Recent posts tagged noise
2015
Soliloquy for Lilith (Nurse With Wound)
Those purveyors of sinister whimsy went headfirst into the abyss with this undulating black mirror of a record.
Soul Discharge (Boredoms)
Does humor belong in music? Yes, but even if it didn't, you're getting it anyway.
2014
Execution Ground (Painkiller)
When John Zorn and Bill Laswell joined forces, the results were nothing short of seismic.
2011
Offering (Merzbow)
The press notes for Offering claim the album was inspired by the writings of Juran Hisao, a Japanese author not yet translated into English—in particular his mystery/noir novel Golden Wolf (the text of which is available through the public-domain archive Aozora Bunko)....
2010
Last Date 8.28.1978 (Kaoru Abe)
This was the first record by Kaoru Abe I ever heard, and from what I can tell it was among the very last recordings he ever made. Barely ten days after this concert, Abe was dead at the age of...
2009
Make A Joyful Noise Dept.
Musique Machine has a fairly detailed interview with Merzbow / Masami Akita here. Some nice notes about his use of drums, past and present, and some additional details about how he feels his anti-meat-eating stance is also a pro-environmental stance....
13 Japanese Birds, Vol. 2: Owl (Merzbow)
I got into music backwards. I started with the excesses of Merzbow and the murderous overkill of the Swans, and then reversed gears into more conventional territory. And even then I was still going backwards: I didn’t start my Coltrane...
Suzume: 13 Japanese Birds, Pt. 1 (Merzbow)
“Merzbow’s back (you knew he would be) … ” So read the first few words of the blurb for another Merzbow disc, Merzbuta, but the same sentiment could apply to just about any Merzdisc. Just when you think the guy’s...
Inner Ear Dept.
Thought I'd quiz people about what music to look at next... Another Lustmørd side project,Terror Against Terror, which I hinted at in my Isolrubin BK review. Geinoh Yamashirogumi's Ecophony Rinne, the first installment in the trilogy that included the soundtrack...
Boris At Last – Feedbacker (Boris)
Boris win some kind of award for truth in advertising with their album titles: Amplifier Worship, Rock Dream, and now Feedbacker. This is rock ‘n roll from Japan’s deepest underground live halls, drenched in (as the name implies) feedback, rattle-and-hum,...
2008
The 150 Murderous Passions (Nurse With Wound / Whitehouse)
“the listeners of these recordings will always enjoy the most intense reactions of all because they are the most violently repulsive records ever conceived” So read the text that accompanied Whitehouse’s Buchenwald album, an LP so loud that I feared...
Door Open At 8 AM (Merzbow)
Dad and I always used the same things for different ends. When he bought a shortwave radio, he listened to the BBC World Service and whatever Turkish-language broadcasts he could pick up. I listened to the atmospherics and the numbers...
Collapse 12 Floors (Merzbow)
Masami Akita seems to have four major sources of inspiration for the work he releases under the name Merzbow: “scum culture” (his term for pornography, fetish/bondage material, horror/gore, etc.), pure abstraction, animal and nature rights (viz., F.I.D., Bloody Sea, Turmeric,...
2007
Dharma (Merzbow)
Most people would probably find an unintentional laugh in me saying that some Merzbow albums are nowhere nearly as interesting as others. It does have the makings of a comedy sketch: you have someone listening to one long blur of...
Live at InRoads (Borbetomagus)
I have to admit, about half the time I’ve picked up a record just because the name of the band wouldn’t leave my head—and who can forget a name like Borbetomagus? Those of you who are historically-inclined will remember that...
Merzbuddha (Merzbow)
I’ve long felt that the big difference between Merzbow and almost every other “noise artist”, whether from Japan or anywhere else, was that Merzbow was at least as interested in the art as he was the noise. Sure, you can...
Merzbeat (Merzbow)
You might not ever have guessed it from listening to most of his records, but Masami Akita, a/k/a, Merzbow, harbors a love of jazz and progressive rock that comes out through his own music in the oddest ways. Before he...
2006
Yoshinotsune (Merzbow)
Albums, like books, can be seeds: they can lie dormant for any length of time and then flourish in completely unexpected ways. This was definitely true of Yoshinotsune, one of Merzbow’s less widely-discussed albums, and one I confess I went...
Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante ou Notre Nymphomanie Aureole (Masonna)
There was a time, not all that long ago, when pure excess and overkill were enough by themselves to get your name in the books. This definitely applies when it comes to noncommercial music, where a fair number of both...
Amlux (Merzbow)
Nobody today objects to the idea that you’re still making art if you create a painting or a sculpture that doesn’t represent anything “real”, so why do we still assume that the only things we can safely call “music” are...
See other noise posts for 2006
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