* (restored)
—-
collage artist Kurt Schwitters which he called “The Cathedral
of Erotic Misery”. He made an art from oddments
he picked up from the street, just as I make sound from the scum
that surrounds my life. I was very inspired by Dada and
Surrealism. Probably the greatest idea of Surrealism for me
is “Everything is Erotic, Everywhere Erotic”. for me, Noise
is the most erotic form of sound…that’s why all of my
works relate to the erotic.” — Masami Akita
—-
The Tokugawa government laid out in 1742 the foundation of crime laws, which spelled out seven different types of punishment – death, exile, slavery, forced labour and so forth, as well as four kinds of torture – .whip (mutchiuchi), pressing stone (ishidaki), bend by rope (ebizeme) and hung by rope (tsurizeme). It has to be noted that all four official methods of torture from this period ore still considered the main stream torture patterns in the S&M; ort today. You could say the foundation of today’s S&M; art was laid down then. (the entirety)
What first attracted you to Noise?
I was influenced by aggressive Blues Rock guitar sounds like Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, Robert Fripp and fuzz organ sounds such as Mike Ratledge of Soft Machine. But the most structured Noise influence would have to be Free Jazz such as Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, and Frank Wright. I saw the Cecil Taylor Unit in 1973 and it was very influential. I was a drummer for a free form Rock band in the late ’70s and I became very interested in the pulse beat of the drums within Free Jazz. I thought it was more aggressive than Rock drums. I also became interested in electronic kinds of sounds. I started listening to more electro-acoustic music like Pierre Henry, Stockhausen, Fancois Bayle, Gordon Mumma and Xenakis. Then I found the forum for mixing these influences into pure electronic noise. I was trying to create an extreme form of free music. In the beginning, I had a very conceptual mind set. I tried to quit using any instruments which related to, or were played by, the human body. It was then that I found tape. I tried to just be the operator of the tape machine– I’m glad that tape is a very anonymous media. My early live performances were very dis-human and dis-communicative. I was using a slide projector in a dark room at that point. I was concentrating on studio works until 1989 then I assembled some basic equipment before I started doing live Noise performances. Equipment included an audio mixer, contact mike, delay, distortion, ring modulator and bowed metal instruments. Basically, my main sound was created by mixer feedback. It was not until after 1990, on my first American tour, that I started performing live Noise Music for presentation to audiences. The first US tour was a turning point for finding a certain pleasure in using the body in the performance. Right now I’m using mixer feedback with filters, ring, DOD Buzz Box, DOD Meat Box, and a Korg multi-distortion unit. I am using more physically rooted Noise Music not as conceptually anti-instrument and anti-body as before. If music was sex, Merzbow would be pornography. (cont.)
“A while ago I had a Mercedes 230 that I didn’t drive much. The police told me that I had to move it or they’d tow it away. Well, I didn’t want to keep it and I didn’t have anywahere to store it so I decided to use it for something else. I rigged the car’s CD player with our latest release of Merzbow’s “Noise Embryo” CD so that the music started when the car was turned on and it was impossible to turn it off. I put it up for sale as an extremely limited edition of the “Noise Embryo” CD but no one ever bought it, and in the end the car broke down. So we took out the CD and got rid of the car. Now I’m thinking about if it’s possible to release a record in a Boeing 747…”
The noise music of Merzbow
by Carlos M. Pozo
Merzbow & Genesis P-Orridge A Perfect Pain (Cold Spring Records): ”This is a whistle-stop journey through the redded tooth and claw of Natural Selection, where the strong survive and the weak are incapable of stemming the bloody flow that Masami Akita has induced from their beleagured eardrums. A long-awaited masterpiece.’ — Synthesis
Alec Empire vs. Merzbow Live at CBGB’s 1998 (Digital Hardcore): ‘The CD races through all 58mins at a phenomenal speed, leaving a burning trail of splatter breaks and white noise in its wake. There are many moments when the sheer volume of different layers of beats and screaming machines threatens to collapse under its own weight but its fascinating to listen to and spot where the underlaying substructure of cohesion is coming from. Often this is supplied by the strong and driving rhythms which alternate between styles such as drum n bass, industrial and hip hop loops, but at other times its the job of the pounding synths to maintain at least a shadow of order over the run-away percussion.’ — amazon review
Merzbow / Carlos Giffoni / Jim O’Rourke Electric Dress (No Fun): ‘Whirring static, spurting effects, heavy drones: everything you’d expect from three prolific noisemakers is here, all doled out in big, dense brush strokes. Yet Electric Dress is no oppressive onslaught. Each participant is careful to share and trade sonic space with the other, and what could have been claustrophobic or suffocating is instead a balanced improvisation, akin to a thoughtful free jazz session.’ — Pitchfork
Maldoror (Merzbow & Mike Patton) She (Ipecac): ‘I think the last reviewer, who gave one star, was possibly expecting something a bit more musical from mike patton, or perhaps has never heard merzbow.’ — amazon review
Merzbow & Boris Sun Baked Snow Cave (HydraHead) ‘In all likelihood, you’ll have to take a break from Sun Baked Snow Cave halfway through and listen to some mainstream pop to cleanse your palate — otherwise the degenerating sine waves and disintegrating guitars will start to sound like the showers at Auschwitz.’ — Splendid Magazine
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Documentaries
