Merzbow
Masami Akita was born in 1956 in Tokyo, Japan. Akita is a graduate of Tamagawa University, Art Department, and majored in Painting & Art Theory. Akita formed the premier Japanese Noise group Merzbow in 1979. Merzbow have released over 300 recordings, on tape, LP and CD, to date, working with many different media such as video, film and CD-ROM, both in the directorial and soundtrack role.
Masami Akita was born in 1956 in Tokyo, Japan. Akita is a graduate of Tamagawa University, Art Department, and majored in Painting & Art Theory. Akita formed the premier Japanese Noise group Merzbow in 1979. Merzbow have released over 300 recordings, on tape, LP and CD, to date, working with many different media such as video, film and CD-ROM, both in the directorial and soundtrack role.
Material Action 2
First time on CD for this classic Merzbow duo album from 1983. Material Action is a favorite among early Merzbow free-music, junk-noise workouts. Psychedelic improvised instrumental energy abounds on this essential early recording that is Pure Merz. Masami Akita plays tapes, percussion, electro-acoustic noise, organKiyoshi Mizutani overdubs tapes, synthesizer, violin, machine noise
Merzbeat
*20th anniversary reissue!* Merzbow's Merzbeat is one the most unique and legendary titles in the artist's vast archive. This 20th anniversary reissue is being issued at the same time as CD reissue of his 1983 album Material Action 2 and a brand new collaboration with Arcane Device, all on Important Records. Originally released in 2002, Merzbeat contains over 50 minutes of aggressive, psychedelic, organic, analog beat oriented Merzbow compositions. Drummed rhythms, massive looping samples, a pun…
s/t
Japan's leading noise luminary Merzbow meets American electro-feedback artist Arcane Device as they mix and manipulate each other's work.
Merzbeat
* 20th anniversary edition gatefold reissue on pink vinyl. Limited to 300 copies * Merzbeat, a beautiful and distorted dream of drum samples, jazz, swing, noise and bliss, by Harsh Noise giant, Masami Akita (Merzbow), last press issued by Aurora Central.
Amlux
** Limited edition of 100 tapes, 50 on original colored version (this one) and 50 on blue colored version cover. ** Certainly Amlux is a very cohesive and well-constructed piece; starting more softly than usual, the record slowly builds into the chaotic harsh sound that Merzbow is well known for, but this time adding some actual recognizable music elements (like rhythms), and constructing various surprisingly well-texture soundscapes, that made of this album a more focused and immersive piece th…
Door Open at 8 A.M.
** Limited edition of 100 tapes, 50 Copies with yellow coloured cover artwork (this one) and 50 Copies with pink coloured cover artwork ** Introducing Masami Akita's homage to free-jazz. Door Open at 8am is one of the most adventurous outings made by Merzbow. Recorded during the same era as Aqua Necromancer, this new recording also incorporates the use of sampled sounds. However, this time Akita is paying homage to his love of free jazz, free-jazz drummers to be precise. It includes tracks such …
Hybrid Noisebloom / Masonna Vs. Bananamara
This bundle includes the newest Urashima vinyl releases:Merzbow "Hybrid Noisebloom" (2LP)Masonna "Masonna vs. Bananamara" (LP)Merzbow "Hybrid Noisebloom" (2LP)**Limited Edition of 299 copies.** When it comes to Japanese noise, few projects have pushed boundaries or risen to a more iconic status than Merzbow. The mutant child of punk and experimental music, the project’s blistering sounds - as singular and wild as they are unique - are among the movement’s most important, definitive statements, c…
Hybrid Noisebloom
**Limited Edition of 299 copies.** When it comes to Japanese noise, few projects have pushed boundaries or risen to a more iconic status than Merzbow. The mutant child of punk and experimental music, the project’s blistering sounds - as singular and wild as they are unique - are among the movement’s most important, definitive statements, continuously laying the groundwork for countless artists who have followed in its wake. Like so many artefacts of Japanese noise, Merzbow’s output - often relea…
Cat's Squirrel
Cat's Squirrel is a live recording of Masami Akita & Oren Ambarchi's performance in Sydney, Australia in May 2012. Although Akita & Ambarchi have known one another since 1993 & performed together as part of larger ensembles, this was their first performance as a duo. Together they create a massive wall of sound that moves from the cavernous to the blisteringly psychedelic, laying down shifting low-end structures over which pointillist details ricochet across the stereo field. Akita & Ambarchi's …
Kookaburra
"There is no argument; Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The moniker of Japanese artist Masami Akita has appeared on over four hundred albums since 1979. The name comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' famous work Merzbau, in which he transformed the interior of his house with found objects. This is reflected in Akita's junk art / collage aesthetic. Other influences on the Merzbow philosophy range from ritualised eroticism (fetishism & bondage), surrealism to extreme…
