begun to use digital technology more in his music. At a live performance these days, it is normal for him to produce all his music with two laptop computers, or combination of a laptop and analog synthesizers. In 2000, the Extreme record label released Merzbox, a 50 CD set of Merzbow records, 20 of them not previously released. The set also included stickers, postcards, poster, "merzdallion", book, CD-ROM, and T-shirt; initial copies included extra posters and double album.
'Merzbow's most recent phase has an added political dimension, being explicitly related to animal rights and similar themes. An example of this is Minazo Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, dedicated to an elephant seal he visited often at the zoo, and Bloody Sea, a protest against Japanese whaling. He has even produced several works centered around recordings of his pet chickens (notably Animal Magnetism and Turmeric).'-- collaged
----
PUNISHMENT AND THE BEAUTY OF JAPANESE BONDAGE (KINBAKU)
by Masami Akita
The History of S&M in Japan
S&M Art has taken many forms in Japan and this relates directly to the history of Japan. One established genre of S&M art in Japan is what is known as the Joshu or female prisoners stuff. When we say "female prisoners" or "Joshu" stuff, we generally refer to those pictures of torture from the period between the battle of Onin (1467) throughout Sengoku and Edo periods to Meiji. Sengoku period is noted for its cruel methods of torture - fire, knife (to cut off parts of the body), tattoo, rocks, boiling water, divining blocks and rocking horses, and so on and so on. The most brutal forms of execution and torture were employed during this period of hell on earth. The methods of torture and execution used against the Christians were most barbaric. It should be noted, however, that there is nothing uncommon about brutal religious prosecutions throughout history. Elsewhere the believers of 'wrong' religions have been treated separately from the rest of the population. Christians in Japan got their ears, fingers and noses chopped oft, which were originally punishments for those who committed the crime of treachery and deceit. It was meant to give maximum public humiliation by physical deformation.
The Tokugawa government laid out in 1742 the foundation of crime laws, which spelled out seven different types of punishment - death, exile, slavery, forced labour and so forth, as well as four kinds of torture - .whip (mutchiuchi), pressing stone (ishidaki), bend by rope (ebizeme) and hung by rope (tsurizeme). It has to be noted that all four official methods of torture from this period ore still considered the main stream torture patterns in the S&M ort today. You could say the foundation of today's S&M art was laid down then. (the entirety)
*
The Beauty of Noise
an interview with Masami Akita
by Chad Hensley
What first attracted you to Noise?
I was influenced by aggressive Blues Rock guitar sounds like Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, Robert Fripp and fuzz organ sounds such as Mike Ratledge of Soft Machine. But the most structured Noise influence would have to be Free Jazz such as Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, and Frank Wright. I saw the Cecil Taylor Unit in 1973 and it was very influential. I was a drummer for a free form Rock band in the late '70s and I became very interested in the pulse beat of the drums within Free Jazz. I thought it was more aggressive than Rock drums. I also became interested in electronic kinds of sounds. I started listening to more electro-acoustic music like Pierre Henry, Stockhausen, Fancois Bayle, Gordon Mumma and Xenakis. Then I found the forum for mixing these influences into pure electronic noise. I was trying to create an extreme form of free music. In the beginning, I had a very conceptual mind set. I tried to quit using any instruments which related to, or were played by, the human body. It was then that I found tape. I tried to just be the operator of the tape machine-- I'm glad that tape is a very anonymous media. My early live performances were very dis-human and dis-communicative. I was using a slide projector in a dark room at that point. I was concentrating on studio works until 1989 then I assembled some basic equipment before I started doing live Noise performances. Equipment included an audio mixer, contact mike, delay, distortion, ring modulator and bowed metal instruments. Basically, my main sound was created by mixer feedback. It was not until after 1990, on my first American tour, that I started performing live Noise Music for presentation to audiences. The first US tour was a turning point for finding a certain pleasure in using the body in the performance. Right now I'm using mixer feedback with filters, ring, DOD Buzz Box, DOD Meat Box, and a Korg multi-distortion unit. I am using more physically rooted Noise Music not as conceptually anti-instrument and anti-body as before. If music was sex, Merzbow would be pornography. (cont.)
*
The True Story of the Merzbow Car
The Story of the Merzbow CD packaged in a car has spread itself across the globe. Alot of rumors have circulated and the truth has been hard to come by. To coincide with the "Resist the Factory" I decided to talk directly to Anders at Releasing Eskimo, the Swedish label that put out the Merzbow car.
