MERZBOW

1930

(Tzadik) Used CD $20.00 (Out-of-stock)

This 1998 disc accesses “unguessed-at dimensions,” according to All Music Guide, “via sensory overload of oscillations, infinitely layered static, frequencies from pitch to buzz…. It is the sound of tuning in the radio, only to catch the low-end frequencies of an earthquake…. [I]ndiscernible frequencies … poke pinholes in your eardrums and bleed out your preconceived notions of sound, music, and how they can affect you. This listening experience is not simply a result of sheer volume…; even while turned down low, the sounds all combine into an irresistible force that messes with your physical being.” Sealed

MERZBOW

24 Hours A Day Of Seals

(Dirter) Used 4xCD $40.00 (Out-of-stock)

“Powered by a guitar, laptops and synthesizer, 24 Hours A Day Of Seals is mesmerizing and overwhelming,” marvels Big O. This 2002 disc “completely blurs the line between punishment and pleasure…. It’s easy to see why this album can be called ‘satisfying’…. ‘Good Morning Azarashi’ … hits you like a tropical squall for fourteen minutes. You feel almost refreshed and cleansed.”

MERZBOW

Age of 369 / Chant 2

(Extreme) Used 2xCD $20.00

1996 reissue of mid-’80s material from ZSK cassettes, when the focus was on “cheap musique concrète elements, noise electronics, turntablism, and tape loops…. The recordings here are slow-paced, atmospheric, full of groans and the occasional (but persistent when they appear) high pitches…. The chirping modulations and distortion that mark much Merzbow’s mid-1990s work is … present…, but melded into the tape loops and other sounds instead of dominating them like they later would.” Bonus track “Itomakiei” from a Korm Plastic comp from the same era “starts of with distorted noise electronics and chirps before it falls into a maintained undercurrent of looped junk metal percussions mixed in with other tape loops.”

MERZBOW

Anti-Monument

(Art-Directe) Used CD $20.00 (Out-of-stock)

1991 reissue from Sweden originally released by ZSF-Produkt in 1986 as a picture disc. With bonus track “Three Types Of Industrial Pollusion” from Infidel Psalm Vol. 1 (Mental Decay 1986). This homage to the strange architecture of Étienne-Louis Boullée, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Goetheanum of Rudolf Steiner, Nishōtei, etc. is packaged in an A5 folder with a 12-page booklet.

LADYBIRD / MERZBOW

Balance

(Human Wrechords) Used CD $8.00 (Out-of-stock)

In the left channel is Masami Akita’s “Floating Eloy,” an ear-inflaming … “clattering-creaking-scraping-pelting-frizzling … suite presumably named after Eloy Pruystinck, the Anabaptist / Free Spirit agitator who was condemned to the stake in Antwerp in 1544.... In the right … Tanja Kopecky with her ”Berlin karaoke group perform hypnotic, minimalistic cover versions of smash hits by Army of Lovers, Kraftwerk and others. Listeners are encouraged to adjust the balance control as they see fit, naturally. From 1998

MERZBOW

Batz-Tou-Tai With Material Gadgets

(RRRecords) Used 2xCD $30.00 (Out-of-stock)

The 1987 benchmark for classic industrial collage in which Masami Akita uses loops and cut-up sounds from electroacoustic and modern classical works by François Bayle, Conlon Nancarrow, Ivo Malec, and Luc Ferrari. Subtitled De-Composed Works 1985-86, this 1993 remix reissue includes a bonus disc of loops recorded at the same time as the original but omits “Semykyoku”, “Anus Anvil Anxiety” and “Mortegage” from the original release, and “Intermission” is a short excerpt of “Dahkini Disko” from the original.

MERZBOW / JOHN WATERMANN

Brisbane • Tokyo Interlace

(Cold Spring) Used CD $25.00 (Out-of-stock)

Masami Akita “approaches this record with a sound collage mindset and … brings … a ton of variation …[to] his own solo track…: silly, out-of-context, short loops of pop songs…, malformed rock tunes, [and] sudden trashy noise outbursts all over the place.” The collaborative track with Watermann “starts as a slightly more subdued and ambient piece [and] soon turns into a reckless opus of cut-up noise with so much going on and so fast that even I can’t properly keep up…. Watermann’s own [solo] track drops the noise walls and furthers the sound collage insanity into its absolute limits — covering nearly as much ground as the previous track in less than half the duration. Simply mesmerizing, pure ADHD brain music.” From 1996. Sealed

