Merzbow
Encyclopedia
is the main recording name of the Japan
ese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.
The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters
' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada
influence and junk art aesthetic. In addition to this, Akita has cited a wide range of influences from progressive rock
, free jazz
, modern classical and musique concrète
to BDSM
and Japanese bondage
. More recently he has been inspired by animals, animal rights
and environmentalism
.
As well as being a prolific musician, he has been a writer and editor for several books and magazines in Japan, and has written 17 books of his own. He has written about a variety of subjects, mostly about art, avant-garde
and post-modern culture. His more renowned works have been on the topics of BDSM and fetish culture
. Other art forms Akita has been interested in include painting, photography, filmmaking and Butoh
dance.
In 2000, Extreme Records
released the 50 CD box set known as the Merzbox
. Akita's work has been the subject of several remix album
s and at least one tribute album
. This, among other achievements, has helped Merzbow to be regarded to some as the "most important artist in noise".
, progressive rock
, and later free jazz
in his youth, all of which have influenced his noise. In high school he became the drummer of various high school bands which he left due to the other members being "grass-smoking Zappa
freaks". By this time he and high school friend Kiyoshi Mizutani had started playing improvised rock at studio sessions which Akita describes as "long jam session
s along the lines of Ashra Tempel
or Can
but we didn't have any psychedelic taste".
He later attended Tamagawa University
to study fine art
from which he majored in painting and art theory
. While at university he became interested in the ideas of Dada
and surrealism and also studied Butoh
dance. This is where he learned of Kurt Schwitters
' Merz, or art made from rubbish, including Schwitters' Merzbau, or "Merz building" which is the source of the name "Merzbow".
, Lowest Music & Arts, which was founded in 1979 in order to trade cassette tapes with other underground artists. The first tape made for the label was Metal Acoustic Music
and was sold exclusively by mail order. Various other releases were made before the first real release which included Collection 001 and a very limited release of Remblandt Assemblage
. The Collection series was originally ten cassettes that were going to be distributed through an independent label called YLEM, but when it became defunct and cancelled the series, Akita decided to release them through Lowest Music & Arts.
His earliest music was made with tape loop
s and creatively recorded percussion and metal.
Early methods included what he referred to as "material action", in which he would closely amplify small sounds so as to distort them through the microphone. The early releases were photocopies
of collage
s made out of manga
and porn magazines he found in trash cans in the Tokyo subway. Akita explained this as trying to "create the same feeling as the secret porn customer for the people buying my cassettes in the early '80s". In 1984 he founded a second record label called ZSF Produkt.
movement but eventually became the successor to Lowest Music & Arts. Numerous releases were made in the ZSF Produkt studio with Mechanization Takes Command being the first. The studio continued to be used until 2001 when Akita started producing home recordings from his bedroom studio.
During this era, Merzbow found much wider recognition and began making recordings for various international labels. He also started touring abroad with the help of various collaborators. Merzbow performed in USSR in 1988, toured USA in 1990, Korea in 1991 and Europe in 1989 and 1992. For most of the late 1980s through the 1990s, Merzbow live was a trio including Reiko A. on electronics and Bara on voice and dance.
argues that
Merzbow's first digital recording
was the CD release Cloud Cock OO Grand
in 1990. With a higher international profile in the 90's, Merzbow started working on more ambitious projects such as the Noisembryo, which was a Merzbow album sealed in a car released in a limited edition of one copy. The disc was sealed in the CD player of a BMW Sedan which was rewired to play the CD whenever the car was started. The CD was also released normally on the same label. Recordings from the mid-1990s onwards are mostly of extreme volume, some mastered at levels far beyond standard (Noisembryo, Pulse Demon). From 1996, plans were made to release a "10 (or maybe 12)" CD box set on Extreme Records
. In 2000, Extreme Records
released the Merzbox
, a fifty CD set of Merzbow records, twenty of them not previously released.
Since 2001, Akita started utilising samples of animal sounds in various releases starting with Frog
. Around 2002, Akita became a vegan, he stated how it began:
During this period, Akita also became a supporter of PETA
which is reflected in his animal-themed releases. An example of this is Minazo Vol. 1
and Vol. 2
, dedicated to an elephant seal
he visited often at the zoo
and Bloody Sea, a protest against Japanese whaling
. He has also produced several works centered around recordings of his pet chickens (notably Animal Magnetism
and Turmeric
).
