Merzbow pt. II. 

Written by Kristian Robert Carter

In my last post, I outlined my three choices of the most important albums in the early Musique Concrete period of Merzbow. In this post, I will deal with arguably his most productive period the 1990's and what is known as the Japanoise years.

This is the Merzbow that most people are familiar with. The harsh sonic overload. All channels maxing out in the red. A brutal slab of feedback and pulverising sound. Propulsive, fluctuating brutality. Unflinching and inhuman in its unforgiving aggression.

Much of this work especially in the early part of the '90s was a homage to grind and death metal. Drawing on the idea of the full-on assault to the senses and taking it way beyond anything seen in those genres.

Merzbow began to get international recognition around this point and there was a clamour of labels in Europe and the USA baying to release his work.

This was when I first discovered Merzbow mainly from a number of reviews and articles I had seen and read in the industrial music journal Music From The Empty Quarter.

Choosing three albums from my favourite era of Merzbow was a real headache as he was on a creative role at this point in time and to be honest, ninety percent of the material produced during this time, is of a very high standard.

1) " Tauromachine "

Possibly my favourite Merzbow release. Issued in 1998 by American label Release Records. A monstrous metallic blow to the skull. Mastered at a level far above most other music releases. This relatively short album is a cacophonous shower of overloading circuits, feedback, strange analogue squelched pulsing and what sounds like shards of steel crashing into glass ad infinitum. An almost dub-like sense of rhythmic momentum drives the tracks forward whilst a kaleidoscopic prism of myriad Soundwaves explode across the airwaves. If you could see sounds like a painting or a photo this would be a Jackson Pollock or a photo from the Hubble space telescope. An explosive 40 minutes of cosmic implosion.

2) " Venerology "7

Another album released by Release Records, this time in 1994. Wherein Tauromachine is a prismatic burst of psychedelic light this album is a leviathan of burnished steel and cobalt black darkness. A tidal wave of grindcore aesthetics magnified and amplified thousands of times till the initial image is lost sight of and all remaining semblance to any kind of musical endeavour is erased. Replaced with what sounds like a chrome whale convulsing in its death throes in an electrical storm. One of the most brutal albums I have ever heard. Literally an endurance test from start to finish. The artwork of corpses and body parts is unusual for Merzbow standards but works as the whole album is a nod of approval from Merz to the Extreme metal genre.

3) " Space Metalizer "

1997 ZSF release is the sound of raw energy honed into perfect blades of savage power. A lot more restrained and focused than the two albums mentioned above. This focus does not diminish the intensity but fixes it on targeted points. Rather than a raging ocean of sound, the tracks on Space Metalizer have controlled bursts of psychedelic scree. Colossal shards of fragmented synth are knitted tightly together by almost Kraftwerkian beats. There is a sense of Krautrock here and Motorik rhythms, however, it is twisted and mauled well beyond recognition.

Other recommended releases from this period are - Electric Salad, Hybrid Noisebloom and the utterly insane Rectal Anarchy.

Next. The laptop era.