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Post by andypandy380 on Jun 23, 2020 3:45:23 GMT -5
Been wondering about that! Sounds interesting, kind of glad they've switched things up a little this time round, much more emphasis on a freeform/musique concrete sort of a style. I don't listen to the others a great deal, I remember liking Cuts when it came out and the three of them were fantastic when I saw them live... (re)listened to Cuts Of Guilt Cuts Deeper again the other day though and found it a bit of a boring album, it's the same sort of meandering middle ground much of the time, just felt like it never really got going.
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 19, 2020 16:58:01 GMT -5
Urashima have confirmed they will be (re)releasing Rainbow Electronics as a 2LP later in the year
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 23, 2020 10:07:34 GMT -5
Rarenoise have opened up pre-orders for the Cuts Open album. As is usual with Rarenoise, all orders come with an immediate FLAC and Mp3 download of the full album. Official release date is September 25th
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Post by andypandy380 on Aug 27, 2020 14:31:55 GMT -5
More news from Slowdown...
Introducing the tenth series of albums... Getting into the mid 2000's, strangely enough the first disc is an expanded re-release of the incredibly rare 1633 vinyl from 2004, the other contains variations from the album 'Sphere'... It seems this series will have Akitas own paintings on the covers, which is pretty cool. Interested to see where this series takes us, I'm personally quite a fan of this era.
They've also announced the 'Green & Orange' box set, compiling the six archival CDs from the late 90's Tauromachine era
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Post by acsenger on Sept 11, 2020 11:58:59 GMT -5
I got "Dadarottenvator" a while ago, and I found it an interesting detail that the lady on the sticker and on the center labels is the same as on the front cover of the "Neo Orgasm" 7"; however, her surroundings are somewhat different.
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Post by nofun on Oct 18, 2020 22:55:30 GMT -5
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Post by davebowman on Oct 19, 2020 11:46:21 GMT -5
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Post by venereologist on Oct 29, 2020 0:23:39 GMT -5
Boy! The absolute nonsense with Relapse these days is just headache-inducing. I swear, it's more about selling a full page of slightly varied colored vinyl editions of the same material than it is promoting and selling the material itself. The sample I heard was good and very unexpected, though. I may even order the CD based on that. But the 20 variants on vinyl + pointless 20-variant PD/Venereology vinyl-for-its-own-sake reissue campaigns are very obnoxious. The same goes for you, Earache!
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Post by andypandy380 on Oct 29, 2020 12:56:04 GMT -5
That's something I've noticed too recently, especially with metal labels. The new Deftones and Napalm Death albums had about 20 different bundles, a set of four different coloured cassettes and thee rest of it... I guess they're trying to make the most out of merch sales with live music having dried up, but there do seem to be a lot of mindless devotees who buy absolutely everything.
The pulse Demon thing is a head scratcher too... That album seems to have become a meme across the Internet, either it's the subject of pages and pages of childish jokes or it's made out to be the only album Akita made that ever mattered. I think there's a bit of a hype that's got people buying those reissues (likely to have sat unopened on a shelf or to be the subject of some desperate Instagram post) They sell out instantly while there are other decent Merzbow albums limited to 200 copies unsold and readily available on eBay for about a fiver. It's a shame it seems to work the way it does.
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Post by davebowman on Oct 29, 2020 14:24:15 GMT -5
Vinyl is clearly the only thing making money at the moment, so I don't really blame these labels for trying to earn some cash with half a dozen different coloured versions for each release. If there are completists out there who feel compelled to buy every single variant, then that's their problem. I'm just glad this one is actually getting a CD version!
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Post by acsenger on Oct 30, 2020 11:59:24 GMT -5
Metal labels have been releasing multiple versions of the same release for a long time (multiple vinyl colours, the whole album on only 7”s like the latest Morbid Angel, CD boxes with guitar picks and other useless items, etc.). I don’t get why there’s a need for them personally, but since there clearly is, I understand that labels are making as much money off them as possible.