Also in 2002, Akita released Merzbeat
, which was seen as a significant departure from his trademark abstract style in that it contains beat-oriented pieces. This has sparked some controversy among fans, though some reviewers pointed out that it sounded very similar to Aqua Necromancer
(1998) which features samples of progressive rock
drumming. Merzbird
(2004) and Merzbuddha
(2005) followed in a similar vein with sampled beats combined with Merzbow's signature harsh noise.
Through 2009, Akita released a 13 CD box-set called 13 Japanese Birds
, a set which was released monthly (one album a month). This release features the return of Akita to the usage of analog sounds and also the use of drum kits. Also in that year Merzbow cancelled his tour over United States
and Canada
due to the swine flu outbreak.
. Blossoming Noise has reissued cassettes like E-Study
, Normal Music
, Flesh Metal Orgasm
, and two volumes from the Collection series. Also on the same label he began the Microkosmos
series, which are new recordings with visual collages created in 1982–83. Merzbient
, a 12 CD boxset of unreleased recordings from 1987–90 was released by Soleilmoon. Other cassettes of unreleased material include Untitled Nov 1989
, 9888A
, April 1992
, and Variations for Electric Fan
.
. Vocals are employed sometimes, but never in a lyrical sense. Contrary to most harsh noise music
, Akita also occasionally uses elements of melody and rhythm.
Akita's early work consisted of industrial noise music made from tape loop
s and conventional instruments. Similar to his present albums, he produced lengthy, disorientating pieces. He also became infamous for the sheer amount of releases in a short time frame.
Audiences in general, especially those of "closed societies", did not quite know what to make of his style. During his performances (with Kiyoshi Mizutani) in the USSR, at the Jazz-on-Amur '88 festival, what incorporated improvised, electroacoustic and experimental music that time (the fest's producer consciously obscured both the very type of Akita's music and the erotic trend of his art from Soviet officials), whereas the producer, rocky youth and Soviet improvised music guest stars were extremely pleased, the unprepared orthodox jazz and agier parts of the audience were severely frustrated, particularly, with loudness, to leave the site, and for the second performance, for another, 1000-place hall (of the Soviet Army Officers' House), and even much more conservative audience, he was asked to play "more musically" so he toned it down a bit. On that first stage, Merzbow used the finest example of "classical analogue live noisemaiking technologies" to display: untuned guitar, a drumset, various micro-objects, small springs centered in its shell baffles, large aluminium boxes with strings inside to be attacked with a fiddlestick, etc. along with multi- piezo-pickuping and close-miking techniques, live processing through vintage US fuzz, ring modulator etc. boxes, and quite vivid and spontaneous approach, backed by slide and light shows. This live recording was re-processed and released as Live in Khabarovsk, CCCP (I'm Proud by Rank of the Workers) LP - and as the CD 26 of the Merzbox later on.
During the 90s Akita's work became much harsher and were generally mastered at a louder volume than usual. These were heavily influenced by death metal
and grindcore
bands of the time (a prime example is the Venereology album). The mid-90's saw Akita being heavily influenced by psychedelic bands and this was reflected in various albums.
After 2000, Akita started making vague concept albums and experimented with sampling
rhythms. He also began to use laptops.
Pornoise was a mail art
project where Akita made xerox art using discarded pornographic magazines taken from the trash, which was sent with his cassettes, the idea being that his tapes were like cheap and disposable mail-order pornography. The name was also used for a track on the Sexorama compilation, the Pornoise/1kg
box, and is credited for artwork on a couple Merzbow releases.
Right Brain Audile is co-credited on the two Music for Bondage Performance
albums, as they're soundtracks he did for several S&M/faux-Sepukku films produced by Right Brain. "RBA" reappears on Merzbient
, which features recordings from this era.
SCUM was a project where Akita made new releases out of previous Merzbow sessions. SCUM is an acronym for "Society for Cutting Up Merzbow" (a reference to the SCUM Manifesto
), "Scissors for CUtting Merzbow" or "Steel CUM" among others.
True Romance was a performance art
project in the early 90s with Tetsuo Sakaibara (who later joined Merzbow live) and Toshiyuki Seido. The performances included fetish equipment, fake gore (including a simulated autopsy), mechanical devices, nude women, etc. It was inspired by Viennese Actionism
. Masami Akita performed and composed the backing music.
Zecken was used for two solo performances in 1996.
, Masahiko Ohno
, Shohei Iwasaki
, Maso Yamazaki and Zev Asher. Flying Testicle
was just with Yamazaki and Asher.
