Batztoutai with Memorial Gadgets

抜刀隊 with Memorial Gadgets
Studio album by Merzbow
Released August 1986
Recorded August–October 1985 at ZSF Produkt Studio, Asagaya, Tokyo
Genre Noise
Length 92:45
Label RRRecords
Producer Masami Akita
Merzbow chronology

Antimonument
(1986)		 抜刀隊 with Memorial Gadgets
(1986)		 Econdage
(1987)

抜刀隊 with Memorial Gadgets is a double album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow.[1] It was released in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. The album was later remixed and reissued in 1993 as Batztoutai with Material Gadgets. Full-length tracks were included in the Merzbox, along with an unreleased track from the sessions.

Background

The album is named after – and the title track samples – Battōtai (抜刀隊?, Sword-drawing brigade) , a Japanese military march composed by Charles Edouard Gabriel Leroux. Illustrations of the brigade are depicted on the cover, along with the Imperial Seal of Japan.

In an interview with Arthur Potter, Masami Akita explains how this LP and Antimonument were inspired by his native culture:

[...] musical composition and behavior are always related to the structure of one's own language and way of thinking. I'd like to use Japanese-like images and words on purpose, as a way of randomly mixing significant cultural details. For example I used the Imperial Crest of the Chrysanthemum behind another image on the cover of the Batz-Tou-Tai LP. [...] These were not presented directly, but as subliminal images. Of course, the Japanese did not respond to them in the context I placed them.

The reason those images were used was that I'd been researching misreadings of Japanese public history, and wrote about that in a book called Mannerism of Heterodoxa.

—Masami Akita[2]

Akita then explains how the sound of his music changed over time, saying that Batztoutai "uses lots of loops and cut-up sounds from other records".

The album samples many electroacoustic/modern classical works by artists including François Bayle, Conlon Nancarrow, Ivo Malec, and Luc Ferrari. "Junk Dahkini" samples the Rendlesham UFO tape, also used on Pornoise/1kg.

Track listing

All music composed by Masami Akita, except where noted.

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Uluk Constitution"   3:43
2. "This Dying Toad Become Forthwith Like Coal for Colour Black"   9:33
3. "One Eyed Metal"   9:53
Side two
No. Title Length
1. "Batz Tou Tai–The Nightingale's Song" (reference from Blue Courts Orchestra, music by Charles Edouard Gabriel Leroux) 17:29
2. "Junk Dahkini"   6:13
Side three
No. Title Length
1. "Semykyoku"   4:27
2. "Anus Anvil Anxiety"   7:05
3. "Dahkini Disko"   10:58
Side four
No. Title Length
1. "Mortegage"   5:04
2. "Wild Animals and Polyhedral Garden"   18:20

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ "Merzbow - 抜刀隊 With Memorial Gadgets (Vinyl, LP)". Discogs. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  2. ↑ Potter, Arthur (1989). RRReport (RRRecords) (1). Missing or empty |title= (help)