Merzbow

Merzbow

Masami Akita at Moers Festival 2007
Background information
Birth name Masami Akita
Also known as Merzbow
Born December 19, 1956 (1956-12-19) (age 54)
Origin Tokyo, Japan
Genres Noise
Experimental
Dark ambient[1]
Instruments Magnetic tape, homemade guitars, synthesizer, effect pedals, percussion, laptop, drums
Years active 1979–present
Labels Important, Misanthropic Agenda, Relapse, Lowest Music & Arts, ZSF Produkt, among many others
Associated acts Boris
Sunn O)))
Sonic Youth
Website merzbow.net
Members
Masami Akita
Past members
Kiyoshi Mizutani
Reiko Azuma (aka Reiko A.)
Tetsuo Sakaibara (aka Bara)

Merzbow (メルツバウ Merutsubau?) is the main recording name of Japanese noise musician Masami Akita (秋田 昌美 Akita Masami?). Since 1979 he has released in excess of 300 recordings on numerous independent record labels.

The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was decided upon to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic. In addition to this, Akita has cited a wide range of influences from various progressive rock artists such as Frank Zappa and King Crimson, free jazz, modern classical and musique concrète [2] to Japanese bondage.[3] More recently he has been inspired by animals, animal rights and environmentalism.[4]

As well as being a prolific musician, he has also written 17 books and has contributed to, and been the editor of, several magazines in Japan. He has written about a variety of subjects, mostly about art, avant-garde and post-modern culture. His more renowned works have been on the topics of BDSM and fetish culture. Other artforms Akita has been interested in include painting, photography, filmmaking and Butoh dance.[5]

In 2000, Extreme Records released the 50 CD box set known as the Merzbox. Akita's work has been the subject of several remix albums and at least one tribute album. This, among other achievements, has helped Merzbow to be regarded as the "most important artist in noise".[1]

Contents

Life and career

Growing Up

Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1956. He listened to psychedelic music, progressive rock, and later free jazz in his youth, all of which have influenced his noise.[1] In high school he became the drummer of various high school bands which he left due to the other members being "grass-smoking Zappa freaks".[6] By this time he and high school friend Kiyoshi Mizutani had started playing improvised rock at studio sessions which Akita describes as "long jam sessions along the lines of Ashra Tempel or Can but we didn't have any psychedelic taste".[6]

He later attended Tamagawa University to study fine art from which he majored in painting and art theory.[5] While at university he became interested in the ideas of dada and surrealism and also studied Butoh dance.[6] This is where he learned of Kurt Schwitters' Merz, or art made from rubbish, including Schwitters' Merzbau, or "Merz building" which is the source of the name "Merzbow".[7]

Lowest Music & Arts (1979–84)

Merzbow began as the duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani who met Akita in high school. He started releasing noise recordings on cassettes through his own record label, Lowest Music & Arts, which was founded in 1979 in order to trade cassette tapes with other underground artists. The first tape made for the label was Metal Acoustic Music and was sold exclusively by mail order. Various other releases were made before the first real release which included Collection Era Vol. 1 and a very limited release of Remblandt Assemblage.[8] The Collection Era series was originally ten cassettes that were going to be distributed through an independent label called YLEM but when it became defunct and cancelled the series, Akita decided to release them through Lowest Music & Arts.[9]

His earliest music was made with tape loops and creatively recorded percussion and metal. "I threw all my past music career in the garbage. There was no longer any need for concepts like 'career' and 'skill'. I stopped playing music and went in search of an alternative." - Masami Akita on Lowest Music & Arts.[10] Early methods included what he referred to as "material action", in which he would closely amplify small sounds so as to distort them through the microphone. The early releases were photocopies of collages made out of manga and porn magazines he found in trash cans in the Tokyo subway. Akita explained this as trying to "create the same feeling as the secret porn customer for the people buying my cassettes in the early '80s".[11] In 1984 he founded a second record label called ZSF Produkt.