Merzbow Null was a collaboration between Masami Akita's Merzbow and Kazuyuki Kishino
's Null, including Kiyoshi Mizutani and Asami Hayashi among others. Tibeta Ubik was Akita and Kishino duo. Both groups made several cassettes of live improv performances.
Sponge was an anonymous group whose personnel are named after prominent Japanese businessmen/doctors, the actual performers are believed to be Jojo and Junko Hiroshige
, Masami Akita and Maso Yamazaki.
Other groups include: Boris
with Merzbow; Commando Bruno Sanmartino with Incapacitants
and Violent Onsen Geisha
; Kikuri with Keiji Haino
; Maldoror
with Mike Patton
; MAZK
with Zbigniew Karkowski
; Melting Lips with Hanayo
; Muscats with Hanayo and Masaya Nakahara
; Merz-Banana with Melt-Banana
; Satanstornade with Russell Haswell
(they later released an album entitled Satanstornade
under their real names); Shalon Kelly King with Fumio Kosakai.
Akita also played drums for Hijokaidan
during the early–mid 90s.
Balázs Pándi
has drummed for Merzbow at several concerts since 2009.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.
The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
influence and junk art aesthetic. In addition to this, Akita has cited a wide range of influences from progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
, modern classical and musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
to BDSM
BDSM
BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...
and Japanese bondage
Japanese bondage
' means 'tight binding ' which literally means 'the beauty of tight binding'. Kinbaku is a Japanese style of bondage or BDSM which involves tying up the bottom using simple yet visually intricate patterns, usually with several pieces of thin rope–often jute and generally around 6 mm in...
. More recently he has been inspired by animals, animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
and environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
.
As well as being a prolific musician, he has been a writer and editor for several books and magazines in Japan, and has written 17 books of his own. He has written about a variety of subjects, mostly about art, avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and post-modern culture. His more renowned works have been on the topics of BDSM and fetish culture
Fetish subculture
Fetish culture is a term used to describe the lifestyle and arts relating to and influenced by the interest in sexual fetishism and paraphilias. This includes fetish magazines, and a particular style of fashion, photography, art and modelling. Also within fetish culture is a nightclub scene that is...
. Other art forms Akita has been interested in include painting, photography, filmmaking and Butoh
Butoh
is the collective name for a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement inspired by the movement. It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally performed in white body makeup...
dance.
In 2000, Extreme Records
Extreme Records
Extreme Records is an Australian based record label.The label was founded by Ulex Xane, and initially specialised in underground experimental and industrial cassettes...
released the 50 CD box set known as the Merzbox
Merzbox
Merzbox is a box set compilation by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow, released in 2000 by Extreme Records. It consists of 50 CDs, spanning Merzbow's career from 1979–1997; 30 discs are taken from long out of print releases, while 20 are composed mainly of unreleased material...
. Akita's work has been the subject of several remix album
Remix album
A remix album is an album consisting mostly of remixes or re-recorded versions of a music artists' earlier released material.One of the earliest remix albums was 1971's Aerial Pandemonium Ballet by Harry Nilsson, which was released by Nilsson after the successes of Everybody's Talkin and The Point!...
s and at least one tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
. This, among other achievements, has helped Merzbow to be regarded to some as the "most important artist in noise".
Early life
Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1956. He listened to psychedelic musicPsychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
, progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, and later free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
in his youth, all of which have influenced his noise. In high school he became the drummer of various high school bands which he left due to the other members being "grass-smoking Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
freaks". By this time he and high school friend Kiyoshi Mizutani had started playing improvised rock at studio sessions which Akita describes as "long jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
s along the lines of Ashra Tempel
Ash Ra Tempel
Ash Ra Tempel are a German krautrock group of the 1970s, and are an example of cosmic or space rock.-History:The group was originally founded by guitarist Manuel Göttsching, keyboardist/drummer Klaus Schulze, and bassist Hartmut Enke in 1971. All three founding members had previously played...
or Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
but we didn't have any psychedelic taste".
He later attended Tamagawa University
Tamagawa University
is a Japanese university located in Machida, Tokyo, Japan. The university consists of 16 departments in 7 faculties , as well as seven programs leading to a master’s degree and four programs leading to a doctorate degree...
to study fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
from which he majored in painting and art theory
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
. While at university he became interested in the ideas of Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
and surrealism and also studied Butoh
Butoh
is the collective name for a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement inspired by the movement. It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally performed in white body makeup...
dance. This is where he learned of Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
' Merz, or art made from rubbish, including Schwitters' Merzbau, or "Merz building" which is the source of the name "Merzbow".
