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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 7, 2013 6:09:00 GMT -5
Discovered yesterday that the only (sensible) way to get Racebannon stuff is through their bandcamp page... dirt cheap, 3 CDs for $8 kind of cheap. The Merzbannon LP isn't on there though unfortunately. I don't think the Merzbanana stuff will come out tbh, although I'd love to hear it at least. Apparently a label in japan offered to release it at one point but there were complications. There's gonna be a new Melt-Banana album out later this year though, they're down to a 2 piece now (I think) and rather less prolific than they once were... first release of any kind from them in like 4 years. Will be interesting to see where they go from here.
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Post by acsenger on Aug 8, 2013 5:27:02 GMT -5
It's great news that a new Melt-Banana album is out soon! Although I still haven't heard their last one. Is that more of a noise affair? I saw them live a few years ago, at the Sydney Opera House of all places! They were awesome; they played a short set of their "normal" songs and then a noise show which was deafening!
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 8, 2013 7:32:06 GMT -5
I've seen them live 3 times now, each one in a different sweaty little basement in Brighton. Fantastic each time. The last 2 times they opened with a noise set of sorts, where they played in darkness other than the light from torches they wore on their heads. They played little sampler things, just a small handheld thing with a dial on it... I dont know for certain what they are. but yes Very very loud That Must have been an experience in the opera house! You mean the live album? It's a recording of that noisy stuff they do in the dark with the samplers, a lot of the short sharp tracks from Bambi's Dilemma on it. I thought Bambi's Dilemma was a cracking record too despite it having more of a pop/punk sound overall.
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 8, 2013 9:32:27 GMT -5
At the 2009 gig, there was a guy in a scary clown mask who filmed the whole show and put it on Youtube. I love this video, really sums up that sort of intimate punk show perfectly, the crowd was absolutely nuts that night! The guy at the beginning who turns around and pulls a stupid face at the camera is (a young and stupid) me, lol www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4CNrmyCtns
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Post by acsenger on Aug 8, 2013 9:33:25 GMT -5
That's how they played at the Opera House too. Yeah, I meant the live album. I should get that one too. I like all their albums since Charlie (don't care for their first two albums at all). On another note, a Merzbow track remixing Discordance Axis' The Inalienable Dreamless album can be listened to here: discordanceaxis.bandcamp.com/album/our-last-dayThe rest of the album has some good grindcore songs and a cool Melt-Banana track too. Too bad though Cide Projekt have so many songs cause they're really lame.
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 8, 2013 9:39:07 GMT -5
woah, that's weird we both replied to this thread at much the same time. Charlie is a cracking album, but I quite like most of them, I do like that raw energy of the first album and the string of singles/EPs that came with it. was never so keen on Teeny Shiny as a whole, but there's some cool groove orientated stuff on it. That sounds cool, I'll definitely give that a listen later on.
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 21, 2013 17:52:17 GMT -5
I've had 'A Perfect Pain' by Merzbow and Genesis P-Orridge playing a lot recently. It's a coming together of two big names in industrial/experimental music but at the same time somewhat of an unlikely combination. Personally, I quite like the album, wasn't so sure at first but it's quite a remarkable piece of work from both sides and sort of a unique release in Merzbow's discography. Although I can't pretend to understand what Genesis is talking about... to me the whole thing sounds like some sort of a cosmic being addressing planet earth. What opinions do people have of it?
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Post by acsenger on Aug 22, 2013 5:27:18 GMT -5
I don't know it unfortunately. Am I right that Genesis P-Orridge recites a text and Merzbow provides the music underneath it? Is Genesis' recital a straightforward reading of a text or does he vary his voice and presentation method?
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 22, 2013 11:01:31 GMT -5
I think that's it yeah, from what I can gather Genesis just provided the spoken word. Merzbow's music is quite varied though, some very interesting rhythmic work in places, It has a different feel to most of Merzbow's own work of that time, never gets especially harsh but it remains interesting and explores quite a lot throughout. Genesis' recital is kind of 'performed' I suppose, but for the most part it's in his whimsical sort of spoken voice, (he doesn't start screaming about or anything) His voice is quite effect heavy and processed, there are some changes with regards to that sort of thing which are interesting. sounds very alien.