ZSF Produkt (1984–90)

ZSF Produkt was founded in 1984 to release music by similar artists within the industrial movement but eventually became the successor to Lowest Music & Arts.[12] Numerous releases were made in the ZSF Produkt studio with Mechanization Takes Command being the first.[13] The studio continued to be used until 2001 when Akita started producing home recordings from his bedroom studio.[14]

During this era, Merzbow found much wider recognition and began making recordings for various international labels.[15] He also started touring abroad with the help of various collaborators. Merzbow toured USSR in 1988, USA in 1990, Korea in 1991 and Europe in 1989 and 1992.[16] For most of the late 1980s through the 1990s, Merzbow live was a trio including Reiko A. on electronics and Bara on voice and dance. Around this time he started crediting the name "Abtechtonics" (or variations of this) on his recordings under artwork. He explained in the Merzbook that this name is used for him publishing his own artwork which he attempts to do as much as possible.[17]

Digital era (1990–2000)

Nick Cain of The Wire argues that

“ Merzbow's analogue era, which began roughly around the time of his first CD, Cloud Cock OO Grand, is Akita's most sustained period of creativity, when he realised the latent potential of his 1980s work, accelerating it into a new variant of Noise.[18] ”

Merzbow's first digital recording was the CD release Cloud Cock OO Grand in 1990.[19] With a higher international profile in the 90's, Merzbow started working on more ambitious projects such as the Noisembryo, which was a Merzbow album sealed in a car released in a limited edition of one copy. The disc was sealed in the CD player of a BMW sedan which was rewired to play the cd whenever the car was started. The CD was also released normally on the same label.[20] Recordings from the mid-1990s onwards are mostly of extreme volume, some mastered at levels far beyond standard (Noisembryo, Pulse Demon).[21] From 1996, plans were made to release a "10 (or maybe 12)" CD box set on Extreme Records.[22] In 2000, Extreme Records released the Merzbox, a fifty CD set of Merzbow records, twenty of them not previously released.

Laptop era (2000–present)

Since 2000, Akita began to use computers more in his recordings. At live performances, Akita has produced noise music from either two laptop computers or combination of a laptop and analog synthesizers. Reiko A. and Bara left Merzbow during this time, Reiko Azuma now has a solo career. Since 2001, Jenny Akita (formerly Kawabata) started being credited for artwork on various releases.

Since 2001, Akita started utilising samples of animal sounds in various releases starting with Frog. Akita has also been a supporter of PETA which is reflected in his animal-themed releases.[23] An example of this is Minazo Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, dedicated to an elephant seal he visited often at the zoo and Bloody Sea, a protest against Japanese whaling.[24][25] He has also produced several works centered around recordings of his pet chickens (notably Animal Magnetism and Turmeric).[26]

In 2002, Akita released Merzbeat, which was seen as a significant departure from his trademark abstract style in that it contains beat-oriented pieces. This has sparked some controversy among fans,[27] though some reviewers pointed out that it sounded very similar to Aqua Necromancer (1998) which features samples of progressive rock drumming.[28][29] Merzbird (2004) and Merzbuddha (2005) followed in a similar vein with sampled beats combined with Merzbow's signature harsh noise.

In 2009, Akita released a 13 CD box-set called 13 Japanese Birds, a set which is released monthly (one album a month). This release features the return of Akita to the usage of analog sounds and also the use of drum kits. Also in that year Merzbow cancelled his tour over United States and Canada due to the swine flu outbreak.

Musical style

Merzbow's sounds employ the use of distortion, feedback, and noises from synthesizers, machinery, and home-made noisemakers. While much of Merzbow's output is intensely harsh in character, Akita does occasionally make forays into ambient music. Vocals are employed sometimes, but never in a lyrical sense. Contrary to most harsh noise music, Akita also occasionally uses elements of melody and rhythm.[30]

Akita's early work consisted of industrial noise music made from tape loops and conventional instruments. Similar to his present albums, he produced lengthy, disorientating pieces. He also became infamous for the sheer amount of releases in a short time frame.[31] Audiences in general did not quite know what to make of his style. During his tour of the USSR, he was asked to play "more musically" so on the second day of the concert he toned it down a bit.[31] This was released as "Live In Khabarovsk, CCCP (I'm Proud By Rank Of The Workers)" and as disc 26 of the Merzbox.

