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.
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…
Wildwood II
* 2021 stock* Masami Akita exercises his bestial side in a hairily psychedelic follow-up to his Wildwood (2016) CD, also for Dirter Promotions. Wildwood II is dedicated to the Wildwood Trust, who support British wildlife through protecting endangered native species and re-connecting people with the natural environment around them. In both parts Masami Akita a.k.a. Merzbow flashes his fangs and hypercolour fur in a torrent of digital noise that could be said to transcend the boundary between h…
Scandal
** Matte laminate and embossed sleeve, monochrome print and includes a full colour collage fold out poster from Masami Akita ** Scandal collects together three newly unearthed and revised pieces from Merzbow recorded between 1992 and 1995. Each of the pieces here typifies work that sits at a nexus between the experimental cassette and electronic collisions of Masami Akita’s late 1980s works and the emergent noise language that resolved into a series of now legendary recordings completed during t…
Triwave Pagoda
** Deluxe 40-minute Cassette, limited edition of 150, each with full-color six-panel j-card in clear Norelco case, plus full-color outer o-card featuring collage art by Masami Akita ** "Triwave Pagoda" is a blistering sonic depiction of space travel through rough and choppy atmospheres. Turbulence is ever-present and the cacophonic, dying equipment is about to give out. But the occasional shooting comet is still visible. And behind the controls is an impeccably credentialed master of flight who…
Live at Middle East Cafe Boston 21 Sep 1990
** 2021 Stock. Original Videotape, Numbered ** Vanilla Records presents Live at Middle East Cafe Boston 21 Sep 1990 by Merzbow. Perfomed by Masami Akita and Reiko Azuma. Remixed at Fuji Planning Studio. Sound mastered at ZSF Produkt Studio. Acknowledgment for Fuji Planning, Rightbrain, Ron Lessard (RRR). Recorded live at Middle East Cafe, Boston, USA 21 Sep 90.
10x6=60CD Box Set
Merzbow's unpublished/excavated archive series by Slowdown Records began to be released in 2018, and so far 10 chapters have been published. This 60CD box contains all those 10 chapters. They have been published in chronological order starting from 1979, you can trace the changes of the various styles of Merzbow by listening to all of them in the correct order.
Green Wheels
** Deluxe double vinyl LP version in gatefold sleeve. Limited edition to 299 copies ** Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The moniker of Japanese artist Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1979. Inspired by dadaism and surrealism, Akita took the name for his project from German artist Kurt Schwitters's pre-war architectural assemblage The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau. Working in his home, he quickly gained notoriety as a purveyor of a musical genre composed solely…
Black Crows Cyborg
** Barbed Wire Swimming Pool splatter vinyl. LP with super deluxe embossed cover with mini poster ** The skylines of Tokyo and New York City are impenetrable. On the streets it is cold - the ravens have blocked out the sun. The barbed chicken wire that surrounds the cities wave scraps of plastic shreds of circuit boards like surrender flags. Ravens have become the society, they are now the rulers. Black Crows Cyborg is the first collaboration from noise titans Merzbow and Prurient. With more tha…
Kakapo
** Edition of 500 Green Translucent Vinyl. 2021 Stock ** Incomparable noise legend Merzbow releases a dense, flailing black hole of a droning noise track, 33 minutes spread over two sides of green vinyl. Aside from several very limited releases and multiple adventurous collaborations, it’s the first full Merzbow record to be released on vinyl for a couple of years.