MERZBOW

Cloud Cock OO Land

(ZSF Produkt) Used CD $25.00 (Out-of-stock)

“The most important noise music album of all time,” according to Appotheozz. “It marks the start of Merzbow’s analog era but also the start of more complex and carefully crafted noise. This album features everything that can be done with harsh noise: glitchiness with the first half of “Brain Forest” and the first half of “Spinnozaamen,” ambient with the second half of “Brain Forest,” harshness with “Autopussy No Go Go,” and much more diversity.” From 1993. With O-card

MERZBOW / NAPALMED

Crash Of The Titans

(Merciless Core) Used CD $6.00

Thirty-five minutes each. Harsh electronics by Merzbow, and merciless factory metal field recordings with added analog effects by Napalmed. Blue-disc edition of 500 from 2001.

MERZBOW

Dead Zone

(Quasi Pop - QPOP059) CD $13.50 (Out-of-stock)

Fax machine blips, tortured whale song, 1950s sci-fi effects, theremin sounds coming off like a Geiger Counter lost in the fall out, crumbling buildings rendered as metallic noise crunch, twenty-foot waves as static, nuclear meltdowns as devilish shrieks. Recorded the day after the first explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Artwork depicts Chernobyl and Prypiat. This CD is dedicated to the worldwide anti-nuclear movement. Edition of 500

MERZBOW / KK NULL

Deus Irae

(Nux Organization) Used CD $6.00

1993 release of 1984 live recording from Gallery Komai in Tokyo 1984, w Masami Akita on drum and effects, KK Null on guitar, voice and metals, Asami Hayashi on bass, Reiko Azuma on cymbal, and Yushi Okano on electric violin

MERZBOW

Electric Salad

(Etherworld) Used CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)

“The playful high-end bubble pulses and whips [are] everywhere…,” notes Ducks Battle Satan. Then “shit gets weird…. Merzbow chucks cuts-ups of movie dialogue, traffic noise and 1960s film music into the middle of [the] maelstrom.” From 1996

MERZBOW / ACHIM WOLLSHEID

Eleven Live Collaborations

(Selektion) Used CD $10.00

“Feedback and sheet metal scraping noise assaults … recorded over a week of touring” in 1992, explains Rate Your Music, that “are particularly fierce…, [and possessed of a] specially twisted, dehumanized charm. Quite worthwhile.”

MERZBOW

Eucalypse

(Soleilmoon) Used CD $60.00

Analogue noise odyssey from 2008 focusing on the plight of the ecosystem of Kerala, India, where Tasmanian Blue Gum trees have been doing what they do for over a century. Using an EMS synth, a Roland organ and handmade instruments, Masami Akita scrambles everything together via searing laptop noise and effects in a warm and rich five-part assault. The wooden box packaging (hand made in India) is a fittingly substantial and beautiful means of housing the music. Sealed

ACTUARY / MERZBOW

Freak Hallucinations

(Obfuscated) LP $11.50 (Out-of-stock)

An eighteen-minute track from Merzbow and three tracks of face melt from Actuary, with vocal work by Chris Dodge and Fetus K. Colored vinyl (a smokey mix of black and white), gatefold jacket, two-sided art by Fetus and Akita.

MERZBOW

Frog+

(Misanthropic Agenda) Used 2xCD $17.00

Originally released in 2001 on vinyl, this reissue contains the original material from the LP plus a second disc of previously unreleased material, including a remix and an enhanced CD-ROM video / screensaver. Notes Angbase, “Misanthropic Agenda gathers a mix of noiseheads, Mego big-wigs, stoner drone-rockers, and unknowns…. Never Presence Forever … slows everything down to a bass-hum crawl…. House of Low Culture takes another unexpected route, offering up subtle low-volume scrapes very carefully edited. The best piece on here might be the opener, where Hrvatski offers an INA/GRM-flavored workout full of rapid fade-ins and fade-outs punctuated by mysterious silences. More along the lines of what you would expect from a Merz remix is John Weise’s expertly cut-up harshness that, at first, jumps out of the speakers and then descends into a sparse and quiet unease of softly clipped sounds before startlingly exploding back into loudness. Sunn O))) play with loops, CD-skips and tape hiss, building up to a dense mess floating over a rich sustained amp hum. Fennesz adds a two-note melody that softens the harshness, while Rusell Haswell mixes sparse grainy digital textures and blips to good effect. Hecker picks up where Haswell leaves off with a quiet mix through which sudden bursts of distortion struggle to explode. The track slowly builds up to massive noise roar that is well balanced in the bass department. Other remixers include Pita, Terror Organ, Ulver, Boris, When, Misanthropic Agenda label-owner Gerritt and Masami Akita himself.” Sealed

MERZBOW / PGR / ASMUS TIETCHENS

Grav

(Silent) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)

Three lengthy pieces from 1991. A breathtaking collage of tape manipulations, sonic treatments utilizing home-made instruments, and feedback loops. AMK guests. Sealed.