Lowest Music & Arts (1979–84)
Merzbow began as the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani who met Akita in high school. He started releasing noise recordings on cassettes through his own record labelRecord label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, Lowest Music & Arts, which was founded in 1979 in order to trade cassette tapes with other underground artists. The first tape made for the label was Metal Acoustic Music
Metal Acoustic Music
Metal Acoustic Music is a studio album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. The name was inspired by Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music album...
and was sold exclusively by mail order. Various other releases were made before the first real release which included Collection 001 and a very limited release of Remblandt Assemblage
Remblandt Assemblage
Remblandt Assemblage is a studio album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. Only a few copies were made and distributed on cassette in 1981, but otherwise it was not widely available until being reissued on the Merzbox in 2000...
. The Collection series was originally ten cassettes that were going to be distributed through an independent label called YLEM, but when it became defunct and cancelled the series, Akita decided to release them through Lowest Music & Arts.
His earliest music was made with tape loop
Tape loop
In music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...
s and creatively recorded percussion and metal.
Early methods included what he referred to as "material action", in which he would closely amplify small sounds so as to distort them through the microphone. The early releases were photocopies
Photocopier
A photocopier is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply. Most current photocopiers use a technology called xerography, a dry process using heat...
of collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
s made out of manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and porn magazines he found in trash cans in the Tokyo subway. Akita explained this as trying to "create the same feeling as the secret porn customer for the people buying my cassettes in the early '80s". In 1984 he founded a second record label called ZSF Produkt.
ZSF Produkt (1984–90)
ZSF Produkt was founded in 1984 to release music by similar artists within the industrialIndustrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
movement but eventually became the successor to Lowest Music & Arts. Numerous releases were made in the ZSF Produkt studio with Mechanization Takes Command being the first. The studio continued to be used until 2001 when Akita started producing home recordings from his bedroom studio.
During this era, Merzbow found much wider recognition and began making recordings for various international labels. He also started touring abroad with the help of various collaborators. Merzbow performed in USSR in 1988, toured USA in 1990, Korea in 1991 and Europe in 1989 and 1992. For most of the late 1980s through the 1990s, Merzbow live was a trio including Reiko A. on electronics and Bara on voice and dance.
Digital era (1990–2000)
Nick Cain of The WireThe Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
argues that
Merzbow's first digital recording
Digital recording
In digital recording, digital audio and digital video is directly recorded to a storage device as a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in air pressure for audio and chroma and luminance values for video through time, thus making an abstract template for the original sound or...
was the CD release Cloud Cock OO Grand
Cloud Cock OO Grand
Cloud Cock OO Grand is a studio album by the Japanese noise musician, Merzbow. It was released in a limited edition of 500 copies by ZSF Produkt in 1990....
in 1990. With a higher international profile in the 90's, Merzbow started working on more ambitious projects such as the Noisembryo, which was a Merzbow album sealed in a car released in a limited edition of one copy. The disc was sealed in the CD player of a BMW Sedan which was rewired to play the CD whenever the car was started. The CD was also released normally on the same label. Recordings from the mid-1990s onwards are mostly of extreme volume, some mastered at levels far beyond standard (Noisembryo, Pulse Demon). From 1996, plans were made to release a "10 (or maybe 12)" CD box set on Extreme Records
Extreme Records
Extreme Records is an Australian based record label.The label was founded by Ulex Xane, and initially specialised in underground experimental and industrial cassettes...
. In 2000, Extreme Records
Extreme Records
Extreme Records is an Australian based record label.The label was founded by Ulex Xane, and initially specialised in underground experimental and industrial cassettes...
released the Merzbox
Merzbox
Merzbox is a box set compilation by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow, released in 2000 by Extreme Records. It consists of 50 CDs, spanning Merzbow's career from 1979–1997; 30 discs are taken from long out of print releases, while 20 are composed mainly of unreleased material...
, a fifty CD set of Merzbow records, twenty of them not previously released.
Laptop era (2000–2010)
Since 2000, Akita began to use computers more in his recordings. At live performances, Akita has produced noise music from either two laptop computers or combination of a laptop and analog synthesizers. Reiko A. and Bara left Merzbow during this time, Reiko Azuma now has a solo career. Since 2001, Jenny Akita (formerly Kawabata) started being credited for artwork on various releases.Since 2001, Akita started utilising samples of animal sounds in various releases starting with Frog
Frog+
CD 2...
