Uh. Make some…noise?
Because Japan’s grand Emperor of Noise, Masami Akita (a.k.a. Merzbow) is officially celebrating 40 years of reigning-supreme with a “guest of honour” appearance at Room40’s annual Open Frame Festival at Carriageworks in Sydney (sorry, Aussie friends from the future: it’s already SOLD OUT).
But don’t worry; that’s not all the noise that IS the noise.
There’s also a lovely new retrospective book/album on offer. Titled (fittingly) Noise Mass, the handy compendium “catalogues a critical period within the continuum of Merzbow. It typifies the radical approaches he developed not just through his music, but also through mastering, pushing the very medium of digital audio to its limit through extreme post-production approaches.”
From Akita:
This was around the time Venereology was released from Relapse and the work of Merzbow became more well known to the world. Far greater quantities of that Relapse release were pressed, and much more promotion along with it. In other words, the image of Merzbow’s music as it is best known in the world today came from this time. The music of Merzbow has always been a continuum, the piece added this time to Noise Mass, the revised version of Hole, is a work utilising a voice similar in style to Venereology. Listening to both Hole and Venereology, one can appreciate how these works constitute a thread of continuity through this period.
Get your copy of Noise Max, due July 12, from Room40 here — and sample the deliciously noisy auspiciousness for yourself down below. All hail the Emperor! (You can hold your applause if you’d like, though; no one will hear it anyway.)
Noise Mass tracklisting:
01. Voicematrix Pt.1 12:36
02. Noisematrix Pt.1
03. Noisematrix Pt.2
04. Kraft-Ebings Dick
05. Voicematrix Pt.2
More about: Merzbow