MERZBOW

Great American Nude / Crash For Hi-Fi

(Alchemy) Used CD $40.00

Seven of the eight tracks were recorded live during a tour of the USA in 1990, and as Evol Kween The Musical notes, “pretty much the entire album trades in an endless wash of squeak, hiss and rumble, as if Masami Akita [and Reika A are] forcing hundreds of sounds through a meat grinder and the end result is a raw mince…. The … live environment gives this hot mess some room to breathe…. [Y]ou can actually hear how the acoustics of each venue affects what [they’re] spewing out.”

CRIS X / KEIKO HIGUCHI / MERZBOW / SACHIKO

Guya / Greed

(CX) split LP $20.00

“Guya” is eighteen minutes of noise from Masami Akita, structured by feedback and electronics both digital and analog. A devastating masterpiece. Cris X (aka Cristiano Luciani) is joined Keiko Higuchi (vocals, piano, lyrics) and Sachiko (vocals, electronics) for a dark and visionary journey through expressionist ambient atmospheres. White vinyl. Edition of 300. Sealed

MERZBOW

Hole

(Heel Stone) Used CD $50.00 (Out-of-stock)

“With the liner notes printed on four card-stock derriere portraits, the disc’s three tracks — ‘Noisematrix,’ ‘Krafft-Ebing Dick,’ and ‘Krautrock #1’ (recorded live in Deutschland) — pig-pile into one near-relentless hour of squalling sheets of static,” says Mike Rowell. “[T]here’s an impressive amount of dynamics lurking here, with a broad range of incessantly mutating squeaks, shrieks, rumbles, and roars.” From 1994. Hand-numbered edition of 500 in silver diecut folder. Visible creases on cover. Pix upon request

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS / MERZBOW

Horn Of The Goat

(Freek) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)

Odd collaboration from 1995 by drummer Stuart Dennison, Philip Best on oscillators, guitarist Gary Mundy, Matthew Bower on loops, and Masami Akita on EMS synth. Space-age phazer noise, trumpets, ambience, yelping female, saccharine dreck melting into top-shelf screech.

MERZBOW

Hybrid Noisebloom

(Vinyl Communications) Used CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)

“Despite the abrasive nature of the music,” admits All Music Guide, “There is something organic and familiar in the raw sound of electricity. It doesn’t take much imagination to think of this album as an electronic parallel to natural phenomena like waterfalls and thunderstorms. Only Hybrid Noisebloom is the sound of a waterfall during a thunderstorm, with a massive earthquake shaking beneath. In other words, Merzbow all the way.” Sealed

MERZBOW

Ikebukuro Dada

(Circumvent) Used CD $8.00 (Out-of-stock)

Exploring caustic noise, sharp ambient landscapes, chopped jazz interludes, and hypnotic bass pulses. From 2002. Sealed

MERZBOW

Kakapo

(Oaken Palace - OAK010) LP $14.25 (Out-of-stock)

Starting with an intense machine hum, Kakapo shrieks, stutters, wails and maintains the all‐obliterating industrial drone for thirty-three minutes spread over two sides of green vinyl. Amid electronic solar flares and insect metal clanging, it’s a harsh curtain of endless crushing, rumbling immersion. Simultaneously soothing and wild, machinelike and warm, it’s a rare and strange creature, like the endangered bird (a flightless parrot native to New Zealand whose total population is below 200) that the album raises money to protect. Profits will be donated to the Kakapo Recovery Trust. Edition of 500. Includes free download code.

MERZBOW

Live Destruction At No Fun

(No Fun) Used CD $7.00

A blistering performance from 2007 bringing together classic analog and then-recently-explored digital concerns. Two laptops and an amplified sheet-metal instrument keep pace between walls of computerized droning, distortion, and psyched-out metallic scraping. Gatefold card jacket.

MERZBOW

Live Magnetism

(Caminante) Used CD $15.00

Recorded live at the Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art in New York, a near-hour-long oppressive amalgam of jet drive, mechanical organ in a state of emergency, and the setting of dried poop streaks on the cell wall. Intoxicating.