Here's what he said:
"A while ago I had a Mercedes 230 that I didn't drive much. The police told me that I had to move it or they'd tow it away. Well, I didn't want to keep it and I didn't have anywahere to store it so I decided to use it for something else. I rigged the car's CD player with our latest release of Merzbow's "Noise Embryo" CD so that the music started when the car was turned on and it was impossible to turn it off. I put it up for sale as an extremely limited edition of the "Noise Embryo" CD but no one ever bought it, and in the end the car broke down. So we took out the CD and got rid of the car. Now I'm thinking about if it's possible to release a record in a Boeing 747..."
*
EXPANDED NOISEHANDS
The noise music of Merzbow
by Carlos M. Pozo
The noise music of Merzbow
by Carlos M. Pozo
The Austalian Extreme label's announcement of a forthcoming $500 50 (fifty) CD boxed set (the "Merzbox") of Merzbow's music provoked the following selected reviews of the CD output of Masami Akita from 1990 to the present day. With the knowledge that this is forthcoming, to include a complete discography in this article is as ridiculous as it is pointless. Maybe Masami himself has kept track- I personally doubt he has a complete listing of his recorded works- but I wouldn't be surprised if he does. A listening guide of some sort is also pointless- noise seems to be even more subjective than non-noise musics. One man's masterpiece is literally unlistenable to another, and for the most part, the fact that some noise music is unlistenable is the aesthetic victory the noise musician is striving for. Merzbow music is unlistenable in that sense. But it's not just about the music, its the man himself, the mystery engendered by the endless stream of music emanating from his home studio. It's the fact that he's been doing this for so long, and can pull it off live worldwide. He's an art critic noise rock and roller who writes articles about pornography for a living. (cont.)
----
Five notable collaborations
Merzbow & Genesis P-OrridgeA Perfect Pain (Cold Spring Records): ''This is a whistle-stop journey through the redded tooth and claw of Natural Selection, where the strong survive and the weak are incapable of stemming the bloody flow that Masami Akita has induced from their beleagured eardrums. A long-awaited masterpiece.' -- Synthesis
Alec Empire vs. MerzbowLive at CBGB's 1998 (Digital Hardcore): 'The CD races through all 58mins at a phenomenal speed, leaving a burning trail of splatter breaks and white noise in its wake. There are many moments when the sheer volume of different layers of beats and screaming machines threatens to collapse under its own weight but its fascinating to listen to and spot where the underlaying substructure of cohesion is coming from. Often this is supplied by the strong and driving rhythms which alternate between styles such as drum n bass, industrial and hip hop loops, but at other times its the job of the pounding synths to maintain at least a shadow of order over the run-away percussion.' -- amazon review
Merzbow / Carlos Giffoni / Jim O’RourkeElectric Dress (No Fun): 'Whirring static, spurting effects, heavy drones: everything you'd expect from three prolific noisemakers is here, all doled out in big, dense brush strokes. Yet Electric Dress is no oppressive onslaught. Each participant is careful to share and trade sonic space with the other, and what could have been claustrophobic or suffocating is instead a balanced improvisation, akin to a thoughtful free jazz session.' -- Pitchfork
Maldoror (Merzbow & Mike Patton)She (Ipecac): 'I think the last reviewer, who gave one star, was possibly expecting something a bit more musical from mike patton, or perhaps has never heard merzbow.' -- amazon review
Merzbow & BorisSun Baked Snow Cave (HydraHead) 'In all likelihood, you'll have to take a break from Sun Baked Snow Cave halfway through and listen to some mainstream pop to cleanse your palate -- otherwise the degenerating sine waves and disintegrating guitars will start to sound like the showers at Auschwitz.' -- Splendid Magazine----
Video Components
Documentaries
Beyond Ultra Violence, a Merzbow Documentary (1998)
MERZBOW - Part of Viva2 documentary from 2000 [VHS rip]
Live
Masami Akita's supergroup Bust Monsters live '91
Merzbow 'Minus Zero' music video
Merzbow live at the No Fun Fest 2007
Masonna and Merzbow live in Osaka w/ interview
Sonic Youth w/ Merzbow @ Roskilde Festival, 2005
Boris & Merzbow Boiler Room Tokyo Live Set
Merzbow with Wolf Eyes live at Kings Raleigh NC 8/6/13
Merzbow & Balazs Pandi - Saint Vitus 2012
Recorded
Merzbow - Pulse Demon (Full Album)
Merzbow - 1930 [Full Album]
Merzbow - Venereology [Full Album]
Merzbow - Electric Salad [Full Album]
Xiu Xiu + Merzbow - Merzxiu B
Merzbow / Mats Gustafsson / Balázs Pándi / Thurston Moore - Divided By Steel
*
