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Post by japanesebird on Jan 26, 2013 21:53:48 GMT -5
theory: in his early life, perhaps at the 1973 cecil taylor unit show in tokyo, masami akita had a 'noise satori' and since then he has been chasing the dragon trying to make the most alien-like sound possible.
when i first heard merzbow, although i had already enjoyed much non-mainstream music over the years, it sounded unlike anything i had heard before and was very exciting. now it's all rather familiar. there is a simple cure, drugs, yet i wonder how masami akita himself revitalizes his interest, living a drug free life?
i'd love some lsd right now. i'd make an album playlist something like this:
anicca japanese birds vol 13 dolphin sonar loplop surabhi camoflauge
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Post by qweasd on Feb 1, 2013 18:25:36 GMT -5
Dude, lay off the drugs and the cliche of 'weird music = drugs'! Just because you equate the two and popular culture did decades ago doesn't mean Masami Akita does. Why should anyone with a fertile imagination need drugs to create interesting music? And Masami is not necessarily trying to make the most alien-like sound possible. He's just making new Merzbow albums, which is not exactly a new concept anymore. Merzbow makes loud music with repetitive elements and feedback and noisy textures. It's not exactly a new strategy. There is more 'alien' music out there than Merzbow.
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Post by japanesebird on Feb 2, 2013 12:38:02 GMT -5
Dude, lay off the drugs and the cliche of 'weird music = drugs'! Just because you equate the two and popular culture did decades ago doesn't mean Masami Akita does. Why should anyone with a fertile imagination need drugs to create interesting music? And Masami is not necessarily trying to make the most alien-like sound possible. He's just making new Merzbow albums, which is not exactly a new concept anymore. Merzbow makes loud music with repetitive elements and feedback and noisy textures. It's not exactly a new strategy. There is more 'alien' music out there than Merzbow. first of all, everything is a drug. we just make arbitrary distinctions as to what is a "drug-drug" and everything else. masami akita is a soy addict, kurt cobain was a heroin addict. there is not much difference. cliche it may be, yet it has an undeniable history of association. and a fertile imagination is nothing but drugs - brain chemistry. masami akita may not use drugs, but i would put money on him using the hypnagogic state for his artistic inspiration. this is basically the same state most "drugs-drugs" induce, full of creative potential. he just uses a different means of induction. and where is this music more alien than merzbow? i don't believe it exists, i've heard a lot of non-mainstream music and nothing reaches the same alien peaks as merzbow.
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Post by japanesebird on Feb 2, 2013 12:40:35 GMT -5
but you're right. i'll stop thinking and stop having opinions now, since it does nothing but irritate people.
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Post by Bucketfel on Feb 2, 2013 13:59:32 GMT -5
but you're right. i'll stop thinking and stop having opinions now, since it does nothing but irritate people. dont get discouraged by it. Oppinions are very important but talking about them is as important as the oppinions themselves. Its how we develop conversations ;D BUt i think you are right here. Some people are particularly creative and inventive, you should try to avoid thinking that only drugs lead to creativity. We all get those random sparks of inspiration and other have them more often than most and thats what makes them good artists. Now, Masami has had different muses throughout his carreer, sex, BDSM, animal rights, and the lis goes on. And with his most recent muse he has tons of inspiration because of the ammount of cruetly he sees towards animals. Not everyone needs drugs. My "drug" would be music in which i get highly creative immagining different sounds for the same song i hear all the time. ;D ;D
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Post by ashessehsa on Feb 2, 2013 18:16:44 GMT -5
Dude, lay off the drugs and the cliche of 'weird music = drugs'! Just because you equate the two and popular culture did decades ago doesn't mean Masami Akita does. Why should anyone with a fertile imagination need drugs to create interesting music? And Masami is not necessarily trying to make the most alien-like sound possible. He's just making new Merzbow albums, which is not exactly a new concept anymore. Merzbow makes loud music with repetitive elements and feedback and noisy textures. It's not exactly a new strategy. There is more 'alien' music out there than Merzbow. This this this this this this this this.
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Post by caligulabob on Feb 3, 2013 11:45:44 GMT -5
Of course I'm being biased here, but as a raging Mike Patton fan (minus Faith no More Recordings) I believe he is one of the most creative musicians working today. John Zorn doesn't work with anything less. By the way, the collaboration he did with Merzbow is killer. I've read multiple interviews in which he states he has an occasional drink, but but no drugs as he feels it will inhibit creativity. Human creativity can be harvested through methods other than drugs such as meditation, etc.