During the 90s Akita's work became much harsher and were generally mastered at a louder volume than usual. These were heavily influenced by death metal and grindcore bands of the time (a prime example is the "Venereology" album).[32] The mid-90's saw Akita being heavily influenced by psychedelic bands and this was reflected in various albums.

After 2000, Akita started making vague concept albums and experimented with sampling rhythms. He also began to use laptops.

Side projects

In addition to his solo work, Akita has been involved in a number of side-projects and supergroups since the early 80s.

Merzbow Null was a collaboration between Masami Akita's Merzbow and Kazuyuki Kishino's Null, including Kiyoshi Mizutani and Asami Hayashi among many others. Tibeta Ubik was Akita and Kishino duo. Both groups made several cassettes.

Bustmonster, Flying Testicle and Sponge were noise supergroups active during the 90s and included members of Merzbow, Masonna, Monde Bruits, Solmania, Incapacitants, and Hijokaidan in various configurations.

SCUM was a project where Akita made new releases out of previous Merzbow recordings. SCUM is an acronym for "Society for Cutting Up Merzbow" (a reference to the SCUM Manifesto), "Scissors for CUtting Merzbow", "Steel CUM", or "SCan has Undergone several Minor revisions". There were five releases under the SCUM name.

True Romance was performance art project in the early 90s with Tetsuo Sakaibara, who later joined Merzbow live, and Toshiyuki Seido.

Maldoror was collaboration between Akita and Mike Patton from Faith No More, Mr. Bungle. Zbigniew Karkowski, another experimental artist, also collaborated with Akita during the 90s and made several releases under the MAZK name. Akita played live several times with Russell Haswell as Satanstornade, they released an album titled Satanstornade under their real names.

Recently, Akita has been collaborating with the Japanese metal band Boris and has releasing records as Boris With Merzbow. The most recent side-project is Kikuri, a collaboration with Keiji Haino. The first Kikuri album was released in early 2008.

Discography

Writing

After completing his degree, Akita became the editor of various magazines in Japan. He frequently writes on a variety of topics such as sexuality (including pornography, S&M, and Japanese bondage. Excerpts appear in the Music for Bondage Performance album notes), underground and extreme culture (including music and art), architecture, and animal rights. None have been published in English.

Year Japanese title English title Title translation Publisher ISBN
1988 倒錯のアナグラム―周縁的ポルノグラフィーの劇場
Tōsaku no anagram: Shūenteki pornography no gekijō		 Anagram of Perversion: Theatre of fringe pornography Seikyūsha ISBN 478721005X
1989 異形のマニエリスム「邪」の民俗
Ikei no mannerism: "Sha" no minzoku		 Mannerism of heterodoxa: "Perverse" traditions ISBN 9784787230225
1990 フェティッシュ・ファッション―変貌するエロスと快楽身体
Fetish Fashion: Henbōsuru eros to kairaku shintai		 ISBN 4787210106
1991 セックス・シンボルの誕生
Sex symbol no tanjō		 The Power of Goddess of Love Birth of the sex symbol ISBN 9784787210111
1992 ノイズ・ウォー―ノイズ・ミュージックとその展開
Noise War: Noise music to sono tenkai		 Noise War: Noise 10 Years Noise War: Noise music and its development ISBN 4787270354
1993 快楽身体の未来形
Kairaku shintai no miraikei		 Terminal Body Play ISBN 4787210181
ボディ・エキゾチカ
Body Exotica		 Sexual Atrocity ISBN 4891762888
1994 スカム・カルチャー
Scum Culture		 Suiseisha ISBN 4891763035
性の猟奇モダン―日本変態研究往来
Sei no ryōki modern: Nihon hentai kenkyū ōrai		 Sexuality Bizarre Seikyūsha ISBN 4787230875
1995 裸体の帝国 (ヌード・ワールドVol.1―ヌーディズムの歴史1)
Ratai no teikoku (Nude World Vol. 1: Nudism no rekishi 1		 Nude Empire (Nude World Vol. 1: History of nudism 1) Suiseisha ISBN 4891763124
1996 日本緊縛写真史
Nihon kinbaku shashinshi		 History of Japanese bondage photographs Jiyu Kokuminsha ISBN 4426738008
1997 アナル・バロック
Anal Baroque		 Seikyūsha ISBN 4787231340
1998 ヴィンテージ・エロチカ
Vintage Erotica		 ISBN 4787231499
1999 女陰考―性学古典より
Nyoinkō: Seigakukoten yoru		 Think Vagina Outou Shobou ISBN 4756711316
ストレンジ・ヌード・カルト―不思議の裸体天国 (ヌード・ワールドVol.2)
Strange Nude Cult: Fushigi no ratai tengoku (Nude World Vol. 2)		 Strange Nude Cult: Mystery of nude paradise (Nude World Vol. 2) Suiseisha ISBN 4891763132
2000 ラブ・ポジション
Love Position		 Outou Shobou ISBN 4756711413
2005 わたしの菜食生活
Watashi no saishoku seikatsu		 Cruelty Free Life My vegetarian lifestyle Ohta Publishing ISBN 4872339797