p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Indeed. That last Oliveira film looks really beautiful. I'll watch it ASAP today. Thank you, David! ** Steevee, Hi. Great! Fascinated to read that! Everyone, Here's opinion master Steevee on Roy Andersson's new film 'A Pigeon Sat On a Branch Reflecting On Existence', which is on my most-excited-to-see short list, and maybe yours? Check it out. People love that Jim O'Rourke album. I haven't been able to get into it at all. Even though they're very different records, it's kind of like, for me, how everyone was so gung-ho about '69 Love Songs', and I could never ever get it. I'm sure it's just that I'm not being receptive for whatever reason, but it does make me wonder how much of the appeal has to do with the charisma of the idea of an experimentalist going bared-boned and singer-songwriter. I don't know. I've just found the album dull so far. But one of these days. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, T. Yeah, he had totally escaped my radar too until a few days ago. More Sparks than Franz is a very good thing, in my humble opinion. So, they're essentially Ron and Russell's band on the record? I'm not so into FF's music, but it's twisty and muscly, which sounds right. I do so and still love the Sparks w/ rock band era, i.e. 'Angst in My Pants' and prior, especially. That stream isn't available here in France, but I'll find something. Thanks a whole bunch, Tosh! ** Scunnard, Hi, J-Man. I'm good, real good. No, dang, I need to order Broken Grey Wires zine today. Thanks for the reminder. Kier is indeed in it, yes! Where in Switzerland? Man, Rome, awesome. Other than the July heat, or even with. Sorry, I'm a heat wuss. Rome is awesome. You been there before? Sweet to get to talk to you! ** H, Hi. Oh, I hate photos of myself, but I guess most people do. And I'm okay with the 'TotW' cover photo, mostly I guess because it shows my 1981 bedroom 'shrine' in the background. Wow! Congratulations to say the least! Whoo-hoo!!!!!! I sure hope your friends have made the fuss that such a momentous, long awaited achievement deserves! Great! Hugs and skies full of fireworks to you! ** Keaton, They can be, god knows. And they can really not be. They're versatile. Piercing pic! I might just hit the grilled cheese restaurant down the street from me, now that you mention it. Don't know when you'll see the film. The length and structure of how we get from this point -- i.e, three or four days from being finished through screenings on the festival circuit to theater release to DVD -- is unknown to me, and our producers are not the most transparent people in the world, to say the least. ** Misanthrope, The best Mexican restaurant in Paris is a tiny corner place in the 10th, El Guacamole. I'll take you there if you ever come back here. I'm sure I've heard all of those songs in passing, but I had no idea who they were by or their names or anything. I've still never knowingly heard even five seconds of a Taylor Swift song. I heard a little Ed Sheeran which seemed dishwater dull. I didn't like anything about what I heard, but it's not thing, clearly. ** Etc etc etc, Hi, Casey. Lynne (Tillman) rules and is inimitable, vocally and writerly, yep. Sure, I've read a bunch of theory. I go through phases of reading little but, but not in quite a while, I guess. Zac loves Deleuze, so I read a bunch of him a while back after realizing I'd never read him before, weirdly. I always read theory for pleasure. I was only in university for a year, and it was a hippie school that talked about literary theory like it was a chandelier in some bourgeois palace. All I hear about the Noe is that it's an interesting to somewhat interesting failure. I want to see it, natch, 'cos I'm a huge fan of his, but my expectations aren't high. The new script is close to being finished, I think. I'm waiting for Zac to give me his notes, and, unless they wish for drastic changes, which I seriously doubt, I'll do another revision, and hopefully that'll be that. Zac wants to shoot the film in French, so the next step will be getting the script translated whereupon we'll start looking for a willing producer. Otherwise, new theater piece is very close to finished. And then, in addition to some other writing projects, finishing my novel will finally be the priority again. Bon day, man! ** Cal Graves, Hey, Cal! That was an interestingly truncated comment there. It perked me mysteriously. ** Armando, Hey man right back to you. I'm good. No, I haven't read your poems. I'm incredibly far behind. I've been working/ outputting non-stop and everything that will feed me is still waiting for me. Soon. Oh, okay, I'll read the new versions. Thank you! And thank you for your patience! I'm seeing Michael in Lyon this weekend, and I will tell him that. Love, hugs to you! ** Right. Someone here recently asked if I had done a Merzbow Day. And I had. And I went looking for it only to discover that I had made it back when, due to the strange way I was formatting posts at that time, it has been completely unseeable for seven years. So I decided to correct that. Today. And so it goes. See you tomorrow.