Masami Akita has been the name most people reach for when they say "Japanese noise". He started Merzbow in Tokyo in 1979, taking the name from Kurt Schwitters's Merzbau, the collage that slowly filled his house, and treated sound the same way: layers of feedback, tape, junk metal and later laptops piled up until only density is left. Since then he has released well over four hundred records, including the fifty CD Merzbox of 2000.
"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…
"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…
"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…
"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…
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…
* 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.
* 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.
* 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…
* 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…
** 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…
** 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…
** 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.
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.
** 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…
** 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…
** 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…
** 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…
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.
**Embossed matte laminate CD, 6 panel fold out poster, featuring a collage work from Masami Akita created in 1982** Across the middle years of the 1990s, Merzbow (Masami Akita) refined a stochastic language for harsh noise that had emerged from his studio experiments at the beginning of that decade.This technique, which involved a combination of self made instruments, synthesisers, tabletop effects and, in the case of EXD, drum machines, often recorded at incredible levels to create a uniquely v…
**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.
**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…
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…
**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…
"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.
"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…
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…
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…
Follow-up to Atsusaku (2016) by Gareth Davis (bass clarinet) and Merzbow. The earlier theme of mechanical compression is here extended into a meditation on the fears of mechanisation in the natural environment: North Sea wind farms, Southern Californian industry, the survival of animals in overrun habitats. Three tracks of impenetrable manipulated field recordings against saturated bass clarinet midrange and Merzbow's analogue/digital crossfire, with brief recognisable voices flashing through.
Black Ice and Milky Clear Quad Effect with Rainbow Splatter Standard Gram Relapse presents a remastered reissue from the undisputed king of Japanese noise-Merzbow. "Pulse Demon" is one of the most celebrated releases of Masami Akita's storied 4 decade long career. Composed entirely by live noise concrete and the use of a fuzz box, "Pulse Demon" eschews all overdubs and studio trickery, laying Merzbow bare. What follows in these recordings is the pure essence of unfettered noise. The rawness in …
Custom Color Twist Edition. The undisputed king of Japanese noise Merzbow returns, as the landmark album 'Venereology' celebrates 25 tinnitus-inducing years with its inaugural vinyl pressing! Remastered by James Plotkin (Isis, Electric Wizard, Full Of Hell, and more) and featuring reworked art, this is the most extreme recording of harsh electronic sickness you will ever own! 'Venereology' features a second LP with more than 20 minutes of unreleased bonus material. By 1994, Merzbow had a signifi…
First collaboration ever between noise legend Merzbow and visionary/provocateur Kaoru Sato of R.N.A. Organism (Vanity Records). Edition of 300. Side A: live recording of Merzbow and Kaoru Sato’s first live collaboration ever. Recorded October 21st 2018 at Metro club in Kyoto for a three-label showcase with avant-garde imprints Slowdown, Phonon and Kyoh Records. Side B: Solo sessions by each artist that took place after the joint performance on the same night. Edited and mixed in their respectiv…
** 3 CD with printed wallets in Jute bag with 2 pins. Edition of 200 copies ** Recorded and mixed at Lowest Music & Arts, Tokyo April & May 5 1982 Masami Akita -Tapes, Guitar, Drum Machine, Noise, Effects, Percussions, Rhythm, Radio, TV, Electronics, Junk, Bass Guitar + Kiyoshi Mizutani - Violin, Percussion Originally released on cassette (Aeon, USA )1983 Later released on CD as part of the ‘Merzbox’ (Extreme,Australia) 2000. Re-mastered at Munemihouse, Tokyo 2018 This is the first installment o…
**300 copies, clear vinyl** Brilliant collaborative debut album of riveting noise and widescreen synths by Merzbow and Posh Isolation’s Vanity Productions featuring two longform, elemental works transmuting worries about ecological disaster into a torrent of spirit-gnawing, experimental noise that surpasses the sum of its parts. Masami Akita and Christian Stadsgaard both hail from places with a lot of coastline vulnerable to sea level rises, ‘Coastal Erosion’ sees them grasp the nettle of impen…
**500 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. Just as Schwitters attacked the entrenched artistic traditions of his time with his revolutionary avant-garde collages, so too would Akita challenge the contemporary con…
After over a year in preparation, we are delighted to announce the new split Merzbow/Band Of Pain full length picture disc LP. Ltd worldwide to 1000 copies, this beautiful picture disc vinyl LP features a side by each of these artists. Merzbow, well established as THE pioneer of the Japanese noise/avant-garde scene and Band Of Pain, leaders in a slightly darker experimental world, who were once described by Terroriser magazine as being 'what Wagner would be doing if he was alive today!' The full…
Sewing together dissonant notes, distorted vocal blasts, intent chaotic torrents of howling noise and highly active percussive waves. Sounding caustic on a surface level, the collaboration revealed a sense of calm determination, life-affirming energy, and creative joy - a veil of sonic warmth shrouding all participants before their return to the cold embrace of Tokyo in early spring.
Merzopo is a collaborative two CD album of Japanese noise legend Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) and the Czech seven member ensemble Opening Performance Orchestra,
based in Prague. The first CD contains four compositions by Merzbow.
"Futaomote" means 'double face' and it was originally titled 'Janus'.
"Yasugibushi" is a Japanese old folk song which was sampled. The second
CD contains two live tracks from Opening Performance Orchestra which
were played live in Tokyo and Prague in 2017 and studio …
LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Includes printed inner sleeve with lyrics; Includes download code. Repressed; 1999 release. A Perfect Pain is a manifestation of the incredible power created by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Psychic TV/Throbbing Gristle) -- the founding father of the industrial world, and Merzbow -- the undisputed king of Japanese noise. Recorded exclusively for Cold Spring, A Perfect Pain has been hailed as an important album and an extremely successful collaboration.
"a long overdue c…
Limited edition of 200 copies. First ever official vinyl re-issue of this classic 1988 Masami Akita side project. Originally published on LP in 1989 by Masami Akita own label ZSF Produkt. Re-issued in an expanded version on CD as part of the Merzbow in the year 2000. This re-issue includes the expanded version on 3 LP and also on 2 CD. Remastered from original tape. In an interview with Arthur Potter, Akita explained that the album "is an attempt to cut up and mix all of the Merzbow sounds I've …
Hospital Productions present a vinyl reissue of Merzbow's Noisembryo, originally released on CD by The Releasing Eskimo in 1994. Noisembryo is a holy grail, not only of Merzbow's obsessive discography, but of the entire '90s noise movement. You've heard the stories surrounding the infamy of this release, but beyond that stands the depth and wild energy that Noisembryo encapsulates over two decades later. High-speed loops, roving automotive bass, and cacophonic drum machines gel together with the…