. Around 2002, Akita became a vegan, he stated how it began:
During this period, Akita also became a supporter of PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
which is reflected in his animal-themed releases. An example of this is Minazo Vol. 1
Minazo Vol. 1
- Trivia :According to Akita, the album was not intended to mourn the death of Minazo, but to avenge it. Allmusic likened it to "Sadness that has turned to rage."- External links :* * * [ Minazo, Vol. 2 at Allmusic]...
and Vol. 2
Minazo Vol. 2
Minazo Vol. 2 is an album by Merzbow, which was limited to 1000 copies on green vinyl, 500 with green splatters and 500 with red splatters, and packaged in a heavy-weight textured gatefold sleeve.-Track listing:...
, dedicated to an elephant seal
Elephant seal
Elephant seals are large, oceangoing seals in the genus Mirounga. There are two species: the northern elephant seal and the southern elephant seal . Both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but numbers have since recovered...
he visited often at the zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
and Bloody Sea, a protest against Japanese whaling
Whaling in Japan
Whaling in Japan may have begun as early as the 12th century. During the 20th century, Japan was heavily involved in commercial whaling until the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling went into effect in 1986...
. He has also produced several works centered around recordings of his pet chickens (notably Animal Magnetism
Animal Magnetism (Merzbow album)
-External links:*...
and Turmeric
Turmeric (album)
CD 2CD 3CD 4...
).
Also in 2002, Akita released Merzbeat
Merzbeat
Merzbeat is a studio album by the Japanese noise musician, Merzbow. This album showcases Merzbow's noise music with different rock and hip-hop inspired drum beats and loops. Although Merzbeat is not part of the Minazo tribute releases, Minazo Vol. 1 and Minazo Vol. 2, it is the first album to...
, which was seen as a significant departure from his trademark abstract style in that it contains beat-oriented pieces. This has sparked some controversy among fans, though some reviewers pointed out that it sounded very similar to Aqua Necromancer
Aqua Necromancer
-Personnel:*Masami Akita - synthesiser, Moog synthesiser, noise, electronics, tapes, analogue synthesiser, devices, editing*Stefan Figiel - mastering-References:**...
(1998) which features samples of progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
drumming. Merzbird
Merzbird
Merzbird is a studio album by the Japanese noise musician, Merzbow. The album continues the beat orientated noise found in Merzbeat and is part of Masami Akita's Merz series for Important Records.-Track listing:All music by Masami Akita.-Notes:...
(2004) and Merzbuddha
Merzbuddha
Merzbuddha is a studio album by the Japanese noise musician, Merzbow. The album morphs Merzbow's traditional sound with a heavy dub influence, containing deep bass riffs, electronic vibes and beats.-Track listing:All music by Masami Akita.-Personnel:...
(2005) followed in a similar vein with sampled beats combined with Merzbow's signature harsh noise.
Through 2009, Akita released a 13 CD box-set called 13 Japanese Birds
13 Japanese Birds
13 Japanese Birds is a 15 album series by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue d'oiseaux , but has no direct musical relationship....
, a set which was released monthly (one album a month). This release features the return of Akita to the usage of analog sounds and also the use of drum kits. Also in that year Merzbow cancelled his tour over United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
due to the swine flu outbreak.
Current era (2010–present)
Beginning in November 2009, Akita started releasing archival recordings from the 80s – early 90s, including several on cassetteCompact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
. Blossoming Noise has reissued cassettes like E-Study
E-Study
E-Study is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. The titles stands for "Ethnical Study".It was originally released on cassette by Lowest Music & Arts in 1981. It was reissued on cassette by Blossoming Noise in November 2009 in a limited edition of 100 with a sticker and 1" button.-Track...
, Normal Music
Normal Music
Normal Music is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was released on cassette in 1981. It was reissued by Blossoming Noise on cassette in May 2010 in a limited edition of 300 copies.-Track listing:-Notes:...
, Flesh Metal Orgasm
Flesh Metal Orgasm
Flesh Metal Orgasm is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was released on cassette in 1989. It was reissued by Blossoming Noise on cassette in May 2010 in a limited edition of 300 copies.-Track listing:-Personnel:...
