October 2000
MERZBOW "Music For Bondage Performance 2" (Extreme)
This contains eleven more tracks of very ambient noise from composer Masami Akita. Very, very, verrrry dynamic. Be careful playing this too loud! Some tracks leap out at you immediately, and some just linger quietly for several minutes. The last piece is taken from Part One, which I have yet to hear, though I’ve never heard a noise-fan put it down. This is probably a really good introduction first album for people just getting into noise. It makes me wonder why Merzbow doesn’t get a lot more exposure in the press, because he’s certainly left his mark. The text, written by Akita, give insight into the growing bondage and S&M culture in Japan, but never mentions this compact disc.
MERZBOW "Rainbow Electronics 2" (Dexter’s Cigar/Drag City)
I put this cd on the other night, and went to bed early. Woke up a few hours later, and puked my guts out. Now every time I look at the cover I think of nausea, and chunks of potatoes. 70+ minutes of very odd noises, found sounds, hyperactive machinery. Collapse. Merzbow at one point was bringing out one album per month. I haven’t seen a proper discography on him yet, but it’s probably so immense that even Guided by Voices, or God is my Co-Pilot would stop and go ‘huh?’
MERZBOW/SMEGMA "Merzbow Plays Smegma"
A split cd between THE master composer of Japanese noise and the kings of bizarre-dom. A somewhat lo-fi batch of tracks here, listed as "1-25 Merzbow’s World’, and ’26-50 Smegma’s World". It remains a total loss to categorize this since it doesn’t fit neatly into the ‘music’ category for most people. Weird, unpredictable, at times chaotic, and usually testing the limits of any stereo system. I think station programmers use this album as a door-stop.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B45034
