Merzbow - Kaerutope
Written By Kristian Robert Carter
The second disk of the Japanese only releases of new Merzbow material recorded in 2016 - 2018. The sleeve is a jet black exotic frog or toad and all four tracks are simply named Frog. There are four tracks V1, V2, V3 and V5. Frog V4 made its appearance on the other Slow Down release Indigo Dada which was released simultaneously to Kaerutope.
Frog V1 opens the album with the processed calls of amphibians that have been shaped into percussive clusters that act as a muffled slow quiet rhythm. Masami stealthily begins to weave a disparate and bewildering array of audio into the track, hums, pulses and discordant machinery emerge from the murky fugue. This track sounds muffled and there is obviously a deliberate process of obstufcation
Obsfucation. At times this is like a soundtrack to an hospital ward, where the listener is slipping in and out of consciousness, barely able to focus on their surroundings before sinking once again into narcotised tranquility. Frog V2 and V3 segue effortlessly into place and continue in much the same way as the opening track but subtle and beguiling elements are skilfully woven into the mix including a discordant picked string instrument, muffled washes of analogue squall, metallic percussion and a strange saw like sound. Flickers of detuned radio flit across the channels like a bird taking flight in the almost pitch black darkness of night. The closing track Frog V5 has a sense of impending ultimatum as a pulsating drone begins to slowly build in both speed and intensity. As the drone increases in tempo the accompanying scrapes, gurgles and Geiger counter like chattering grow louder and more persistent. Once again the processed amphibians return this time though their calls are almost like the harbingers of the planets collapsing the ecosystem. Over the inexorable advance of the planets gravedigger, this is the howl of nature. Shrieking back at its cold insensitive visage.
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