MERZBOW

Locomotive Breath

(Mort Aux Vaches) Used CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)

Recorded live at VPRO, Amsterdam, 3 July 1995, by Masami Akita on handmade metal objects and electronic noise, and Reiko A on electro feedback drone. Mixed by John Duncan. Packaged in the standard Mort Aux Vaches series folder.

MERZBOW

Lowest Music & Arts 1980-83

(Vinyl on Demand - VOD108) 10xLP $225.00 (Out-of-stock)

COMING IN OCTOBER. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED. This week’s comprehensive anthology of the Godfather of Noise collects early works selected and mastered by Masami Akita. It seems little needs to be said about Merzbow at this point, but even as early as 1985, Lightworks described it, “Imagine being surrounded in hot, molten electronic / industrial noise.... [H]arsh edges giving way to a deep bass deluge of sound. It pours out and into you.... This music could be how you feel three seconds into a Space Shuttle lift-off. Surging, intense, at the outer limits of control, and lack thereof.” Most of the audio material here was released in small editions on Akita’s Lowest Music and Arts tape label, the predecessor to his more well known ZSF imprint. LP1: Hyper Music 2, a previously unreleased recording from 1980. LP2: the second side of Metal Acoustic Music, originally released 1981/82 (first side was on Merzbox). LP3 and LP4: Merz Collection 007 and Tridal Production, both from 1981, containing studio and live sessions, and raw-material (excerpted on Merzbox). LP5 and LP6: the complete Mechanization Takes Command 1 & 2, originally released as c90 in early 1982 (excerpted on Merzbox); LP7 and LP8: Solonoise 1 & 2 (the former is on Merzbox; the latter is in its original and complete form). LP9 and LP10: Yahatahachiman and Escape Mask, two recordings from 1983 that represent an almost hidden side of Merzbow – walls of psychedelic, atonal guitar-noise in combination with the technoid-sounding drum-machine. Black varnished and silkscreened wooden box.

MERZBOW

Magnesia Nova

(Staalplaat) Used CD $32.00 (Out-of-stock)

Noise and EMS Synthi A recorded in early 1995, subtitled, “A study on the connections between the Hellenic and Japanese cultures.” Packaged in a long card wallet with a 24-page color booklet stapled inside.

MERZBOW

Maschinenstil

(Dual Plover) Used CD $15.00

Ducks Battle Satan admires this 1998 disc for its “screaming torrents of feedback and white noise with the occasional industrial loop.” Masami Akita reveals that his fascination with an organ sound on an old Lee Michaels records is what compelled him to extrapolate on it using five oscillators, ring modulator, twenty pitch shifters, enhancers, limiters, and a one-second sample from a Terry Bozzio drum solo on a Frank Zappa album. Likewise, the speed and landscape of a particular Japanese rail line led him to compose use the classic TR606 drum machine.

MERZBOW

Mercurated

(Alchemy) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)

“Masami Akita keeps his palette thick and abrasive on this 1996 record … all wah-wah-infected scree and electronic static.… All four tracks spend the majority of their time scraping along upper registers, which makes Mercurated’s relentlessness all the more punishing and impenetrable.” Foil printed on hologram stock. Sealed

A TORTURE MECHANISM / MERZBOW

Merzbow / A Torture Mechanism

(Crucial Blast) Used Split CD $7.50 (Out-of-stock)

Merzbow’s “Unknown Tape 1994” is rather slow-paced wall noise, powerful enough to satisfy primal noise cravings. A Torture Mechanism’s roughly cut cassette noise is at times not unlike early Ramleh, with a solid bass end ridden with all sorts of meaty oscillating saw waves. 2001 reissue of Fistfight’s 1999 edition packaged in card a sleeve and held in an A5 sized pink paper folder with two info inserts and two thin clear plastic outer sheets.

MERZBOW

Merzbow Loves Emil Beaulieau

(Pure) Used CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)

Masami Akita on Emil Beaulieau records and tapes, turntable, contact mic, teleband transceiver, feedback unit, alphatech relaxation trainer, contact mic, audio generator. From 1996.

THE GUILT OF... / MERZBOW

Merzbow / The Guilt Of...

(Chrome Peeler - CPR12) split LP $12.75 (Out-of-stock)

Masami Akita's assault of violent, swarming electronic distortion swirls with shards of brutal high-end feedback and cosmic oscillating tones, creating a vast whirlpool of caustic aural grit and buzz. Industrial noise punks from New Orleans The Guilt of... (Mike IX Williams [EyeHateGod, Outlaw Order, Arson Anthem] and Ryan McKern [Wolvhammer]) layer waves of piano, fuzz, tortured vocals, drums and distorted sub-bass. Mesmerizing and crushing. Edition of 500.