, and two volumes from the Collection series. Also on the same label he began the Microkosmos
Microkosmos Volume 1
Microkosmos | Volume 1 is an album by the noise artist Merzbow, the first in a series of five.The series features artwork from a collection of visual collages created by Masami Akita from 1982-83....
series, which are new recordings with visual collages created in 1982–83. Merzbient
Merzbient
- Notes :* CD 2 track 2 is not listed on the sleeve.* Digitally remastered from original cassette tapes March 2010.- Personnel :*Masami Akita – various scrap metals, various metals/tin box with piano wires, various percussion by small objects, paper, stone, woods, kitchen objects etc., contact...
, a 12 CD boxset of unreleased recordings from 1987–90 was released by Soleilmoon. Other cassettes of unreleased material include Untitled Nov 1989
Untitled Nov 1989
Untitled Nov 1989 is a cassette by the japanese noise musician Merzbow, released on 2010.This release was recorded in November of 1989, and mixed in February of 2010. The album was limited to only 200 copies which are now sold out.-Track Listing:Side A...
, 9888A
9888A
9888A is a studio album by the noise artist Masami Akita. Recorded on September 8, 1988 , was released on 2010.The album was only made available on cassette, and only 130 copies were made.-Track Listing:-Credits:...
, April 1992
April 1992 (album)
April 1992 is a studio album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. The album was released on cassette and features recordings from 1992. It is limited to only 200 copies with pro-printed color covers and pro-duplicated and color labeled chrome tapes....
, and Variations for Electric Fan
Variations for Electric Fan
Variations for Electric Fan is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It is released on cassette and is limited to 200 copies.The label page says the album was recorded in 1993, but this is contradicted by the sleeve notes which states it was recorded in September 1988 at ZSF Produkt...
.
Musical style
Merzbow's sounds employ the use of distortion, feedback, and noises from synthesizers, machinery, and home-made noisemakers. While much of Merzbow's output is intensely harsh in character, Akita does occasionally make forays into ambient musicAmbient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
. Vocals are employed sometimes, but never in a lyrical sense. Contrary to most harsh noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, Akita also occasionally uses elements of melody and rhythm.
Akita's early work consisted of industrial noise music made from tape loop
Tape loop
In music, tape loops are loops of prerecorded magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound. Contemporary composers such as Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen used tape loops to create phase patterns and rhythms...
s and conventional instruments. Similar to his present albums, he produced lengthy, disorientating pieces. He also became infamous for the sheer amount of releases in a short time frame.
Audiences in general, especially those of "closed societies", did not quite know what to make of his style. During his performances (with Kiyoshi Mizutani) in the USSR, at the Jazz-on-Amur '88 festival, what incorporated improvised, electroacoustic and experimental music that time (the fest's producer consciously obscured both the very type of Akita's music and the erotic trend of his art from Soviet officials), whereas the producer, rocky youth and Soviet improvised music guest stars were extremely pleased, the unprepared orthodox jazz and agier parts of the audience were severely frustrated, particularly, with loudness, to leave the site, and for the second performance, for another, 1000-place hall (of the Soviet Army Officers' House), and even much more conservative audience, he was asked to play "more musically" so he toned it down a bit. On that first stage, Merzbow used the finest example of "classical analogue live noisemaiking technologies" to display: untuned guitar, a drumset, various micro-objects, small springs centered in its shell baffles, large aluminium boxes with strings inside to be attacked with a fiddlestick, etc. along with multi- piezo-pickuping and close-miking techniques, live processing through vintage US fuzz, ring modulator etc. boxes, and quite vivid and spontaneous approach, backed by slide and light shows. This live recording was re-processed and released as Live in Khabarovsk, CCCP (I'm Proud by Rank of the Workers) LP - and as the CD 26 of the Merzbox later on.
During the 90s Akita's work became much harsher and were generally mastered at a louder volume than usual. These were heavily influenced by death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
and grindcore
Grindcore
Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including death metal, industrial music, noise and the more extreme varieties of hardcore punk....
bands of the time (a prime example is the Venereology album). The mid-90's saw Akita being heavily influenced by psychedelic bands and this was reflected in various albums.
After 2000, Akita started making vague concept albums and experimented with sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
rhythms. He also began to use laptops.