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Post by qweasd on Feb 3, 2013 22:31:37 GMT -5
@ japanese bird - "and where is this music more alien than merzbow? i don't believe it exists, i've heard a lot of non-mainstream music and nothing reaches the same alien peaks as merzbow"
"alien" would be different to what you suggest afterwards with "alien peaks". Sure there is something in Merzbow that is up there with the most satisfying unconventional (or "avant-garde", though that is a more historically loaded term) music and therefore if it is "peak" you are after re: intensity (at a guess; again, you'll have to define what you mean by "peak"), then Merzbow may well be that.
However, "alien" music that may not achieve the same peak yet is more alien is certainly out there. I suppose it depends on one's own definitions. However, certain other noise/glitch artists create more challenging and alien music e.g. Zbigniew Karkowski, Florian Hecker - more alien because they relies less on the sort of inflated post-psych/rock/metal style of harsh-noise that Merzbow arguably makes, where there is still a sense of pulse, "riffs", "shredding" within the texture.
I'd argue that there is more in contemporary classical music and free improvised music that works with a more alien approach to structure and sound, particularly in modernist composition due to the moment-to-moment intent of the composer. E.g. the 'complexist' approach stemming from Brian Ferneyhough and more particularly in younger composers like Aaron Cassidy, Evan Johnson, Hector Parra (to a lesser extent), or the 'musique concrete instrumentale' approach from Helmut Lachenmann and in 'younger' composers like Pierluigi Billone, Francesco Filidei, Olga Neuwirth, Rebecca Saunders etc. Plenty of youngins creating far more alien takes on these traditions where instrumental practice and notation are being challenged in very detailed ways.
In free improvisation, the Onkyo movement that was the reaction against harsh-noise in Japan, from improvisers like Toshimaru Nakamura, Sachiko M, etc. Merzbow feels warm and fuzzy in comparison to some of the recordings from artists in this world.
I'm sure others could add to the list...
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Post by ashessehsa on Feb 6, 2013 20:40:50 GMT -5
I have to agree with Qweased. Merzbow is my favorite noise act, and his work isn't as dark as a lot of other noise stuff out there.
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Post by caligulabob on Feb 7, 2013 13:11:55 GMT -5
I have to agree with Qweased. Merzbow is my favorite noise act, and his work isn't as dark as a lot of other noise stuff out there. Agreed, Whitehouse and Atrax Morgue being prime examples as far as having a darker vibe and sound. Unfortunately, I'm so jaded, nothing sounds threatening or alien anymore.
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Post by qweasd on Feb 8, 2013 2:02:49 GMT -5
I would argue that there's a very 'objective' quality to Merzbow's approach to making music and that that is the overriding element. Dismissing the need-based concept of 'a music career'. Stopping playing music. Investigating what machines/equipment do/does. (Paraphrasing Masami referring to '80s era Merzbow). A sort of rational information-age empiricism. Is 'alien' objective in the way that it is 'other'? Does otherness have more to do with 'other-than-human' or 'other-than-ordinary-experience'? Other-than-human is perhaps very objective and therefore perhaps 'unemotional' etc. Other-than-ordinary-experience could be designed to evoke an 'alien experience' which when considered from a feeble human point of view could be quite an emotional ride The latter is probably how most people react to Merzbow at first hearing.... the idea that it is perhaps violent or aggressive music. (How many other noise artists perhaps embarrassingly took on this trope/misunderstanding?) Then maybe that opinion is somewhat modified and it seems like cathartic music - not necessarily violent, but still implies a sort of catharsis. And it's not a far logical step to consider the 'animal rights' program (as is programmatic music) as relating to catharsis etc. Sometimes it even seems or IS accurate (cf. Minazo vol 1, tracks 3 & 4). What about Kamadhenu? Is it the 'cry of an animal' that is being represented?! Or is it Merzbow creating a warmer more transparent texture with instruments otherwise used to make generally louder/more abrasive noises to show a 'jollier' more relaxed side while hanging out with the cows so to speak? And how relevant is any of this?! And perhaps if one ultimately gets to the opinion that it is not relevant, then Merzbow attains a more objective quality that has nothing to do with violence, catharsis or any human reaction to loud noise, but is rather just the extended sound world of extended hands of noise creator, to paraphrase Masami in relation to '90s Merzbow. And to think that laptops take more of the human away from the creation of harsh noise. So anyway, alien in the sense of the 'post-human' world that Merzbow explores - fair enough. Of course, this could be discussed to death...
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