MERZBOW

Merzbow T-Shirt

([ no label ]) Used Size XL $75.00 (Out-of-stock)

White with black ink. Previously washed and worn many times (super soft, all info in label is gone, some discoloration, pink tint in some areas). From 1980s

MERZBOW

Metalvelodrome – Exposition of Vivisection

(Alchemy) Used 4xCD $175.00 (Out-of-stock)

Admired by Rate Your Music for the “sheer size and scope of this set” from 1993 and its provision of “enough space to encompass pretty much every style Masami Akita has ever worked with in one way or another… [without sacrificing the “prominence [of] his rapidly developing, nowadays infamous style of screeching waves of mind-shreddingly loud harsh noise. Great highlights are to be found throughout all of the record, though special attention should be paid to … ‘Neon Worms’, which probably broke a few international records in abrasiveness at the time…, the terrific trio of shorter tracks … starting with ‘Electric Moon Tum-Tik’…, [and] the lengthy first track of the third CD, which goes from noise through sound collages and free improvisations done both live and in studio.” Includes poster and O-card.

MERZBOW

Music For Bondage Performance

(Extreme) Used CD $25.00 (Out-of-stock)

“Atonal, quite creepy, and offering a bit of an aesthetic counterpoint to the rest of the discography. Merzbow is here immersed in a calm atmosphere, sometimes bordering on ambient. No sound wall to pierce, no surge of all-out noise; instead a peaceful succession, a minimalist perspective which brings us closer in certain aspects to a more “classical” electro-acoustic music…. All of this is meant to be pretty unhealthy, of course…., adding the sharper, more acid color of … distorted bell sounds…. ‘Aimei nawa’ becomes more threatening: slow and heavy percussions install an oppressive ritual, more creaking distortions arise, and a pattern of pain gradually appears…. [S]ounds mutate in your mind into human screams … [and] an electric guitar.... Oriental bell, gong, roaring, barking, blowing in pipes, and strident squeaks [cast] a dreary and devastated soundscape.” From 1991

MERZBOW

Music For Bondage Performance 2

(Extreme) Used CD $25.00 (Out-of-stock)

“An all-around solid work” from 1996, according to the ever reliable Amazon. “One of Masami Akita’s earliest indications that he wouldn’t be content with the same old harsh assault with each release. Quite varied works, with … a focus on textures and strange rhythms…. While it’s not entirely laid-back or subdued, Merzbow displays a much different form of … hostility here. Lots of creepy ambient passages, glowing feedback, metallic rattling, and other sounds.” Six tracks recorded in 1993, including remixes of the EPs Electroploitation (Lunhare 1994) and Electroknots Parts 1 & 2 (Cold Spring 1995); four originally recorded for “Kinbaku-bi 2” CD-ROM (Cine Magic 1994); plus a bonus track from Music For Bondage Performance (Extreme 1991).

MERZBOW

Noisembryo

(Releasing Eskimo) Used CD $70.00

This 1994 disc is legendary for its “depth and wild energy…. High-speed loops, roving automotive bass, and cacophonic drum machines gel together, with the surprising inclusion of a sound rarely heard [in] Merzbow…: Masami Akita’s own voice.

MERZBOW

Oersted

(Vinyl Communications) Used CD $11.00 (Out-of-stock)

Here’s Ducks Battle Satan’s mic-dropping summation: “The sort of noise you can drown in.” From 1996

MERZBOW

Pulse Demon

(Relapse) Used CD $45.00

“Pulse Demon is simply pure sound, viciously unadulterated static,” Pitchfork informs us about Masami Akita’s 1996 benchmark. “The earlier releases stimulated the imagination; Pulse Demon decimates it…, probably one of the most archetypal Merzbow albums, the one most resolutely and incorrigibly reluctant to dilute itself with free jazz, industrial, world, or musique concrète…. All in all, seventy minutes that feel like driving an 18-wheeler made out of concrete into a remedial course on nuclear winter.” In six-panel folder with holographic printing.