I bought the “Venereology” vinyl reissue even though I have the CD because it has 20+ minutes of unreleased bonus material. I nearly bought the “Pulse Demon” reissue on Relapse too, since the ad for it said there was an unreleased track on it. What it didn’t say is that it’s 5 minutes long. I found this out before I ordered it, and in the end I couldn’t justify forking out for 5 minutes in the case of a 70+ minute long album that I already have on CD. While I get the marketing perspective, it would’ve been nice of Relapse to state the length of the bonus track (obviously they didn’t neglect doing so in the case of “Venereology”).
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Post by nofun on Nov 21, 2020 19:46:22 GMT -5
Vinyl is clearly the only thing making money at the moment, so I don't really blame these labels for trying to earn some cash with half a dozen different coloured versions for each release. If there are completists out there who feel compelled to buy every single variant, then that's their problem. I'm just glad this one is actually getting a CD version! Is this the general consensus among merzbow collectors? If CD is the preferred format, I could probably do some CD's in the future. New material or Dead Lotus / Screaming Dove reissues. I just always assumed variants + weird stuff is what people wanted. (I personally love multiple variants, if its not overkill and weird merch items are always cool)
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Post by davebowman on Nov 22, 2020 6:55:44 GMT -5
Personally I prefer CD's due to the superior clarity of sound - it's slightly ironic with Merzbow being 'noise', but it's the little details that your ears can pick out amongst the wash of sound that add to the experience. I know there is a modern vogue for claiming vinyl sounds 'warmer', but to me it's just unwanted surface noise and crackles. The other downside for vinyl only releases is the postage cost - I live in the UK, so if a release is LP only format from another country, it's going to be very expensive to get it shipped to you, due to the size.
That said, I would hate to claim there is any consensus on this, and probably every format has its fans. If you've already issued cassette and vinyl only releases (I just ordered Screaming Dove by the way, so I'll still go on other formats if I have to!), maybe the logical thing to do would be to try a limited edition CD for the next release, and see what sells best, or if it makes any difference at all? There's still scope to do some weird packaging etc with CDs.
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Post by andypandy380 on Nov 25, 2020 16:57:56 GMT -5
I don't know how many people are keeping track or are interested with what Slowdown are up to (since they're still not easy to get hold of outside of Japan) ... But it seems theyll be up to date with the box sets (for the time being) with the release of 'Go Vegan' and 'Ship Of Chicken'. That said, it's been confirmed that they'll be continuing the series into 2021 with the 11th volume of albums. These ones venture into 2006/07 where Akita began bringing analogue electronics back into his live performances. Unusual cover art with these ones, sort of a woodland collage/sculpture type of thing that remind me of the Konchuuki album from some years ago.
With reference to the posts above, I've downloaded Screaming Dove but haven't had a chance to give it a proper listen, it does sound like a really impressive and fairly harsh sounding album from a brief skip through it so I have a feeling it's going to be a good'un! I too favour CDs above other formats, especially for Noise albums, so I'd love to add Dead Lotus and Screaming Dove CDs to my collection if that were to ever be a thing!
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Post by davebowman on Dec 4, 2020 4:41:28 GMT -5
New music video for a track from the new Boris collaboration (should probably come with an epilepsy warning): youtu.be/XlscNcCskzY
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Post by andypandy380 on Dec 4, 2020 9:09:02 GMT -5
Melvins are probably my favourite band so I've been pretty eager to hear this one, I was surprised to see it on this album too, figured it would just remain a limited one time vinyl oddity like a lot of Boris' output. Quite like their take on it, glad they've mixed it up a bit and it's not just a flat note-for-note cover of the original.
