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Post by madein on Jun 8, 2013 17:23:00 GMT -5
Something what is annoying me a bit about merzbow releases, are the notes in the album booklets. Why are the most of his booklets so uninformative, when it is about instrumentation? When I am listening to a musical piece, especially music with so unconventional sound synthesis, I am always interested how it was realized. What does he mean with 'noise electronics', 'Synthesizer' (ok, mostly he is using the EMS Synthi A) or just 'computer'? What was he thinking, to make so unprecise descriptions? Could it be, that instruments are in his eyes just tools, nothing what is worth to mention it? On the other side, it makes merzbows music more mysterious. The sound is just standing for itself, it is just there and you don't know it's origin. But this is something what is also fascinating me about this kind of music, that you are not always able to say, what are you hearing now.
I am also asking myself, how much musical knowledge he has, is he able to read scores for example. Are there other instruments beside drums which he can play? I know, that noise music can't be just compared with traditional music making, it needs another point of view. But I'm just interested about.
Please don't get me wrong. After that what i wrote, it might sound that this is an insult to merzbow. But that's not true. He is just one of my favorite artists, so I am interested how he is working.
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Post by acsenger on Jun 8, 2013 18:48:26 GMT -5
I guess he doesn't think it's too important to know what tools he's exactly using. In my experience most other noise musicians list even less information about what tools they use on their releases. I've always only read he used to be a drummer, so maybe that's the only instrument he can play. And since he started out in rock bands and he seems to always have been "DIY", I guess he can't read notes.
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Post by madein on Jun 9, 2013 7:41:50 GMT -5
Maybe my perspective is really too strict. Sometimes I am focusing on some questions, and than I forget the main thing, just to enjoy the music. And in this term, my mind is a little bit closed: Actually, I am only interested in the music of Merzbow and in some way of Hijokaidan. I don't care about, what other noise musicans are doing. I think, Hijokaidan and especially Merzbow are the only real two exponents of this genre. Both started at the very beginning and are active today. While the most artists aren't even interested in music ( for example, I bought one time an album by merzbow with the Haters, and when I listened to the part of the Haters, I was really disappointet by this one-dimensional sound. And when I read, that the haters have never been interested in music, I just had to throw this damn piece of ''art'' into thrash.) And I think, when Hijokaidan and Merzbow have stopped to be active (what should hopefully only happen when they die) is the noise era for me over, it's dead. The other artists, especially the new ones, are in my eyes just imitators, traditonalists who are continuing an old idea. Only the real musicans that started in the past, are the revelutionists, the creators. And even if Merzbow would go the next years the same way since 30 years, it is ok (and so should it be) because it is his life's work.
What I want to say is, why should I listen to an imitation, when I can just listen to the original. It is the same, if I would listen to baroque music which is composed in our time, when I just could listen to Bach.
EDIT: Of course, all IMHO. EDIT2: Corrected the word ''disapponited''
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Post by acsenger on Jun 9, 2013 9:37:24 GMT -5
Interesting point of view. I'm not so strict myself: I listen to whatever I like the sound of. In my view Merzbow is the best in the kind of noise he plays--although I should say I mean his 90s work since that's what I'm most familiar with (and some of what little of his laptop work I know is disappointing for me). I think in that kind of noise he's the best since his recordings are the most interesting to me in that style. But I still enjoy other artists/bands in that genre occasionally, although I don't often listen to them. And there are other styles within noise and I'm constantly trying to get to know them. Some stuff I enjoy more, some less. But I don't take a purist approach and don't exclude anything for any other factor than music. Maybe a bit off topic, but I really enjoy hearing and discovering music from before the very early 80s that is extremely noisy. For me that's just so unusual for its time and so exciting. Some examples: some Xenakis, Pauline Oliveros, Gottfried Michael Koenig. This is academic music, but then there was Whitehouse and the early power electronics scene, for example: I'm not a huge fan of Whitehouse but I really like their New Britain album which is from 1982 I think; it's a savage album. Noise as a genre didn't even exist yet then.
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Post by madein on Jun 9, 2013 14:03:38 GMT -5
That's true. Like you've said, a true music fan should not pay attention to things that are not directly part of the music. The only thing that matters, is the music itself, it is not important who was the creator of the music, because good music is good music. And I think it's good, that you have mentioned the pioneers of electronic music. It's correct, there are some commonalities to noise music. And I think that this kind of music has also influenced merzbows works (I'm not sure about other bands). But most of this music is going a total other way than noise (seralism methods, aleatoric), so the music seems only from surface similar. There is an interesting interview with Karlheinz Stockhausen on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rlyOaG576kIt is interesting too see his opinion to music, even if I don't really like his works. I also don't like his person, but his musical thoughts are inspiring. But this thread shouldnt go too much away from topic, I don't want to make problems with the admin
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Post by neokorosu on Jan 8, 2014 18:28:28 GMT -5
By accident, I found out that Merzbow also used a Nintendo Gameboy as soundsource. www.discogs.com/Various-Nanoloop-10/release/24221On this sampler is a short track by Merzbow in which he is using this device. I was quite surprised, does anyone know this track? I've tried to find it, but it wont be easy since the title of the track is just "untitled". Also that he used a original device and not a computer emulation is very interesting.
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