Reviews by markjazz

This box set is one of the most valuable pieces of art to come across this world during the 1900's.

The 1979-1984 era takes some getting use to as Merzbow likes to draw out 2 second loops for 10-20 minutes at a time, but the material is still interesting and the use of drums is noticed a lot in these works. There's a lot of dull moments and it's mostly experimental music and sometimes sounds like he's having fun just playing with a bunch of his noise toys.

Era 1985-1990 shows what was to come in the future of Merzbow as he takes his noise to a whole new level. Tracks start to increase in volume and the material becomes more defined.

Era 1991-1997 shows us what made him a legend in the noise industry. Masami's use of pedals and other sound sources becomes increasingly more complex and the artwork shows that Jenny (his wife) has now become involved in his works.

The box set comes with a medallion that actually creates an illusion when you move it from side to side, very cool. This box set is a long listen, but well worth the price. As it notes in the Merzbook, you must listen to this from the first CD to the last CD in order to get the full picture of the legend of Merzbow.

You want a noise album to piss off the neighbors or blast down the street drowning out that bass filled rap music? Play this and blast away. Out of any Merzbow album the bass on this one is friggn' awesome! It's enough to trip you out without any drugs if your sitting in your car blasting this and I love it extra just for that. It's my 2nd favourite Merzbow album ever and it gets played all the time. Better than sex on E.

This is another one of my 5/5 releases from the king of noise. During his 90's tear on the scene Merzbow was getting louder and experimenting more with other tools to make his sound stand out more. This time he was using the theremin and it clearly stands out in these tracks. I love every bit of this album and I love the start of Son of Zechen. It begins with this trobbing bass with a light ambient sound humming with it and there's little blips and hissings floating around as well. Easily my second favourite track on the album. The best ever example of theremin in noise I've ever heard is the last minute of Efface. Simply awesome and I wish it was longer!

Now, after we're had our ears pulled off we get to Mirage, and it was one of the first "beautiful" tracks I had heard by Merzbow. It follows the same lines as Child Of Dream Sea from 24 Hours - A Day of Seals, and Pier 39 from Animal Magnetism. Except of course Space Metalizer was years before but they're all very ambient in a way. It's still noisey but I find these three tracks to be his most beautiful to date.

PS: I found this interesting. If you own the Merzbox you will find that on the last disc, (#50: Annihiloscillator), all of the sounds from that album are inlcuded on this album. Or is it the other way around? Annihiloscillator sounds like a remix album of this one and it was done in the same year too. Merzbow has been known to reuse his noise and on that album it is most prevalent for sure.

One of my first Merzbow releases and still one of my favourites. I'm always a fan of harsh looped noise and this album has a great mix of it, espcially on Plasma Birds and Minotaurus. Merzbow always liked to rework his older material into his newer albums and I think he does this with Mouse of Superconception. Throughout the track you hear crashes and bangs and at the start it's more noticable. So I think this is one track were he remixed his older material in it for sure. This was one of the very first Merzbow tracks I ever heard too and it was on a Delta 9 DJ compilation he had done for the same label. This was when Merzbow was at his peak and if I were to give anyone a 10 minute sample of this guy I would play Minotaurus for them. It's a great piece that seems to end too quickly. Tons of sounds, high, low, and an awesome amount of bass! I just fucking love that high pitched loop with the bass kick throughout most of the track. For me, this is an easy 5/5 as everything on this album melts my brain and every time I listen to it I pick up something new, which is what I love best about noise.

Here it is. My favourite noise album! This CD could have easily been just 1 track but the break up to 4 tracks is nicer. The 1st track is the best. Lots of sound loops and beats mixed with noise to keep you interested for 20 minutes. Track 2 has this extremely low bass rumble that appears at the 11:48 minute mark. It's so damn awesome I just listen to that track for that part alone. The 3rd track doesn't add much to the rest of the CD, kind of short, for Merzbow, and it doesn't vary much in sounds. Part of the 4th track appears on a various artist album mixed by Delta 9, which was for this label too. It was how I got into Merzbow in the first place and for that my noise journey expanded greatly for years to come!

Ok, everyone knows how loud this release is so I'm just going to write something mentioned in the liner notes because it's something that MA doesn't do often. He thanks more than three people on this album. I'm thinking it maybe an inside joke too, seeing as how this release was produced on a metal label. Anyway, here's the people/ labels he thanks:

Merzbow would like to greetings for the following:

Alchemy Records, Vanilla Records, RRRecords, Charnel Music, The Way Out Sound, Vertical Records, Banned Production, V2, Extreme, Cheeses International, Zero Cabal, Nihilist Records, Cinemagic, Cold Spring Records, Lusetti Guido, Kinbiken, Rightbrain, Hijokaidan, Maurizio Bianchi, Violent Onsen Geisha, Pain Jerk, Incapacitants, Solmania, Masonna, Monde Bruits, Aube, C.C.C.C., Controlled Bleeding, Anal Cunt, Macronympha, Selektion, Artware Production, Laughing Eskimo, Borbetomagus, Emil Beaulieau, Kapotte Muziek, TH20, John Duncan, Smell & Quim, The New Blockaders, Boredoms, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Due Process, Achim Wollscheid, Animal Art, Anomalous Records, Seikyu-Sha, S&M Sniper, DIA Press, Sanwa Publishing, The Haters, Sounds for Consciousness Rape, Hanayo Nakajima, Bizarre Magazine, Suisei Sha, Asmus Tietchens, Silent Records, Giancarlo Toniutti...