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Post by andypandy380 on Jan 4, 2021 17:36:09 GMT -5
I dont know whether anyone here has heard Suzumeiro 1 and 2 that Slowdown put out in the early part of last year, but I decided to import them from Japan because curiosity was beginning to get the better of me. Im glad I did too, I think I can genuinely say these could be the the two best Merzbow albums I've heard in recent memory, dare I say game changers, akita really takes his sound into some uncharted territory on these. Part one is quite a busy sounding album, with lots of loops that revolve, constantly chopping and changing, there is also a definite emphasis on dynamics, with some sounds being quite low in the mix while other things crash and interject at quite a high volume, things occasionally get quite quirky and a little bizarre. Its kind of an exhilarating listen actually! I wouldnt say either could be described as a typical harsh noise album, but part 2 is a total head-scratcher with hardly any feedback sounds for its entire duration. It doesnt get off to a very promising start, it features a lot of very loud freestyle keyboard playing (or perhaps randomly generated sequences) that for a brief moment makes you wonder what on earth he was thinking when he recorded this, but it all gives way to what I can only describe as quite an eerie distant bass-heavy whistling sound layered with jittery guitar noise, and it sounds amazing. The tension between these sounds is quite impressive and unique. I recall seeing Akita upload a photo where he had guitars and all kinds of musical instruments strewn across the floor and i reckon this is the sort of thing he was creating. The second track I feel is the weakest of the bunch, featuring quite a lot more of that keyboard riffing, it doesnt do a great deal to stand out. The final track is very unusual and very stripped back, in a way it feels like a sequel to 'graft', the especially odd musique-concrete inspired album from a decade ago. Its not particularly noisy and features jittery percussive sounds amidst a lot of psychedelic/sci fi sounding synths but it works wonderfully well, very alien. From the mid point of the track things get tense again, once again quite eerie sounding, I dont really recall Akita doing much of this sort of thing in the past. I personally think Akita has really struck onto something with these albums and Im honestly pretty amazed by them, its a shame that they're going to go largely unnoticed because of the pretty exclusive nature of their release but I hope he develops this sound further. I dont think you'll regret tracking them down though if youre able to.
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Post by acsenger on Jan 5, 2021 14:55:57 GMT -5
These two albums really sound intriguing based on your description! It's a shame that they can only be ordered from Japan.
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Post by gormek on Jan 5, 2021 21:56:10 GMT -5
I have been reading the Merzforum for years but this is the first I have felt compelled to register and post. ALL the Slowdown releases have been featured at Soleilmoon.com in Portland, Oregon for roughly the same price as Amazon.jp, but with postage costing less for U.S. delivery. They get these releases directly from Masami Akita himself (Slowdown does appear to be his label). I have not looked into whether they ship internationally, but they do have international distributors. Home page: www.soleilmoon.com/Both Suzumeiro 1 and 2 are currently in stock (listed as "Sparrow Color"): www.soleilmoon.com/shop/merzbow-%e9%9b%80%e8%89%b2-1-sparrow-color-1/www.soleilmoon.com/shop/merzbow-%e9%9b%80%e8%89%b2-2-sparrow-color-2/They have lots of other Merzbow releases and other bands besides. Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Soleilmoon - I have just been a satisfied customer for over 26 years.
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Post by gormek on Jan 6, 2021 2:26:17 GMT -5
Hello again. It occurred to me that there is some information worth repeating for the benefit of newer Merzfans. I should not assume that everyone necessarily already knows about these great information resources.
The Merzbow Official Site Release page going back to at least 2001, with the newest ones first. This is essential for keeping up with the latest albums, with links to the labels releasing them. It is updated regularly, although new items do not necessarily show up until the release date.
Note that there is a list of 6 select sellers at the very top, and Soleilmoon seems to be the only one that is in the United States rather than Japanese. They have a huge back-catalog of Merzbow releases.
And of course there is Discogs.com, THE essential site for researching and buying music recordings, with a Database of "more than 13,466,510 recordings and 7,313,437 artists" and a Marketplace of "more than 58 million items available and thousands of sellers." These are independent retailers and third-party individuals, sometimes even the artists themselves. The Merzbow page is here:
There are many ways to categorize the page, including Recent Releases. Looking at the page for the Suzumeiro releases (雀色 1 and 雀色 2), one of the Sellers available is - you guessed it - Soleilmoon. (Although ordering directly from them at their website is cheaper.) Most sellers accept both PayPal and credit card.