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Post by andypandy380 on Oct 2, 2013 15:22:00 GMT -5
This may be of interest. Earlier in this thread there was some talk about Brutal Truth in a more experimental/noise setting. Well they have an upcoming split with Bastard Noise, I heard about it a while back and assumed it was going to be a punk/grind/hardcore thing, but it seems both bands are doing noise. The CD and LP versions of the same albums contain entirely different music which is odd. There is a trailer on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT9JqP2gyjQ&feature=youtu.be
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Post by acsenger on Oct 2, 2013 17:59:08 GMT -5
This sounds interesting indeed. I haven't listened to Brutal Truth in a long time but I remember there being a noise/experimental track on Evolution Through Revolution (I might actually pop that CD in now). Upon first listening, I didn't like the Bastard Noise tracks on the split with Merzbow, but the second time I liked them better. "Caveman electronics" indeed. By the way, two different albums on two formats seems like catering to hipsters to me.
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Post by andypandy380 on Oct 3, 2013 11:57:10 GMT -5
I wasn't blown away by the Merzbow/Bastard Noise split. I would consider myself a fan of Bastard Noise generally although I'm only really scratching the surface of their discography. Some of their stuff does strike me as a bit like 'a list of cool noises, one after the other...' which is probably a statement that would get me a whole lot of flack, but they have done some good stuff. Rogue Astronaut proves they have the ability to do some great things within the genre of Noise, and A Culture of Monsters is pretty individual and a solid album in terms of Hardcore/Punk/Powerviolence/whateverthefuckyouwanttocallit.
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Post by scissortail on Mar 8, 2014 23:04:04 GMT -5
This one was always a favorite from back in the day. I traded this CD years ago and only recently found it again after realizing the error of my ways. Merzbow on the legendary Mille Plateaux label(as a guest but to me it counts). I never heard any of the split releases these guys did. Any opinions on those?
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Post by acsenger on Jul 31, 2014 18:35:16 GMT -5
I recently got the Asterisk*/Merzbow/Lasse Marhaug 12" for a ridiculous price from Ebay. I've played it a couple times, and it's great! Asterisk* was a short-lived band that played quite unusual grindcore (their entire discography, except for this 12", is available on CD and is recommended). Merzbow and Marhaug both take the band's (more death metal-oriented) tracks from a compilation LP as their basic sound material; they both take up a side. Side A is Merzbow and his material reminds me of Puroland (they were recorded less than a year apart). That was the first digital Merzbow album I heard and even though I haven't heard it in a very long time, I remember it being very "stretched out" and droney. On this 12", Merzbow takes Asterisk* and makes a track that's quite droney (in a noisy way) with an "elastic" feel to it. In the middle there's a recognisable sample, varying between being sped up and slowed down. At the end of the track, there's a tempo change. Great side. Side B is Lasse Marhaug and he also delivers a good track that's closer to a traditional cut-up style of a noise musician doing a remix. There's variety though, and even a long break dividing the side into two parts. The nice cover is a bonus to a very enjoyable record that's worth buying.
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Post by milan on Aug 1, 2014 0:01:13 GMT -5
I like the Achim Wollscheid collaborations. I wish they'd do more.
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Post by neokorosu on Aug 1, 2014 6:28:25 GMT -5
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Post by milan on Aug 1, 2014 8:10:19 GMT -5
I've heard that one. Very odd release. To begin with, the texts are recited in the writer's language, so you'll need a decent knowledge of Japanese and German. Then, the texts and the noise are extremely panned and occupy respectively left and right audio channels. It was hard for me to perceive both texts and noise at the same time, so you might as well have two separate listens. Everything is mixed, oddly, through a flanger, for the whole release. I must say it adds a certain "punchiness" to noise recordings.
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Post by neokorosu on Aug 1, 2014 9:13:35 GMT -5
Hmm, I was hoping that all texts in this release would be in German. I live in Germany, so this language would be no problem for me. The producer is hr2, a public broadcasting Radiostation. So I was expecting something more like a documentary, than an actual musical piece.