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Couture, François. "Biography". Allmusic Guide. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hxfexqr5ld6e~T1. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
  2. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 40. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  3. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 27. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  4. ↑ Batty, Roger. "Animal instincts". Musique Machine. http://www.musiquemachine.com/articles/articles_template.php?id=73. Retrieved 2008-04-02. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Merzbow". Extreme Records. http://www.xtr.com/artists/merzbow/. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise. Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 10. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  7. ↑ Hensley, Chad. "The Beauty of Noise". EsoTerra. http://www.esoterra.org/merzbow.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-02. 
  8. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise. Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 84–85. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  9. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise. Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 85. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  10. ↑ Pouncey, Edwin (August, 2000). "Consumed by Noise". The Wire, p. 30.
  11. ↑ Brennan, Gerald. "Merzbow Biography". Enotes. http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/merzbow-biography. Retrieved 2008-05-13. 
  12. ↑ "Merzbow – Age of 369/Chant 2". Extreme Records. http://www.xtr.com/catalog/XLTD-002/. Retrieved 2008-05-14. 
  13. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 95. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  14. ↑ Akita, Masami. "Dharma"(CD liner notes). August 2001.
  15. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 53. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  16. ↑ Pozo, Carlos. "Expanded Noisehands – The Noise Music of Merzbow". Angbase. http://www.noiseweb.com/merzbow/bio.html. Retrieved 2008-05-14. 
  17. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 45. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  18. ↑ Nick Cain, "Noise," The Wire Primers: A Guide to Modern Music, Rob Young, ed., London: Verso, 2009, p. 30.
  19. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 117. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  20. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. pp. 33. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  21. ↑ Hegarty, Paul (2007). Noise/Music – A History. London, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.. pp. 156. ISBN 0826417272. 
  22. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. pp. vi. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  23. ↑ Anderson, Rick. "Merzbird". Allmusic Guide. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:k9foxqlsldde. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
  24. ↑ Akita, Masami. "MERZBOW – Minazo Vol 1". Important Records. http://www.importantrecords.com/releases/imprec097_release_page.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-14. 
  25. ↑ "Merzbow – Bloody Sea". Vivo Records. http://www.vivo.pl/merzbow/. Retrieved 2008-05-14. 
  26. ↑ "Merzbow: Animal Magnetism". Alien8 Recordings. http://www.alien8recordings.com/releases/22/Animal-Magnetism. Retrieved 2008-05-14. 
  27. ↑ Tausig, Ben. "Noise with a Beat". Dusted Magazine. http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/404. Retrieved 2008-05-14. 
  28. ↑ "Merzbeat - Review". Couture, François. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:j9ftxqwald6e. Retrieved 2008-04-02. 
  29. ↑ "Merzbeat". Howard, Ed. http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/merzbow/merzbeat.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-02. 
  30. ↑ "Merzbow/Fennesz/Antenna Farm Interview". http://freespace.virgin.net/sat.666/electronix1.html. Retrieved 2008-09-01. 
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook "The Pleasuredome of Noise". Melbourne: Extreme. ISBN 0-646-38326-4. 
  32. ↑ "Merzbow interview". Corridor of Cells. http://web.archive.org/web/20040716002237/http://www.japsounds.by.ru/engmerzbow.html. Retrieved 2010-07-19. 

Further reading

External links

Merzbow
Full discography  · Forthcoming