I do not ordinarily go around acting as a shill for retailers. I have no connection to any of these entities. It is my sincere wish that there be some individuals on this forum who find information here helpful to their collecting. I thank all who have steered me over the years to Merzbow albums that I did not know about, particularly in the pre-release stage before they are sold out. Cheers!
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Post by andypandy380 on Jan 6, 2021 4:57:52 GMT -5
Welcome! Ive been eyeing up the Soleilmoon shop for a while, and it does seem theyre the only seller outside of Japan who stocks them. It's great for those in the US but doesn't solve the problem however for fans in Europe (where many of the contributors to this forum reside) or elsehwere since US international postage costs seem to have quadrupled in recent years. There are a bunch of really respectable distrubutors out here, but i guess from a business point of view, convincing people that they ought to buy any one of these Merzbow albums out of hundreds of others is one hell of a task and theyll be left with the same predicament as the 13 Japanese Birds series where they were left with a ton of unsold stock. I have found one really reliable Japanese seller on discogs who ive bought a bunch of the slowdown albums from, but in general a lot of independent Japanese record stores seem to offer pretty reasonable postage costs. Im interested to learn that Slowdown is Akita's own label, if that is the case! That had never really occurred to me before. Have you heard the Suzumeiro albums? Id be interested to hear what you think.
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Post by acsenger on Jan 6, 2021 12:42:10 GMT -5
Discogs says Slowdown Records is a “Japanese label founded by Kimiho Mori and Yasuyuki Nakamura”. Is there any info out there suggesting it’s actually Akita’s label?
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Post by gormek on Jan 6, 2021 22:15:00 GMT -5
I admit I was just making assumptions about Slowdown, because of their 95 releases only 12 do not involve Merzbow! Clearly they have a close relationship with Masami, although from the info shared by acsenger, Masami is obviously not the owner, just the label's dominant force.
I share your frustration on high postage costs and can confirm that international shipping TO the U.S. has increased dramatically over the past few years as well. Just for fun I put some items in the Soleilmoon shopping cart and filled in a zipcode for Berlin, Germany. The "cheap" First Class Mail International was $14.95 for one cd, and for International Priority it was crazy high. I wish I could recommend a European seller for Merzbow, but my experience with those sellers (although positive) is mostly limited to individual labels releasing their own product. I used to find Amazon Japan's DHL shipping costs to the U.S. for multiple items in an order to be acceptable and I assume (perhaps wrongly) they are similar for other parts of the world, but I have not placed any Amazon Japan orders in this year of COVID. I can only suggest that people try the few retailers that have Slowdown releases and check the postage before actually ordering. I have skipped doing many orders that way.
In previous years I routinely bought all individual Slowdown releases every few months, but I finally wised up and forced myself to wait for the half-price 6-cd box sets. Then this year the boxes were delayed in being released! Clearly it was going to be awhile (if ever) for the new material of Suzumeiro / Sparrow Color to be in a box set, so I ordered them and had just listened to them a few days before reading the excellent review by andypandy380, nodding my head in agreement the while. I like them. I can not describe and review musical releases with your eloquence.
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Post by andypandy380 on Jan 7, 2021 10:32:35 GMT -5
Thats very kind, I do try my best haha. I dont find it easy to talk about noise music, usually find myself saying things like "its a sound that reminds me of... Its a chirping sort of noise" but then again i think what draws me to it is the mystery of it, unknown sounds and the fact that I largely don't understand how its created. I have the first six box sets plus the 3RENSA box, largely pretty happy with them, some great material on them although i dont delve into them a great deal. Been quite impressed with the new albums slowdown put out too, 3RENSA and Kaoscitron were both recent highlights. The international postage situation is definitely much the same here in the UK. I follow a record label based here where the guy behind it is quite open about the fact its a one-man operation out of his spare room, he's done some remarkable things nevertheless. It feels like every couple of months theres another update from him about how postage costs have gone up again and its put a huge amount of stress upon what is already quite a difficult thing to run. Surely it can only have a long term negative effect, im sort of joking when i say this but it does sometimes feel like theres a plot to destroy small businesses, give it a couple of years we might all be working for Jeff Bezos.