Side projects
In addition to Merzbow, Akita has been involved in a number of side projects and groups.Side projects
Abtechtonics (or variations of this) was used by Akita for his artwork on Merzbow releases.Pornoise was a mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
project where Akita made xerox art using discarded pornographic magazines taken from the trash, which was sent with his cassettes, the idea being that his tapes were like cheap and disposable mail-order pornography. The name was also used for a track on the Sexorama compilation, the Pornoise/1kg
Pornoise/1kg
Pornoise/1kg is the first box set released by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. The box set consists of 5 tapes with only two tracks per tape .Pornoise/1kg was first released in 1984 by ZSF Produkt...
box, and is credited for artwork on a couple Merzbow releases.
Right Brain Audile is co-credited on the two Music for Bondage Performance
Music For Bondage Performance
is a studio album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow.-Track listing:-Notes:*Track 1 : for Asako.*Track 2 : made for female prisoner in bondage & seppuku Japanese style. B&D performance by Ruka Mikami in Homo Fixas Studio, Yotsuya....
albums, as they're soundtracks he did for several S&M/faux-Sepukku films produced by Right Brain. "RBA" reappears on Merzbient
Merzbient
- Notes :* CD 2 track 2 is not listed on the sleeve.* Digitally remastered from original cassette tapes March 2010.- Personnel :*Masami Akita – various scrap metals, various metals/tin box with piano wires, various percussion by small objects, paper, stone, woods, kitchen objects etc., contact...
, which features recordings from this era.
SCUM was a project where Akita made new releases out of previous Merzbow sessions. SCUM is an acronym for "Society for Cutting Up Merzbow" (a reference to the SCUM Manifesto
SCUM Manifesto
The SCUM Manifesto is a radical feminist manifesto written in 1967 by Valerie Solanas and calling for the elimination of the male sex.-Description:...
), "Scissors for CUtting Merzbow" or "Steel CUM" among others.
True Romance was a performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
project in the early 90s with Tetsuo Sakaibara (who later joined Merzbow live) and Toshiyuki Seido. The performances included fetish equipment, fake gore (including a simulated autopsy), mechanical devices, nude women, etc. It was inspired by Viennese Actionism
Viennese Actionism
The term Viennese Actionism describes a short and violent movement in 20th century art that can be regarded as part of the many independent efforts of the 1960s to develop "action art" . Its main participants were Günter Brus, Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler. As "actionists",...
. Masami Akita performed and composed the backing music.
Zecken was used for two solo performances in 1996.
Groups
Bustmonster was a "conceptual death metal" (because they couldn't play death metal) group with Tetsuo Sakaibara, Fumio KosakaiIncapacitants
are a Japanese noise music group formed in 1981. It consists of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai, whose stated aim is to produce "pure" noise, uninfluenced by musical ideas or even human intention, using primarily feedback, vocals, and various electronics...
, Masahiko Ohno
Solmania
Solmania is the Osaka-based noise music project of Masahiko "Masaki" Ohno , who runs the Works Fatagaga noise record label. Formed in 1984, Solmania is one of the earliest noise projects out of Japan...
, Shohei Iwasaki
Monde Bruits
Monde Bruits was the Japanese noise music project of Syohei Iwasaki . The project was one of the earliest in Japan's noise scene, and it was Iwasaki who organized Masami Akita's first Merzbow show in Osaka, Japan...
, Maso Yamazaki and Zev Asher. Flying Testicle
Flying Testicle
Flying Testicle was an early 90's noise supergroup consisting of Masami Akita, Yamazaki Maso and Zev Asher. The group put out two releases before disbanding.-Discography:*Lamerican Sextom 7" vinyl - ZSF Produkt...
was just with Yamazaki and Asher.
Merzbow Null was a collaboration between Masami Akita's Merzbow and Kazuyuki Kishino
KK Null
KK Null is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist. He began as a guitarist, but soon added composer, singer, electronic musician and drummer to his list of talents, and also studied with the Butoh workshop....
's Null, including Kiyoshi Mizutani and Asami Hayashi among others. Tibeta Ubik was Akita and Kishino duo. Both groups made several cassettes of live improv performances.
Sponge was an anonymous group whose personnel are named after prominent Japanese businessmen/doctors, the actual performers are believed to be Jojo and Junko Hiroshige
Hijokaidan
Hijokaidan is a Japanese noise and free improvisation group with a revolving lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist Yoshiyuki "Jojo" Hiroshige its one constant member, who is head & owner of the Osaka-based Alchemy...
, Masami Akita and Maso Yamazaki.
