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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 26, 2017 5:26:04 GMT -5
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Post by guineafowl on Aug 27, 2017 7:03:09 GMT -5
Holy shit, a Merzbow album with hip-hop elements? I'm hyped.
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 27, 2017 7:45:01 GMT -5
According to the translation of Japanese on their site yeah. I'd assume that means a similar sort of style to the chopped up beats on Eureka Moment. There is also a mention of Merzbeat. Seems that rhythm is something Akita is experimenting with further recently.
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Post by soleilmoon on Sept 19, 2017 18:44:06 GMT -5
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Post by andypandy380 on Sept 20, 2017 15:06:23 GMT -5
Didn't expect to see these yet! So very tempted but international shipping out of the US has become so expensive lately that I can't justify it, sadly.
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Post by acsenger on Oct 17, 2017 13:51:21 GMT -5
Has anyone heard this album yet?
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Post by andypandy380 on Nov 18, 2017 10:13:38 GMT -5
Finally got my hands on this. He's actually done it! This is Merzbow's hiphop album haha. The first track has some loud, almost cartoonish bubbling sounds layered with some fairly harsh analogue feedback. It reminds me of some of the harsher moments in Merzbow's 2000s output (Animal Magnetism, FID, that kind of a sound) The Kaoscitron trilogy of tracks actually put a pretty big smile on my face. There's a continual sound in your left ear that's a bit like a chord on a church organ that changes pitch as it's fed through a tape machine, it's a sound that I first noticed in 3RENSA and it's here pretty extensively. There is also a continuous incredibly low pitched rumbling and buzzing of synths that brings some intensity to the tracks. What really stands out across these three tracks is the beats, like straightforward continuous hiphop style programmed beats. I actually really like this addition to the sound on this album, they're not loud and in your face, but they hold the thing together, there's a bit of variety in them too, occasionally getting jittery in a sort of Aphex Twin-esque way. The latter part of Part 3 actually gets quite musical with a distorted bassline and a looping synth passage that's quite tuneful and especially 'nice' sounding. The whole thing is produced very tastefully and first impressions from me are really good. The final track is a lot harsher and I guess more along the lines of albums like Aordron or Konchuuki.
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Post by guineafowl on Jan 12, 2018 7:09:16 GMT -5
As I said above, I've been hyped about this project from the git-go, not only because I'm a major hip-hop-head who happens to be a noise fan too, but also because part of the reason I got into noise is hip-hop groups like Clipping, who have a great appreciation for experimental music and are famous for incorporating elements of harsh noise and industrial into their art, so I saw this album as a possibly interesting parallel to the experimental hip-hop / noise-rap stuff I love. Finally, I had the opportunity to hear the album this morning, I've only heard it once, so I don't think I've digested the whole thing yet enough to have a well-formed opinion, but I'll share my first impressions, as raw thoughts. When the good people at the label mentioned "hip-hop rhythms", I think we were all a little skeptical about it, thinking maybe it's just some cultural difference or the accidental result of the translation - and even if we took their word, it still remained a question - for me, at least - that how subtle the hip-hop influence is going to be. I even considered the possibility that it will go right over my head, the same way I can't force my ears to recognize the dub within Merzbuddha. Thankfully, these concerns were mostly proven wrong. The three-part title track is among the most interesting stuff I've heard from this man. The whole trilogy is dominated by this very clean, wailing synth sound that's absolutely mesmerizing, and the rest of the noises (that are more playful than abrasive) never really outshine it or drown it down. So the three parts are sonically pretty uniform, what really separates them from one another are the beats. The choice and the usage of the beats were spot on. The first one has this typical laid-back, but punchy boom-bap beat, the second one has a way faster rhythm and a more modern feel to it, and the third one is this soulful jazz-hop kinda beat. The rest of the sonic characteristics of each part go really well with their own drum sequences (and the style of hip-hop they're known from). The last one goes more gentle and melodic, while the first two are really bass-heavy - the first one has an organic, punchy gut to it, the second is distorted and chaotic. So yeah, the middle part of the album really came through with the promises, and while the rest of the album didn't (or at least not in an obvious way), I liked those tracks as well. The albums starts off very heavy with its opener, has this WUB-WUB-WUB pulsation all around, the noise is relentlessly harsh, but it still has a strong musicality to it (so similarly to Andypandy's experience, it reminded me of FID too). And the last song, which takes up almost the half of the record, makes up for those who missed the harshness of 622 from the Kaoscitron trilogy. I can't say too much about this one, but I really enjoyed it. Now, was this what I anticipated "Merzbow's hip-hop album" to be? I wanna say yes, because I already love this album after my first listen and I think it has achieved everything it was aiming for; but part of me also wants to say no, because I feel like there's so much more in this idea. For an obvious example, I'd really be curious about a harsher, noisier take on some urban rhythms. Of course, I understand that this album simply wasn't intended to be that, so I don't mean this as a negative criticism (that would be just unfair), but from now on, I'll just have this little glimmer of hope in me that we'll see another hip-hop-influenced Merzbow album/song further down the road, because on this one, Mr Akita really showed that he can create beautiful things with this concept.
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Post by andypandy380 on Jan 13, 2018 8:09:38 GMT -5
Glad you enjoyed it too. You did a better job of describing the tracks as well! It's hard to tell whether Akita was directly influenced by hip-hop or if that's something the label have branded it with, either way it would be interesting to know what he sampled those beats from (if they are samples) or what his inspiration for that sound was. I have a feeling we'll hear more of it, it does seem rare that albums come as a one-off rather than a continual exploration into sounds across a handful of albums, that being said it would almost feel a bit weird if Hyakki Echo for example became an ongoing thing. 2017 was a pretty good year to be a Merzbow fan actually, lots of surprises, the trouble with that being that I'm impatient to hear what's next!
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Post by guineafowl on Jan 13, 2018 8:49:33 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure the inspiration really was hip-hop. Not only because of the type of the beats but also because he never really broke them or played around with their tempo (like he usually does), he kept them pretty traditional, and again, the sonic environment these beats were placed in I think all had the feel of the hip-hop subgenre where the given beat is typically used. If this was just a coincidence it would be a really crazy one... From what I've heard, 2017 really did seem a good and a diversified year for Merzbow, although only this and Tomarigi were the albums I've heard in their full glory. I'll be trying to make up for that in the near future, so I can necrobump their threads.
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Post by kanyewest on Jan 14, 2018 21:25:50 GMT -5
I thought this album was great, too. It quickly became one of my favourite Merzbow releases. I hope he does at least one more of these because as you've said, there's more potential in this idea because, honestly, even though I love this record, at times the beat felt a bit disconnected from the rest of the music. It's as if someone just threw a hip-hop beat on a pre-recorded Merzbow track. It's not that frequent and it doesn't even mean that what's there isn't an interesting listen during those moments, all I'm saying is that there's room for improvement.
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