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Post by acsenger on Jan 7, 2021 12:52:23 GMT -5
I assume the shipping costs from Japan to Europe wouldn't be that high, so what's mostly kept me from ordering some of the Slowdown releases (I do have one though) is the fact I'm just not sure I need more Merzbow on my shelves, since I have nearly everything he released in the '90s (my favourite period of his) as well as the "Merzbox". Given that I listen to a lot of other music and that, as a result, the Merzbow releases I already have aren't played that often, I tend to think it wouldn't make much sense to buy even more Merzbow CDs. I also wonder whether these archival releases are really good? I mean, if they're often raw materials for albums and unreleased tracks that might have gone unreleased for so long for a reason, are they on the same level as the "proper" albums released in the past? To those of you who have (some of) these CDs, what's your opinion about this?
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Post by andypandy380 on Jan 7, 2021 15:08:48 GMT -5
I do share much the same sentiment. I too listen to all sorts of other stuff, outside of the realms of noise music. Ive just moved into a house with my girlfriend so I'm finding with other responsibilities i have to be a bit more selective about the albums i collect, but i think what has kept me coming back in the past is the idea that a lot of noise/experimental releases are a sort of 'snapshot' of ideas and a glimpse of the creative process the artist had at the time, more than a polished album, and that in itself intrigues me. In terms of the quality of the slowdown albums, its kind of a hard one to pin down, i would say that the first couple of box sets arent the most engaging, but arguably neither is the first part of the Merzbox and there is probably the odd 'dud' of an album later along the line. I guess it could be argued that if you own the Merzbox you might not be missing out on a great deal. The source material thing is a strange one too, one could think it might be hours of uninteresting faffing about, but I find something like Merzbient to be quite an accomplished piece of work considering it was basically cobbled together from cassetes Akita found one day in the back of a cupboard. The Merzbox came out 20 years ago, and there hasn't really been a similar exploration into Merzbow's work past the year 2000, so the next set of albums has kind of interested me once again, even though part of my brain is telling me I don't need any more.
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Post by gormek on Jan 7, 2021 22:02:40 GMT -5
I'm just not sure I need more Merzbow !!!!!! And I thought this was a board for Merzbow fans. Heresy!
Just kidding. Obsessing over one prolific artist to the exclusion of all others is not something I expect anyone to do. That is just crazy. I mean, *I* do it, but I know there is something wrong with me. I used to follow a wide variety of musicians across a number of genres, but the past few years I listen to less and less, and the only stuff I BUY is noise. Incapacitants, Controlled Death, Masonna and others but most of all Merzbow. This past "glorious" year I listened to all my vinyl Merzbows chronologically, then continued on to the CDs, which will take me awhile to finish.
While I was introduced to Merzbow in the early 90's, I can't say it is still my favorite era (if I even have one), though I can see why many do love it so. I appreciate his evolving work through its many phases. I don't see why the Slowdown releases get promoted as "raw materials," as they sound as complete to me as much of the rest of his work. Maybe that is because everything he does is raw, improvised and unstructured. How often does he do a Greatest Hits live performance? "This is the 2nd song off my 27th album, it is one of my personal favorites." {plays a few notes, fans cheer wildly when they recognize the tune}
The Slowdown releases ARE the new Merzbox, just not in one big package, and with mostly unreleased material. This is a more financially sound way of releasing for both the label and the customer. The Merzbox worked out to about $10 per CD, and if you get the 6-CD Slowdown boxes it is about the same. You can still get the Merzbox new, mint from the label for the original asking price. Ouch, still not sold out after all these years. It was just too much of an asking price for most rational people. (I am not rational people.) Obviously not the part of my brain that I listen to!