FUCK! For Art Directe.

This is the boxset version that comes with the remix disc, a poster, a couple postcards and a button. I've always been a big fan of this group and when I heard they were coming out with a new album I was curious for sure. When I saw how long the tracks were I was even more curious and I knew I had to buy this. 4 industrial tracks over 10 minutes long? Very odd. Mentallo & the Fixer have always had songs with complex drum patterns and interesting synths and this album took that to a whole new level.

The opening track is just a short synth based song with no drums and is the only one like this from both of these discs. A good opener but nothing special. I don't have a favourite track on here and nothing stands out too much but I do like them all in they're own special way. Maybe some of the tracks run a bit too long but I surprising don't get bored because it seems like something is always going on. There's a ton of swishy swashy sounds moving in and out and at times the track developes into something more as well. Sometimes there's ambient breaks as well. I guess one complaint I have is that the vocals are hard to understand as they sometimes have this echo effect in them so I really have no idea what he's saying. Ironicly the only track I really don't like is one of the shorter ones, Coming Apart Perfectly. It has this very high pitched loud synth going on and it's kind of a mess of a track. Not that the others aren't really but this one seems like more of a mess and I hate that high pitched synth. The remix on the bonus CD is a little bit better.

The remix CD is pretty cool too but again it's not the best music I've ever heard. Just like the album some of these songs are really long and this time there's 3 over 13 minutes long, crazy!! Overall this is one album that, while it isn't my favourite or either mindblowing, I'm do glad I own it as it's some of the most unique IDM/ Industrial music I own. Probably some of the more unique that's come out of the very perdictable Alfa Matrix label as well.

This release kind of bugs me and it's mainly because of the other versions of Peril and Wicked. I think the album would have been stronger without the other versions because I don't even feel like listening to the 11 minute "Psychokinetic" mix of Wicked after already hearing two versions of it. Not that I dislike the track but really, put the other mixes on an EP or single instead.

Regarding the overall album though it's pretty good and with a different track selection I would have given this a 4/5 for sure. The very first M&tF track I ever heard was the beautiful Peril on the compilation Tyranny Off the Beat Vol III. I fell in love with the band after hearing that and they haven't really ever equalled that style of song ever for some reason. There's also some major distortion going on in the drums for Wicked and they haven't done that for any other track either so this album is pretty unqiue in that regard. Other than that this is classic M&tF and it's one album any fan of the band shouldn't be without.... if you can find it.

This is one damn good album. The opening motif on Nation Time kind of reminds me of something Sonny Rollins would have come up with but alas, this is not Sonny, this is frickn' Joe McPhee. The man with so much soul his shoes are 10 inches thick. This was my first exposure to this guy and I thought it was going to be some straight forward jazz-funk but I was wrong. It has everything. Harp Bop, funk, and avant-garde all mixed into one. Even some vocals tossed in for good measure. At any given time there can be a ton of sounds going on all at once yet you can clearly hear each one so it's not like it's a mess, it's orchestrated very well and I love it. The solo at 6 minutes on the title track is wicked too. It gives your ears a bit of break, well, sort of...then the mass ensemble hits again. Genius.

The other two tracks follow the same lines and Shakey Jake at the 7 minute point is so awesome I wish I could find more like it. The guitar is blazing and I the drums are groovy as hell! Another great track. I can't give this album a 5/5 simply because Scorpio's Dance isn't as good as the other two, but it's still a nice piece overall. This is one album I need to buy on vinyl the second I see it!

This is my first taste of Jackie McLean and I loved it. What I also loved was that the two tracks written by Grachan Moncur III are awesome and now I want to check out his stuff too. This is my kind of jazz and I knew I would like this album because I'm such a big fan of Coltrane and Mingus and this album has a lot of that feel to it as some of the Impulse! albums had in the 60's. Tony Williams is insanely brilliant on this and the vibes are awesome too. The only reason this doesn't get a 5/5 for me is because I don't like the bookends on Ghost Town much and there was a few hisses on a couple tracks. It was as if they had to switch LP sides when transferring these tracks to CD, but they didn't need to switch sides so I'm not sure what the hisses are from. Bad masters maybe? Overall though this is a killer album!