Other groups include: Boris
Boris (band)
is a Japanese experimental rock band, known for often combining and switching between different music genres including drone metal, sludge metal, noise rock, psychedelic rock, ambient and pop...
with Merzbow; Commando Bruno Sanmartino with Incapacitants
Incapacitants
are a Japanese noise music group formed in 1981. It consists of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai, whose stated aim is to produce "pure" noise, uninfluenced by musical ideas or even human intention, using primarily feedback, vocals, and various electronics...
and Violent Onsen Geisha
Violent Onsen Geisha
Violent Onsen Geisha is a Japanese noise music group, distinctive among many noise acts for frequently displaying a bizarre, sarcastic, and mischievous sense of humor...
; Kikuri with Keiji Haino
Keiji Haino
Keiji Haino born May 3, 1952 in Chiba, Japan, and currently residing in Tokyo, is a Japanese musician whose work has included rock, free improvisation, noise, singer-songwriter, solo percussion, psychedelic, minimalism and drone styles...
; Maldoror
Maldoror
Maldoror is a music project consisting of Mike Patton and Masami Akita, also known as Merzbow. The name is derived from a nineteenth century novel entitled Les Chants de Maldoror by the Comte de Lautréamont, the pseudonym of the writer Isidore Lucien Ducasse.The project formed when Patton was on...
with Mike Patton
Mike Patton
Michael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
; MAZK
MAZK
MAZK is a collaborative noise group between musicians Masami Akita and Zbigniew Karkowski for several releases. MAZK is an abbreviation for the names of each composer .-Discography:...
with Zbigniew Karkowski
Zbigniew Karkowski
Zbigniew Karkowski was born in 1958 in Krakow, Poland. He studied composition at the State College of Music in Gothenburg, Sweden, aesthetics of modern music at the University of Gothenburg's Department of Musicology, and computer music at the Chalmers University of Technology...
; Melting Lips with Hanayo
Hanayo
is a Japanese musician and artist. She is known for her playful and subversive artwork, often deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Hanayo currently lives and works in Berlin.- Career :...
; Muscats with Hanayo and Masaya Nakahara
Violent Onsen Geisha
Violent Onsen Geisha is a Japanese noise music group, distinctive among many noise acts for frequently displaying a bizarre, sarcastic, and mischievous sense of humor...
; Merz-Banana with Melt-Banana
Melt-Banana
Melt-Banana is a Japanese punk band that is known for playing extremely fast noise music mixed with experimental electronica and pop-based song structures. They have worked with artists as diverse as Merzbow, John Zorn, Mike Patton, and Discordance Axis...
; Satanstornade with Russell Haswell
Russell Haswell
Russell Haswell is a multidisciplinary artist.He has exhibited conceptual and wall based visual works, video art, public sculpture, as well as audio presentations in both art gallery and concert hall contexts. Extreme Computer Music is one specialized area of activity...
(they later released an album entitled Satanstornade
Satanstornade
Satanstornade is a live album by Masami Akita and Russell Haswell.-Credits:*Apple 1400c / 166 Powerbook + various software, Pre-mastering, edited by: Russell Haswell*Apple G3 Powerbook + various software: Masami Akita...
under their real names); Shalon Kelly King with Fumio Kosakai.
Akita also played drums for Hijokaidan
Hijokaidan
Hijokaidan is a Japanese noise and free improvisation group with a revolving lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist Yoshiyuki "Jojo" Hiroshige its one constant member, who is head & owner of the Osaka-based Alchemy...
during the early–mid 90s.
Balázs Pándi
Balázs Pándi
Balázs Pándi is a Hungarian drummer. He worked and toured with various acts from all around the world including Venetian Snares, Otto Von Schirach , Last Step, To Live and Shave in L.A., The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Chief Rebel Angel , the Taktika. He also drummed for Blood Of Heroes...
has drummed for Merzbow at several concerts since 2009.
Further reading
- Woodward, Brett. Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise" (1999). ISBN 0-646-38326-4.
- Hegarty, Paul. Noise/Music: A History (2007). ISBN 0826417272.
- Bailey, Thomas Bey William. Micro Bionic: Radical Electronic Music and Sound Art in the 21st Century (2009). ISBN 1840681535.
External links
- Merzbow official website
- [ Merzbow] at Allmusic
- Merzbow at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Merzbow at Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
- Merzbow – "Gamma-Titan" published on the Tellus Audio Cassette MagazineTellus Audio Cassette MagazineLaunched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
- Article on Merzbow and Japanese bondage
- Analysis of Merzbow's use of noise as music
- Merzbow - Master of Noise - Fascineshion