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Post by acsenger on Jan 8, 2021 9:43:56 GMT -5
Thanks for your answers. By "raw material" I meant that I believe a lot of the Slowdown releases were originally raw materials for what became albums eventually ("Antimonument Tapes", "Crash for Hi-Fi Tapes" etc.). Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean they can't be good: I have the "Merzphysics" and "Merzmorphosis" box sets and I love them, even though they're not fleshed out and polished albums. Still, I just checked Discogs and I have about 150 Merzbow releases, which at this point I feel is more than enough. That said, even though I most likely won't buy the Slowdown stuff, if there's a new archival Merzbow release or a reissue and it can be ordered from a European label/distributor, I won't hesitate to buy it. My listening habits have evolved not too differently from gormek's. I used to listen to a pretty wide range of genres, but over the last maybe 5 years this range has kept narrowing and narrowing. Right now I'm in the process of drastically thinning my music collection in order to have one that's not too large (so that there's no way to listen to individual releases with any sort of regularity) and consists only of quality releases. In other words, instead of quantity and variety, which used to be my focus of collecting, I've lately been aiming for quality and only the kind of music I really like, as opposed to having releases from many genres that I found interesting in the past but have since discovered I don't actually like that much/at all.
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Post by davebowman on Jan 8, 2021 9:59:52 GMT -5
I'm in the UK, and I find the postage from Japan is often slightly better than from the US, though either way it's not cheap. You can save a small amount by getting the Slowdown boxsets instead of the individual releases - but then you run the risk of getting hit by a customs charge, so you have to pay through the nose anyway.
On a slightly different subject, is there anyone else out there from the UK/Europe who ordered the 'Screaming Dove' vinyl, and if so, has anyone received it yet? I know COVID has played merry hell with the post, so I'm not panicking yet, but thought I'd check to see if it's physically floating around out there yet?
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emgee
New Member
Posts: 54
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Post by emgee on Jan 15, 2021 3:10:36 GMT -5
“To those of you who have (some of) these CDs, what's your opinion about this?”
I have some of the Slowdown releases. They include new recordings, reissues, previously unreleased archival tracks, and previously unreleased material which has been recently mixed. On the whole, I have enjoyed them, however I haven’t found anything that jumps onto my all-time favourite Merzbow list.
I really like the most recently recorded album, called Kaoscitron, from 2017. I was disappointed with the new Cloud Cock and Crash for hi-fi CDs because they are not as good as the original releases. Two of the tracks on the Slowdown Cloud Cock were originally released in the Merzbox and one of the tracks appears to be the same as heard on the original CD. The last track, Brain Forest, is an edited version of the first track on the original release. It omits about 10 minutes of cut-up madness from the start of the original, which was always my favourite bit. Similarly, the new Crash for hi-fi CD is not as focused as the mix found on the original CD.
I enjoyed all the CDs that comprise the Go Vegan box set: Pig AY, Material for Structure I, Yoshinotsune Metamo, SCSI Duck 2, 3rd Of May Vol.1&2 - apart from the brief moments which include animal samples, mainly because I prefer not to know how the sounds have been created. Although nothing rivals the contemporaneous albums: Merzbeat, 24 Hours A Day of Seals, Timehunter, there are plenty of good moments. Track 3 of Pig Ay has a bit which sounds like an alarm playing at the end of the world, which seemed to go on forever, and was a head-turning moment for me.
The six CDs which comprise the Laptop Noise box set are enjoyable too (Wa, Mighty Ace, Tensinkaku, Tentacle (1st Mix), Process 9611, Necro 2000.) All from 1999 they include Merzbow's first experiments using a laptop. If you've heard Early Computer Works you'll know what to expect. I don’t know how the sounds were created, whether it was done by taking previously recorded material and feeding it into the laptop to be altered or whether the laptop creates the sounds from scratch, or both; in fact, I quite like not knowing. I imagine the software recreates the analog gadgetry set-up used previously. However, I don’t really know and there are some new bleepy electronic bits which have not been heard up to now. Although these releases sound experimental and not as complex nor as layered or as multi-faceted as later material, they still have the qualities which attract me to Merzbow's music which is: I can’t tell whether the music has been improvised or composed.
All in all, not as noisy as classic 90s Merzbow - which is a good thing in my book.
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