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Post by noisefroind on Aug 2, 2014 8:31:28 GMT -5
yes..the german word ist "Hörspiel". A radio drama or radio play about jap noise music..friends of me wrote texts fot this..the parts from Martin and Rigobert was originaly written for "Pop und Destruktion". The first number of the "Testcard" books www.ventil-verlag.de/titel/186/testcard-1-pop-und-destruktionIt is typical Wollscheid stuff. Not easy to hear and verry abstract.. For the first airplay of this from the HR2 radio station, Achim organized a live gig of masami in my hometown Mainz. It was a fantastic gig. Selektion made a videotape about this ..http://www.discogs.com/Merzbow-Live-July-5th-1995/release/718689 Hope Selektion releast in the future more from the old collaboration stuff between Merzbow and P16D4. Roger from P16.D4 told me a lot of years ago, that nearly 6 hours of music exist. Also old live material from P16.D4. Saw the band a few times in the early 80ties in Mainz and Frankfurt. Amazing!!
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Post by acsenger on Aug 19, 2014 15:28:54 GMT -5
I'd like to see that video from 1995. A copy was available for download from the Merutsubau website but I was told it was crappy quality, so much so that you couldn't make out almost anything. Speaking of videos, I've got the Good Alchemy Video on DVD and Merzbow is in raging form on it. One of the shows is from 1994 and it basically couldn't be any harsher.
Is Selektion still active? Discogs says their last release was in 2004. I should listen to my PD and P16.D4 CDs. Some of them include Merzbow collaborations. I didn't know there was so much left unreleased!
The Grav collaboration CD by PGR, Merzbow and Asmus Tietchens is fantastic! The first 2 tracks are by Tietchens and they sound like they were recorded in a cave on massive metal structures -- it sounds really physical! The last track, by PGR, is a bit too ambient for me, but it's a nice listen. The Kikuri CD with Keiji Haino also has great tracks. Merzbow's contribution is nicely varied noise. Some of Haino's guitar playing is acquired taste (more precisely, Haino's music is acquired taste), but it's a good, if not earth-shattering album.
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Post by acsenger on Apr 1, 2016 1:51:55 GMT -5
I got the Music for Man with No Name collab CD with Cock ESP recently. The first two tracks are from a 7" with the same title from 1994, the third track is a long one from 1999. The theme is mainly why I got it: the man with no name in the title is Clint Eastwood's character in the three classic spaghetti westerns from the '60s with music by Ennio Morricone: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The tracks are supposedly a tribute to them as they sample Morricone's music from the movies. I love the movies as well as their music, so I had to get this CD (it took me a while to find a reasonably priced copy though). The first two tracks are from January 1994, mixed by Akita, and as you might expect, it's brutal stuff, characteristic of that era. They do, however, feature recognisable samples that get mangled, of course. Track 3 was mixed by a certain Rexor who I guess is/was a member of Cock ESP. It's basically in the same vein except there are more effects in it. All in all, a great release. Spaghetti western noise -- it might sound strange, but I reckon it works! (The CD packaging, by the way, is cheap as... From the pictures on Discogs, the 7" artwork was good quality, but they just xeroxed it or something for the CD edition.)
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Post by andypandy380 on Apr 2, 2016 13:27:19 GMT -5
I never realized there was a CD edition of that... I've come close to buying the 7" before but I still don't own a copy or know an awful lot about it... from your description though, it definitely sounds worthy of a listen. I went through a phase of watching those 'Serious Noise Performance' videos from Cock ESP on Youtube and found them somewhat funny/entertaining... just out of some morbid kind of curiosity I guess... There is footage of their more recent live performances that I felt were more subdued and kind of obnoxious to the point where it wasn't interesting me at all... I guess being obnoxious is what makes them Cock ESP, but I think it's moments of unrestrained ridiculousness and descents into absolute carnage that would attract anyone to them.
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Post by acsenger on Oct 14, 2016 6:57:48 GMT -5
I'm currently listening to Merzbow Loves Emil Beaulieau. On it, Merzbow uses an Emil B. record and some tapes as source material. I like this album a lot, although track 2 is a bit of an endurance test with its continuous high-pitched tone. At the same time, track 2 is very restrained and thus reminds me of some of Merzbow's 80s material (OM Electrique in particular). Track 1 is a lot more intense, although it starts out pretty mellow too, with some traffic and other environmental and contact microphone sounds. This album is, of course, not a collaboration, strictly speaking, but a remix. Regardless, it's just as good as the average Merzbow release from the 90s.
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