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Post by electricwatersheep on May 21, 2021 14:58:45 GMT -5
Am I the only one to think that 1930 is one of the weirder Merzbow releases?
It seems like Masami was given a mandate to "compose" with tight restrictions to prevent falling back on his usual approaches and minimize repetition. Kind of like the restrictions the 12 tone serialist composers set themselves.
As a general rule, he does not sustain things for a long time and makes a lot of (false) starts, only to abandon them for something else. There are a lot of tempo changes, surprises, and juxtapositions in this work. I like it because there is a lot of interesting detail and the progression of the music is not really "going anywhere."
Thoughts?
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Post by acsenger on May 21, 2021 15:31:09 GMT -5
‘1930’ has never clicked with me, which is weird because I think I love literally everything else he did in that period. I’ve given it several tries, but it just doesn’t grab me. I’m not selling it though, because who knows, maybe one day it’ll grow on me. My problem I think is the effect he uses (or possibly effects, or another kind of gear) which makes a lot of the sounds sound fragmented. There’s an interview somewhere online where he mentions what he used to achieve this.
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Post by electricwatersheep on May 21, 2021 15:38:15 GMT -5
Yes. I would be interested in reading this interview because this release seems to really involve a different approach than usual.
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Post by acsenger on May 21, 2021 15:45:14 GMT -5
I’m not sure which interview it was. Hopefully it’s easy to find.
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Post by andypandy380 on May 21, 2021 16:21:38 GMT -5
I remember quite liking it although i agree with plenty of the above. That's quite a good point about it abandoning one idea and transitioning into something else. I recall it happening between tracks, i think the last track appears out of nowhere, mid wall of noise straight into a sort of disorientating siren sound, and i quite liked that way it did that. Some albums from the same sort of era haven't quite clicked with me either. I really want to like Oersted but it's still one I struggle to engage with.
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Post by electricwatersheep on May 21, 2021 16:48:13 GMT -5
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Post by acsenger on May 22, 2021 2:32:44 GMT -5
I really want to like Oersted but it's still one I struggle to engage with. I've had 'Oersted' for ages and until a couple years ago I felt a bit indifferent about it: I had no issues with it, but I didn't like it a lot either. Then a friend of mine told me how it was one of his favourites and that every time he listened to it he discovered new details. So with that in mind I listened to it again and I got hooked. I don't even really understand why I didn't like it before! It's an album that is overall quite shapeless and instead often focuses on delicate, often sensuous sounds and textures. For this reason it perhaps demands more attention than many of the full blast albums.
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Post by acsenger on Sept 23, 2022 13:15:52 GMT -5
Finally, after having had the CD for around 10 years and having tried (and failed) a number of times to get to like it, ‘1930’ has clicked with me. I now appreciate that it’s different from other albums of that era: the long feedback screeches that are emblematic of Merzbow are absent, and the material feels more fragmented, but very dense at the same time. I also hadn’t really noticed or appreciated before that there are a number of memorable or even catchy elements on the album, for example the killer drum loop that makes a fairly brief appearance in track 2. I also like the calm part just before the ending of the last track; it has a strange, quite eerie and alien atmosphere. I could go on about the album’s memorable parts. It’s still an album that I haven’t fully explored yet, so a couple more listens are in order in the immediate future (and I’ve just finished listening to it).
Am I right that the two ‘Cat of Shell’ CDs are recordings from the same sessions? That’s what I remember reading, but they were recorded in 1996, while ‘1930’ was recorded in 1997. Has anyone heard them?
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Post by davebowman on Sept 24, 2022 9:36:03 GMT -5
Am I right that the two ‘Cat of Shell’ CDs are recordings from the same sessions? That’s what I remember reading, but they were recorded in 1996, while ‘1930’ was recorded in 1997. Has anyone heard them? I've got both '1930' and the two 'Cat of Shell' CD's, but haven't had time to go through them to try and hear any similar or repeated sections. Even the Slowdown Records website is a bit hazy on the subject: " This album was recorded in 1996 and was originally produced for release under the same title, but was never released. According to the information received from Mr. Akita at the time of release, the index of DAT, which became the master of this work, had "Cat Of Shell" and "1930" listed, so it seems that it is a sound source related to the album "1930" released later, but the details have not been confirmed. The final mix of "1930" took place on December 24, 1997, and although the sound source is completely different from this album, the MIX of "1930" was done by passing the existing tape through Polyphaze of Electro-Harmonix, so it is possible that it was used as part of the material."
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Post by acsenger on Sept 24, 2022 12:00:37 GMT -5
After I wrote my post, I also checked Slowdown Records’ descriptions of those CDs, and I was left scratching my head, too. But I guess it’s quite probable that those CDs are different in style because ‘1930’ owes its distinct character to the Electro Harmonix Polyphase (which the ‘Cat of Shell’ materials weren’t subjected to), which Akita also alluded to in an interview I’ve read once. If you do compare them though, please let us know what you think!
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emgee
New Member
Posts: 54
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Post by emgee on Oct 25, 2022 12:13:12 GMT -5
Here's my two cent's worth: the 'Cat of Shell' discs are very different and unalike '1930'. Any fans of the latter looking for some juicy off-cuts will not find them there. And, if they acted as source material, then it's impossible to hear where. I like '1930' but the 'Cat of Shell' discs are monotonous in comparison - I can see why they stayed on the shelf for so long.
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