2017-2020
"2017-2020 is a box set of five original albums by Merzbow released on Slowdown Records. Since 2018, Merzbow has been running an archive series on the same label that contains mainly unreleased and unearthed material from the past, and while each series is organized according to production period and musical concept, this box is a collection of original albums produced individually. However, this box is a collection of original albums produced individually, and each one has a very different musi…
Double Beat Sequencer
"The fourteenth series of the Merzbow archive series, which began in 2018 and focuses on unreleased and unearthed material, is a collection of unreleased recordings from 2014 that were performed with a sequencer in the background: Double Beat Sequencer Vol. 1, Double Beat Sequencer Vol.2", "Double Beat Sequencer Vol.3", "Double Beat Sequencer Vol.4", "Double Beat Sequencer Vol.5" and "Double Beat Sequencer Vol.6". Double Beat Sequencer" is a boxed set of all six of these works. The sequencer use…
Horizon
"The thirteenth series of Merzbow's archival series, which began in 2018 and focuses on unreleased and unearthed material, includes six albums recorded between 2011 and 2012: Insect 801, Kumo No Zettaichi, Sugamo Flower, Bit Blues", "Kotorhizome", and "Gman+". Horizon" is a boxed set of these works. In 2011, Merzbow released "Dead Zone" on the Ukrainian label Quasi Pop Records, which focused on the radioactive contamination caused by the nuclear accidents in Fukushima and Chernobyl, and also rel…
Drum & Noise
"The 12th series of the archive series, which started in 2018 and focuses on Merzbow's unreleased and unearthed recordings, includes "Drumorph", "Ensemble Drums", and "Arijigoku (Test Mix)", which contain recordings from 2008-2009, when Merzbow developed a style that incorporated drum performance. Arijigoku (Test Mix)", "Red Brick", "Groon Lesson", and "Pi-Eggplant". The boxed version of these albums is called "Drum & Noise".Masami Akita was originally a drummer who was greatly influenced by psy…
Arrangement
"This is the eleventh release in the Merzbow Archive series by Slowdown Records, which began in 2018. This box (Arrangement) contains six albums from 2004 to 2005: "15 August 2006", "27 August 2006", "Bloodour", "Coma Test", "Yono's Journey", "Feedback", and "Purple Yellow". Other Merzbow's works during this period include "Minazo" (Important Records, 2006), "F.I.D. (Fur Is Dead)" (Fourth Dimension Records, 2006), "Bloody Sea" (Vivo, 2007), "Merzbear" ( Important Records, 2007), and Peace For An…
Flare Blues (LP)
Tip! Flare Blues reimagines two of Merzbow’s long out of print EPs from 1994, Flare Gun and White Blues. Revisiting the original pieces and adding previously unreleased materials recorded during these sessions, Flare Blues tethers together a set of Merzbow’s most exploratory work, creating a visceral linkage between a pair of vital works. Originally recorded in June 1994, Merzbow's Flare Gun is a pulsating and hammering collection of pieces that grinds ever forward with a sense of bludgeoning de…
Collection 001_010
Joining their long-standing effort to reissue the most important and difficult to obtain artifacts from Merzbow's sprawling back catalog, Urashima returns with “Collection 001_010”, an absolutely stunning 10 CD box set comprising the entirety of the project's “Collection” releases, originally self-released between 1981 and 1982 on Masami Akita's Lowest Music & Arts imprint. Capturing some of the band's earliest explorations, when it was still a duo of Akita and Mizutani, these are some of the mo…
Collection 008
* Numbered edition of 200 copies in a folder cover. * Recorded and Mixed at Lowest Music & Arts, Telecom Studio 1981 - 1982. Percussion, Recorder, Effects, Artwork – Masami Akita (Merzbow) violin – Kiyoshi Mizutani. Remastered from Original Cassette Tape in Feb 2018 at Munemihouse, Tokyo. Originally Released on Cassette by Lowest Music & Arts in 1982.
Collection 006
* Numbered edition of 200 copies in a folder cover. * Recorded and Mixed at Lowest Music & Arts, Telecom Studio 1981 - 1982. Percussion, Recorder, Effects, Artwork – Masami Akita (Merzbow) violin – Kiyoshi Mizutani. Remastered from Original Cassette Tape in Feb 2018 at Munemihouse, Tokyo. Originally Released on Cassette by Lowest Music & Arts in 1982.
Solonoise 1 & 2 (2CD)
* Compilation of the 1982 cassette releases Solonoise 1 and Solonoise 2. Limited to 300 copies. Released in digipak. * Merzbow re-edition of 2 historical tapes of the first Japanoise era! Special guest on "Solonoise 1": Kiyoshi Mizutani.This albums offers pure analog noise with varied timbre and string, keyboard, percussion. Inspired by DADA & Kurt Scwitters from which he took "MERZ" for his project name, this might be considered a New-DADA experiment....These early tracks are not the overwhelm…