MERZBOW

Rainbow Electronics

(Alchemy) Used CD $35.00

“A trip through a cold, engineered universe of interstellar supermachinery and titanium celestial bodies … [where] grimy harsh noise tides couple with eerie, reverbed screeches and scrapes of iron objects…, steady drumbeats briefly emerge from the static and disappear just as quickly, stretches of subdued electronic drones buzz along sleepily…, [and] into something more violent.” One track from 1990, seventy-three minutes

MERZBOW

Rainbow Electronics 2

(Dexters Cigar) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)

A 1996 alternate-mix-slash-companion to the 1990 Alchemy masterpiece. Powerful electronics at their most detailed, subtly varied, and exhaustively kinetic. It doesn’t stop. It’s a thrill every two seconds, for seventy-five minutes.

CHRISTOPH HEEMAN / MERZBOW

Sleeper Awakes On The Edge Of The Abyss

(Streamline) Used CD $20.00 (Out-of-stock)

The CD was originally released in 1993 and has just now been reissued by Streamline Germany. “Heemann restrains and refines Akita’s normally brutal noise and adds his own collage of sounds,” explains Brainwashed. “Drones, washes, electronics and samples (such as metals and chirping birds). Heemann truly paints with sound and here the Merzbow material is just another shade of audio color for his abstract and impressionist palette. He then shapes it all into five pieces, each with a particular character all its own…. [U]tterly beautiful. Hypnotic passages of waterfall wash, layered electronic drone, metallic churnings, gurgling static and deep ambiance perfectly flow into one another.” From 1993

MERZBOW / SMEGMA

Smegma Plays Merzbow Plays Smegma

(Tim Kerr) Used CD $10.00

1996 collaboration using MA-tape, audio generator, teleband transceiver, mixer, tape loops, record players, wood flute, vocals, Optigan, mussette, frequency analyzer. The Merzbow section is a churning inferno of molten sound and screaming speakers with a lot of dynamics. The Smegma section shunts the Merzbow noise to a continuous layer at the periphery of the mix, allowing their spazodelic improv to grab a few mouthfuls of air. Sealed

MERZBOW

Space Metalizer

(Alien8) Used CD $17.00 (Out-of-stock)

Masami Akita infuses the surroundings with reactive ferric noise using eletcronics, metals, Novation synth rack, EMS Synthi A, audio generator, MKII filter bank, Theremaniac theremin, tapes and Moog. From 1997

MERZBOW

Spiral Honey

(Work In Progress) Used CD $30.00 (Out-of-stock)

Noise is a beautiful thing when it’s done right. From 1995

MERZBOW

Tauromachine

(Relapse) Used CD $40.00

“The third in Merzbow’s Relapse trilogy,” notes All Music Guide, “with its punchy, raw production, [and] balanced, fibrous mix works incredibly well with the very patient structure of most of the tracks. The lack of continuity and immediacy, as well as the increase in low-end…, take[s] the focus away from the abrasion and screeching and move it toward the chunky, pulsating bass….” From 1998

MERZBOW / NEW BLOCKADERS

The Ten Foot Square Hut

(Hypnagogia) Used CD $15.00

Powerful as fuck. From 2004

MERZBOW

Venereology

(Release) Used CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)

This “foray into metal music, or at least [an] interpretation of it,” by Masami Akita from 1994, described by Pop Matters as a “dissident aggressor, unapologetic artist, naïve egoist, [and] pornography expert…, [is] inspired by grindcore, death metal, and copious beer-drinking. Venereology is a wailing, excruciating listen that cuts with a kind of ferocity so severe that listening to it feels like a total assault on your sanity…. Rather than emulating a death metal sound, he seems to be attacking it, exposing it as a childlike facsimile of real heavy music. This is much more extreme, grating, offensive, and terrifying than anything happening in even the most serious metal of the 1990s like Godflesh or Morbid Angel….” Barcode has a hole punched through it.

MAN IS THE BASTARD NOISE / MERZBOW

Voice Pie

(Release) Used Split CD $6.00 (Out-of-stock)

Five tracks of pure sludge by Masami Akita and co., a solid wall of noise with enough going on behind it. Man Is The Bastard Noise does their best to keep the balance of the disc more fun than an odd tropical disease. With three non-LP tracks. From 1996

KAPOTTE MUZIEK / MERZBOW

Works 1987-1993

(Korm Plastics - KP3050) 3xCD $20.00 (Out-of-stock)

Tracks from their first cassette, Merzbowkapottemuziek (ZSF Produkt 1987), the complete live recording from a 1989 collaborative concert at Radio Rataplan, two compilation pieces that were made around the same time, the complete Continuum LP (Cheeses International 1993), and three compilation tracks, including the long reworked “Radio Rataplan” from the Dutch Tour 1989 double cassette (V2_Archief 1992). Carton box with sleeves, poster. Edition of 300. Sealed