Beyond Ultra Violence, a Merzbow Documentary (1998)
MERZBOW – Part of Viva2 documentary from 2000 [VHS rip]
Live
Masami Akita’s supergroup Bust Monsters live ’91
Merzbow ‘Minus Zero’ music video
Merzbow live at the No Fun Fest 2007
Masonna and Merzbow live in Osaka w/ interview
Sonic Youth w/ Merzbow @ Roskilde Festival, 2005
Boris & Merzbow Boiler Room Tokyo Live Set
Merzbow with Wolf Eyes live at Kings Raleigh NC 8/6/13
Merzbow & Balazs Pandi – Saint Vitus 2012
Recorded
Merzbow – Pulse Demon (Full Album)
Merzbow – 1930 [Full Album]
Merzbow – Venereology [Full Album]
Merzbow – Electric Salad [Full Album]
Xiu Xiu + Merzbow – Merzxiu B
Merzbow / Mats Gustafsson / Balázs Pándi / Thurston Moore – Divided By Steel
*
p.s. Hey. ** Bill, Hi. Thanks again so much, Bill, for the great post and for holding down the fort. Glad you got home in apparently one impeccable piece. ** Darby 🎃, Hi, D. I was at amusement parks, so I’ve been good. That does sound like an amazing and hugely deserved weekend. Yay! Your writing spurt sounds familiar and like the ideal kind of writing spurt, and hopefully not just a spurt. Tiramisu, yes, I had some on Tuesday night, in fact. For Halloween? Go to LA, do lots of home haunts, probably do a Halloween screening of our film there, start planning a home haunt that Zac and I hope to create in collaboration with a bunch of artists there next year? You have your Halloween sussed out? I guess you’re not going to work at the Halloween store this year or … ? Yes, I read ‘Mira Corpora’, and liked it a lot of course. Jeff, the author, has been commenting here for years, but not so much lately. He’s really nice and sort of near you, yes, so you guys should meet? No bad whatsoever, pal. Hey! ** julian, Hi. We’re close to finishing the new film script, and I want to wait until it’s locked in to talk much about it. Thanks for wanting. I’m not done writing novels, I just haven’t had any ideas about a new novel that have excited me yet. I’m definitely more into making films right now, but I will totally write another novel if I get a good enough idea. Thanks! ** Mari, Hello to you! How were your days? ** Carsten, Hi. Carsten recommends ‘ another lively combo of word & image called “In the Shadow of a Mad King”, with words by Jerome Rothenberg & images by his granddaughter Sadie’. It’s here. Efteling treated me in a kingly fashion, thank you. Having only recently joined Instagram, I can say it has much better and wider outreach and the folks there are much more responsive than on Facebook. Self-publishing is totally legit. I read a bunch of self-published books/booklets. The heat is hell here in Paris. It was ugh but more doable up at the theme park. Two more horrid days here at least, according to the fairly reliable forecasters. I haven’t swam since I was a kid. Don’t know why. ** _Black_Acrylic, The heatwave here is in full swing, and it’s awful. I don’t know affogato, but I will see if it’s around as soon as this morning. ** Dom Lyne, Hi. I had a great time. I didn’t see a single person in jester get-up at Efteling, so your bf need not worry. It’s an amazing park. Zac and I do work in tandem on the roll-out, but I’m much quicker on the drawn than him so I sort of do the lion’s share. After we finally got rid of our monstrous first producer, Zac and I own the film, which is great, but it sure would be nice to have some help getting it out and about. Hugs/Love back. ** Tyler Ookami, Hey. Thanks for talking to Bill. I went to Nakao Broadway last time I was in Tokyo, and it’s nuts, yes. ** jay, Hey, hey, jay! Efteling was indeed amazing. Highly recommended if you get the chance. Absolutely singular amusement park. The newest Zelda is still in my future. I’m still a little wary of its vastness, or rather wary and beset with longing. Nice! ** Steve, Yes, Symbolica was ridden. And their really great new ride Danse Macabre, a completely singular and beautiful ride. The heat was high-ish and a little exhausting there, but it was several degrees cooler than down here in Paris where it’s sweltering. Less promoting the film than seeking opportunities, and that was happening even while I was away. Great you liked Nina Garcia. I believe she improvises live, but I’m not entirely sure. Incredible live. She’s touring this fall, but I’m not sure if she’s going to the States. Ugh on the post stuff. That happens here all the time. The French postal service makes the US one seem utopian. ** Roma, Hi. It was a really good trip. Oh, do go to Efteling if you’re ever in this segment of Europe. I’m really happy that my writing helped yours. Really, that’s the ultimate reward for a writer, or for me anyway. Yes, getting lost in ‘TMS’ is definitely part of its plan. Thank you! How’s stuff? ** Alice, Hi. I’m good apart from sweating profusely. That’s a very beautiful chunk of your writing there. Wow, you should be very confident, and I hope you are. Yeah, I’m mostly going to try surviving the heat for the next couple days. I don’t how though. ** HaRpEr //, Hi, H. I did have a great time, thanks. Great about your writing swing! Your methodology sounds really good/right, from what you said, if I’m reading it correctly. ** Hugo, Hi, Hugo. Plopsaland: They put a lot of effort into the theming, and it looks cute and complicated. It has a nice, confusing layout. The rides are unfortunately pretty standard fare. I think if you live in the general area it might be very nice to have around. I wouldn’t travel to it from great distance. I think trying to second guess what people think of your work or you is a route to self-delusion whether you imagine very positive or very negative responses. You can’t know. Your mood will pass. Those kinds of moods are fantasies, and fantasies have no staying power. So says me. ** Okay. I decided to restore Merzbow Day and give you the option of noisiness if that suits your current interests. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
Yay Merzbow… do I need to break out the vinyl? Hi Dennis, how was the theme park?
