Noise /
Avian Hydraulics
On Avian Hydraulics, Merzbow compresses four decades of noise praxis into a rarefied 10". A liquid-filled, rainbow-variant disc mirrors the music’s churning pressure: Masami Akita’s latest Munemihouse recording converts imagined bird-machines and fluid mechanics into a gleaming, corrosive miniature of his vast oeuvre.
Nine Studies of Ephemeral Resonance Volume 1 - 9
Urashima gathers Merzbow's complete nine-volume cycle in a single box, in an edition of 199: 26 tracks filtering noise through the Japan of haiku and ukiyo-e. Nine vinyl-replica CDs and two Leporello inserts on fine Japanese paper. Noise as contemplation, from one of the great figures of noise
Vapor Hoof
Etherworld is proud to announce a new Merzbow album, "Vapor Hoof" on CD. Our previous Merzbow album, "Electric Salad" came out on the Etherworld label in 1996. This pulse-warping, mind-smashing new release by Masami Akita is coming to stores on Friday, July 17, 2026.
Synthesis Post-Contact
Exclusive Merzbow tape release for his live-gig at XXI Congresso Post Industriale.
Sottana & Calze
On this split cassette, Sottana & Calze’s The Gloria and The Rita collide in a sharply focused post‑industrial ritual. Trifurcated contact mics, woolen stockings and monophonic chants meet the Canadian project’s obsessive “canes” study, pressed onto dual‑color shells as a rare Canadian/Italo‑Norwegian collaboration built for XXI Congresso Post Industriale.
D.D.D.D.
On The Gloria, D.D.D.D. channels Heretic/Erotic noise from the cold north into a focused burst of post‑industrial intensity. Conceived as a special tape for XXI Congresso Post Industriale, it distills Desire, Devotion, Dedication and Discipline into a sharp, ritual object: glossy black shell, stark white print, and sound built to scorch in real time.
Starring LeChat
An FM dial tuned to Japan, 1985 - then fed through the loudest band the country has ever produced. Kyonetsu No Hatsune Kaidan, issued by Alchemy Records in 2018, was the first new studio album in three and a half years from Hatsune Kaidan - the union of noise legends Hijokaidan and the Vocaloid singing synthesizer Hatsune Miku - and it aims its feedback at a very specific target: the golden age of Japanese pop, from anime themes to the classic kayokyoku songbook.
By 2018 the project had settled …
ベスト : Best
Japan's most famous pop star does not exist, and here she fronts its most ferocious band. Hatsune Kaidan is the improbable union of Hijokaidan - the Kyoto-born group that has defined Japanese noise since 1979 - and Hatsune Miku, the turquoise-haired Vocaloid singing synthesizer developed by Crypton Future Media, a virtual idol who has filled arenas without ever drawing breath. Best, issued on CD by Alchemy Records in 2018, gathers fourteen tracks from the project's strange and glorious run - stu…
Alternate Flash Heads
Ninety-nine tracks in thirty minutes - the physical limit of what a compact disc can hold. Alternate Flash Heads, the second solo album by the saxophonist Ryoko Ono, issued in 2015 by Alchemy Records and produced by Jojo Hiroshige himself, is one of the great conceptual gambits of recent Japanese music: a single composition shattered into 99 palindrome-titled fragments, designed to be shuffled - so that no listener ever hears the same album twice.
Ono, born in Sapporo in 1975 and long based in N…
Giga Noise
Twenty-five artists, eight hours, one room. In May 2016, the Giga Noise mini festival brought together an entire cross-section of Japan's noise underground at Tokyo's Akihabara Goodman - a marathon showcase of mostly lesser-known and emerging acts from across the country, an event with few precedents even within a scene famous for its density. Giga Noise (Future of Noise), a sprawling double CD issued by Alchemy Records, is its official document - twenty-five live performances, and a snapshot of…
Triple Echo Live
Recorded in the same year that saw the release of the Triple Echo trilogy, Triple Echo Live is the document that completes the picture - the drone project of Jojo Hiroshige brought to the stage, unfolding in real time before an audience. Issued by Alchemy Records on CD in an edition of only 100 copies, it has remained one of the most elusive entries in the noise legend's vast catalog.
Hiroshige needs little introduction. Born in Kyoto in 1959, he founded Hijokaidan in 1979 - the band that, more …
Cuts Cut
"As expected, the set began with some brain-blasting brutal noise [...] Although Merzbow is known for his extreme electronics, he is much more diverse and creative than most give him credit for. The best part of the set was when both Merzbow and Mats [Gustafsson] worked more carefully with their electronics while Mr. Pándi played some cerebral, shifting currents on his drums [...] which brought this set to a grand climax [...]". » Gallanter, Bruce. « Downtown Music Gallery », June 2018
"The fest…
Winter Blues
*100 copies limited edition* U.S. style power electronics from Italy.
Seven Ways Of Going
Debut LP. Mechanical / surreal noises. Every copy has been carved into so that certain sections loop infinitely, or will be skipped over on certain listens and not others. You have to play the record multiple times before you can hear everything that’s on it. Playable at any speed, you are the only musician here. “Seven Ways Of Going etc etc” Mastered at Hex Audio Labs
Rock 'N' Roll Music / Total Freedom
*100 copies limited edition* Trio collaboration of DDU, Fricker, MJE. Urban renewal / classic rock revisionism, songs were recorded and dismantled over three or four years before reaching the forms presented here. Of equal social relevance to the songwriting is the gatefold cover designed through a public co-op initiative, funded by benefactors of the Emily Street Foundation in Philadelphia, PA.
Kill
Solmania's first album in 18 years: a single 64-minute slab of avant-garde guitar torture from Masahiko Ohno and Katsumi Sugahara, wrung from self-built multi-neck guitars bristling with extra pickups. Not a static wall but a continually evolving storm of feedback and tone. On Alchemy, 2016.
Five Elements
A 2015 collaboration between Jojo Hiroshige on guitar and Haruo Ueda on electronics, structured around the natural elements. The Hijokaidan founder steps away from pure noise into a more textural dialogue, his guitar set against Ueda's shifting electronic fields. On Alchemy.
Little Something
An instrumental solo guitar album from Jojo Hiroshige, founder of Hijokaidan and self-styled King of Noise. Improvisation for solo electric guitar pushed to a dense, heavy extreme that is hard to believe comes from a single instrument. On Alchemy.
Hijokaidan featuring Nasca Car
A 2015 meeting between Hijokaidan and Nasca Car, the Osaka electronic project of Nakaya Koichi. Two studio tracks and two live sets across more than forty minutes, the King of Noise's wall of sound crossed with Nasca Car's pulsing acid-house and new-wave electronics. On Alchemy.
生きている価値なし～The Very Best Of Jojo Hiroshige
Jojo Hiroshige - known and feared throughout the world not only as a member of the legendary ‘‘Hijokaidan,’’ often referred as ‘‘King of Noise,’’ but also as the owner of the prestigious label “Alchemy Records,” which has released countless “Japanoise” masterpieces.
"Words are different to sounds in that the images they create are limited. They’re like a two-edged sword – sometimes they can be used effectively, but sometimes they restrict the range of the images employed. When I was young I read…