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Post by andypandy380 on Mar 1, 2017 10:29:24 GMT -5
With the recent surprise releases of Gomata and Wildwood2, I've been thinking a lot about announcements of Merzbow albums that never saw the light of day, or albums that become other things. It's kind of an interesting subject, I guess with the wealth of material Akita creates and the amount of labels he deals with, circumstances change and things don't happen the way originally intended, or get recycled and turned into something else entirely.
Just wanted to start a bit of discussion really
I've been trying to think of examples... some of you guys probably know of more gossip from before I became a fan
Merzgrind - Merzbow grindcore album intended to be released by Relapse Records, with guest vocalists including Eric Wood of Bastard Noise and Jay Randall of Agoraphobic Nosebleed.
The album formerly known as 'Flax' became Dead Zone. Interesting how an entirely different theme can be attached to the same music; An album inspired by vegan food becomes an anti-nuclear statement (immediately after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011)
Goloka - Intended as the third part of the Merzcow series, became Merzbow's part of the Boris/Merzbow album 'Gensho' to some mixed reviews.
Old Europa Cafe at one time announced a followup album/sequel to Marmo which never came to be.
Microkosmos was supposedly planned as a series of five albums, each with artwork from collages Akita created in the 80's. Only Vol.1 was ever released. I wonder if Akita lost faith in the idea.
Merzbow and Melt-Banana played a handful of live shows together in the early 90's, supposedly including covers of Frank Zappa songs. The sets were recorded and an album release was apparently a very good possibility. Chances the material will surface now is pretty remote.
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Post by davebowman on Mar 1, 2017 17:30:29 GMT -5
The Microkosmos series stalling after the first release was a shame, as I really liked the first one. I wonder if the remaining albums were ever recorded, and if so if they remain unreleased, or came out under different titles?
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Post by Bucketfel on Mar 1, 2017 20:27:26 GMT -5
i asked so many times about microkosmos back when i had the twitter feed, trying to show them that fans were interested, but nothing came of it
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Post by acsenger on Mar 2, 2017 0:29:11 GMT -5
Is Merzgrind definitely not gonna see the light of day, or there's just no info about it?
Here are my recollections, often hazy:
There were meant to be 5 Merzbow/Kouhei Matsunaga split releases, and only two (a CD and a 12") were released.
There was meant to be a CD-ROM release in the '90s called Scatological Baroque. The music ended up being included in the Merzbox (I forget which disc, but it's mentioned in Akita's notes) while the text part became one of Akita's books.
When the Merzbow website started, for a while there was an upcoming releases section. I remember a picture LP or 12" called Minka was there for a while. I don't have any other info about it.
A long time ago there was also a fan website called The Digital Merzbow Page, by a Finnish guy, I believe. He had all of Merzbow's CDs and he listed them in chronological order along with a picture of the album cover, the track titles and I think also when the album was recorded. I discovered it around 2000 because this was when I was new to Merzbow and I remember his "missing" section included Tentacle, but he had everything until that point. I remember spending an unhealthy amount of time on his site, wishing I had all those CDs, haha... Anyway, for a long time there was an album in the "upcoming" section called Fall Into Hell Chased By Ogres. Eventually this website disappeared, and I never heard about this album afterwards.
A few years ago there was talk on this forum about an upcoming 7" on an Aussie label titled Calling the Rain maybe? I could be wrong about the title. They even had the artwork ready. I guess the label folded, but from memory the 7" material ended up being released as part of a CD; I don't know which one though.
In an interview a few years ago, Akita mentioned there was an upcoming CD box set on a Hong Kong label and (if I remember correctly) a 3-way split CD on a Norwegian label. To my knowledge these haven't materialised either.
At one point there was to be a split LP (or perhaps CD) with Merzbow, Moz (I think) and Thurston Moore which got scrapped for some reason.
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Post by davebowman on Mar 2, 2017 2:13:23 GMT -5
When the Merzbow website started, for a while there was an upcoming releases section. I remember a picture LP or 12" called Minka was there for a while. I don't have any other info about it. There are tracks called 'Minka Part 1' '2,' & '3' on the 'Bariken' album from 2005 - so presumably that's where those tracks originated from?
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Post by andypandy380 on Mar 2, 2017 9:28:59 GMT -5
Ahhh sweet, cheers guys. I knew there'd be more gossip out there Calling The Rain appeared on the bonus CD with the deluxe version of Hatobana. The two short tracks are probably among the most unremarkable on the album, not awful but there's a whole lot of other cool things happening on that album. I was trying to recall what else was mentioned on that interview too acsenger. I think the 3 way split could have been the Animal Liberation CD with Raven and Dao De Noise... although it was released on 4ib records based in Singapore. Not certain about the CD box set, unless releases like Hatobana were originally part of it. I do sometimes think we're due another nice 4CD album in Turmeric or Day Of Seals kind of a vain... or even a Merzbient/Duo boxset (hint hint - Merzbow Null cassette re-releases) Wish I'd seen that Digital Merzbow page. 'fall into hell chased by ogres' is a great name haha. I think I have every solo Merzbow CD now, obviously there are plenty of splits and collaborative albums that I don't have and am not so interested in spending the cash on. Yeah, I dunno what happened to Microkosmos... it was pretty nicely done with the splatter vinyl and stuff... I remember not being completely sold on the music, quite typical of the drum albums of the same time, but I'm way overdue another listen of it. Cheers guys for the info!
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Post by acsenger on Mar 3, 2017 0:03:11 GMT -5
Yeah, you're probably right. I have Bariken but somehow didn't recognise the connection.
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Post by trollh on Mar 9, 2017 11:47:31 GMT -5
And there was a plan for release for the first hungarian live show with Balázs Pándi (in 2009), but through the recording anomaly (only the left channel was been recorded) it was been transformed in to Fluc Wanne, Vienna live LP, with hungarian photography.
And I remember there was some releases from the early 90-s which was never been released so Masami released under the different title - I dont remember right now, but if I will found them, will post them.
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