GO SEE LIVE if you get the chance.
I giggled like a catholic school girl.
Completely agree with what burun wrote above.
He made a record (actually, two) for an elephant seal (I have that record).
Completely Not Crap.
Person: Merzbow
42AAAAAAAARGH wrote:Funny thing about a forum that catalogs posts from years back. I started this thread when I was 15, just getting into noise rock, and did not get Merzbow at all. Then a couple of months later I backpedaled embarrassedly, trying to show off (I guess, I don't fully remember) that I was getting into him.
Truth is I actually never "got" Merzbow until I gave up on noise and then started downloading some of his stuff a couple of months ago. There's nothing to get! I really appreciate that this guy does what he does, and it's obvious that he puts a TON of time into his music. In fact, I wouldn't even consider what I've heard from his - which is about 1/40th of his discography - conceptual, at least in the sense of what's coming out of the speakers. There's always something complex going on with the rhythm that holds its own without needing to know the source of the sounds.
Anyway, these days I would consider Merzbow a very obvious not crap. He's not even one favorite artists, or one I listen to all that often, but he's so far and beyond anyone else in his field that his music can hardly be considered "noise" in the way that people usually mean.
Much credit to you for this post, sir.
Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced. T. Mckenna
Person: Merzbow
44I've heard/owned literally hundreds of Merzbow albums (including, yes, the Merzbox). It's completely ludicrous of course to imagine that those are all fantastic. What he does isn't particularly well structured at all, but then it isn't meant to be, as it isn't supposed to be appreciated as coherent in the traditional sense. It's entirely founded on negative principles, and he's attempting to achieve a degree zero of meaning, where you're left with just the sound, which is imagined by him to have all kinds of id-tapping potentialities. At his very best, there is something almost meditative about what he does, if you're willing to let go totally whilst listening to it.
So, do I want to own vast piles of Merzbow rubbish from the Merzbow CD industry? No, that's why i've sold almost all of it. Merzbow fans are bizarrely uncritical and no different from a Michael Jackson fan outside the court gates fully believing that 'Earth Song' is every bit the equal of 'Rock With You'. You can't fully give yourself over to his sound without realising that, say, the post-Merzbox digital releases all sound incredibly thin and weedy. There's far too much of it, everything goes on for too long, and his work lacks focus and ultimately, a point. As a free download, fine, but not something which I think deserves to be paid for. Consider the work which would have gone into a recent Whitehouse album by comparison, or in fact, any album by any regular 'normal' band.
As he no longer has any interest in presenting only the best of his recorded output, such as when he self-released 'Cloud Cock 00 Grand', then I no longer have any interest in hearing any of it.
So, do I want to own vast piles of Merzbow rubbish from the Merzbow CD industry? No, that's why i've sold almost all of it. Merzbow fans are bizarrely uncritical and no different from a Michael Jackson fan outside the court gates fully believing that 'Earth Song' is every bit the equal of 'Rock With You'. You can't fully give yourself over to his sound without realising that, say, the post-Merzbox digital releases all sound incredibly thin and weedy. There's far too much of it, everything goes on for too long, and his work lacks focus and ultimately, a point. As a free download, fine, but not something which I think deserves to be paid for. Consider the work which would have gone into a recent Whitehouse album by comparison, or in fact, any album by any regular 'normal' band.
As he no longer has any interest in presenting only the best of his recorded output, such as when he self-released 'Cloud Cock 00 Grand', then I no longer have any interest in hearing any of it.
Person: Merzbow
45Masami Akita is an articulate guy. I enjoy reading interviews with him. He can easily explain the concepts behind his work and doesn't seem to give much of a shit if people like it or not. Bonus points for that. He's a classic "otaku" - if no underground noise scene existed he'd still be making a cassette album once a week in his bedroom.
I've kept up with Merzbow over years (probably about 15 years now) and I've never seen him sit still creatively for very long. Every time I hear about a new Merzbow record I think there's probably 10 others that are coming out around the world that I don't know about.
The best part is that its not really necessary to own any of the records. You can hear some small samples of Merzbow and have fun thinking about it for the next hour. I bought Pulse Demon when it came out, listened to it once, and have probably thought about it once a day for the past ten years.
Apparently he has recently turned vegan (in a country where NO ONE is vegan), written a book on veganism, and moved out to the countryside to live with his large bird collection, so...? Figure that shit out.
I've kept up with Merzbow over years (probably about 15 years now) and I've never seen him sit still creatively for very long. Every time I hear about a new Merzbow record I think there's probably 10 others that are coming out around the world that I don't know about.
The best part is that its not really necessary to own any of the records. You can hear some small samples of Merzbow and have fun thinking about it for the next hour. I bought Pulse Demon when it came out, listened to it once, and have probably thought about it once a day for the past ten years.
Apparently he has recently turned vegan (in a country where NO ONE is vegan), written a book on veganism, and moved out to the countryside to live with his large bird collection, so...? Figure that shit out.
josh bonati | www.bonatimastering.com | www.sleeep.com/aa