Starting with an intense machine hum, “Kakapo” then shrieks, stutters and wails while maintaining the all-obliterating industrial dr…
Achromatic
** 2021 Stock ** The esoteric noise duo known as HEXA is the sonic union of Xiu Xiu’s focal point Jamie Stewart and sonic provocateur Lawrence English. Forged out of a mutual interest in exotic birds and the decaying charms of the post-industrial age, their collaboration explores the physicality of sound and its abilities to infiltrate and occupy the body. Their collaborative work has been described as being possessed by cascading low frequency pulses and tectonic plates of sound, suspended in c…
Rainbow Electronics
A stunning immersion into the world of Merzbow during one of the project's most engrossing and important period's, Urashima’s latest, the first ever vinyl reissue of the project's legendary 1990 release, 'Rainbow Electronics', is a truly historic event. A monumental work of few parallels, even 30 years after its initial release, it still challenges the fundamental notions of what music is perceived to be.
The Koln ConZert Live 2008
**In process of stocking** Recorded live at the Stadtgarten -2008. Composed and played by Merzbow and Richard Pinhas. In 2008, guitarist and rock electronics innovator Richard Pinhas performed in Koln a duo concert with notorious 'noise' artist Merzbow. Merzbow’s collaboration with French pioneer Richard Pinhas features some of his best music and gleefully amplifies the psychedelic tendencies of both composers.It is fascinating to hear these two imposing figures interact.
Dadarottenvator
**199 copies, in process of stocking** "Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The moniker of Japanese artist Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1979. Inspired by dadaism and surrealism, Akita took the name for his project from German artist Kurt Schwitters's pre-war architectural assemblage The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau. Just as Schwitters attacked the entrenched artistic traditions of his time with his revolutionary avant-garde collages, so too would Akita chall…
Red 2 Eyes
Merzbow (メルツバウ) is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician Masami Akita (秋田 昌美, Akita Masami) 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. Recently he h…
Milanese Bestiality / Drunk on Decay
**300 copies** "Milanese Bestiality / Drunk On Decay first came out in 1997 as a vinyl-only release limited to 470 copies. This long time sold-out album is now re-released for the very first time into digital format with the addition of 2 unreleased bonus tracks (one for each artist). Those two exclusive additional tracks was recorded back in 1997, in same recording sessions done for the release of the album. A tribute album by those 2 primer world famous noise artists to the Italian first "Indu…
Amalgamelody
"Third collaborative album by the Japanese and Italian grand-masters of Industrial and Noise. This time all tracks are collaborations by the two artists. Only analogue sounds used, a true return to the old roots of Industrial music.Digipack with a great and futuristic space-design and a psychedelic touch made by Tex Tescari using images supplied by MB.
Marmo
"After two vinyl releases finally a digital album by the master of Japan-Noise on OEC. This album is entitled Marmo (Marble for Italian) and is devoted to the Italian and particularly the Venetian marble. Masami was visiting and playing in this magic Italian city several times and was impressed by all the marbles used in the Venetian buildings and paintings... The 3 tracks composing this album are entitled Merzbotanica-parallela. "Botanica parallela" is a book written by the Italian author Leo L…
Hermerzaphrodites
An unusual Merzbow double CD album, in lovely (digipak) packaging! Two very different CDs bounded in one unique release. While on one disc the sounds are more "ambient style", with a free piano, many field recordings, far and rumbling rhythms and noises (The Piano Lento Ma Non Troppo Madness), the other disc's sounds are diving deep into "poly-rhythmics", continously beating and popping plus additional sequencing and 'exploding' sounds (The Pop-Corn Psychedelia). The soundtrack for a new psyched…
StereoAkuma
In June 2019, Masami Akita, better known as Merzbow travelled to Australia to take part in Room40’s Open Frame festival. Across a week he delivered a series of performances to sold out audiences in Sydney and Melbourne. The performances were viscerally explosive, a channeling of intensities of frequency and volume - the kind of trademarked bodily affective noise Merzbow has become renowned for. Between the concerts, Akita spent his days visiting a variety of forests, spending time with legenda…
Broken Landscapes
**300 copies** Following on from their 2016 Moving Furniture release, Atsusaku, Broken Landscapes is a new collaboration between Gareth Davis (Oiseaux Tempete, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, Machinefabriek) and Merzbow, Japanese noise mastermind Masami Akita.