Hello!
I’ve always been fascinated by the noise genre though I can’t seem to fully appreciate it. Maybe exploring the videos on this post will help me; I seem to be appreciating things more now the older I get.
I hope your trip went great and you had lots of fun! The last couple of days I joined some dating apps because I never seem to learn. I hate to say it, but using dating apps make me cringe and it doesn’t help I don’t take selfies so I have nothing to post. I end up deleting them 2 days later (as I am currently doing now hahaha). I finished “Period” (just now) and though I struggled a bit, I really loved the formatting style of the best. I also finished “Ugly Man” and I think it’s my favorite of yours so far. I already want to reread it. And then I read some chapters from “Wrong”, but I guess I had a different idea of how your work would be approached so I’ll have to come back to it some other time.
Anyway, sorry for the small ramble! I hope that you’re doing your best to beat the heatwave you mentioned. Is it true A/C isn’t really a thing over there? Also iced water?
Wishing you great Thursday, Dennis! ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧
I was out for a coffee with my mum this morning and was telling her about this Day. She regaled me with an interesting fact: after the end of WW2 Kurt Schwitters and his partner Edith Thomas settled in the UK’s Lake District where he set up another iteration of his famed Merzbau. The Elterwater Merz Barn is up near Newcastle and I’m forever grateful for Mum’s unique take on Modernism/gardening trivia.
Hey Dennis.
Ok I won’t sweat over Plopsaland, that’s an excellent review and confirms some suspicions of mine. My mood is better today, so I apologize for any mania on my end; it just needs to pass and be given some words before it disappears. Then again, one is never fully out of the blue with these things; we just find nicer shades to sit inside. I try too hard to make other people happy; some part of me says it’s my goal in life. I can never fully believe it, but I can’t shut it up either. Anyway, I’m gonna listen to Merzbow then. I’m mixed on most of his work (a bit too prolific, I suppose), but his collaborations are always godlike, especially with Boris. 1930 is still a great track/album though. Many hugs to you, don’t sweat too much in Paris, remember to drink water, and not to overdo it with the cigarettes (I sound like someone’s mother, but do take care seriously, man, have a good one, cya)
Glad to hear you had a good time.
I will sample some of the above later tonight with headphones on. The review quotes are quite something though: to have your sound compared to the “showers at Auschwitz”, damn… I feel relatively uninformed about the noise genre. I guess I’d associate it with the free jazz artists mentioned in the interview, plus some of Varèse, Trout Mask Replica & The Stooges’ Fun House. At least those are the ones I really dig. Do they fit the bill?
Instagram—I hear you on its benefits, but I’m really reluctant to add another social media app to my life. Even Facebook I mainly use to stay in touch with friends abroad. But we’ll see. Right now I have 28 active submissions on Submittable (half a dozen for the chapbook, the rest are 3-5 poems per journal), so I’ll let those simmer for now & see what comes up. I gotta say though that the average 3-4 month waiting period is annoying the hell out of me…
I swim as much as I can. Needless to say I recommend it, especially in this heat. The house in Spain I’m moving to has a pool, which is a luxury I can get behind. Out there it really makes sense to have one. I imagine Paris isn’t very swim-friendly. Do people go in the Seine, or would that kill you?
Yay Merzbow! I really love their music, but didn’t know much beyond that, so thanks for the blogpost, as always. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Jesus and Mary Chain, although I don’t know if that’s technically noise or shoegaze, or a crossbreed of the two.
Yeah, the new Zelda is scarily big. There’s no way I’m going to explore the whole thing, because it’s either going to end up vaporising my spare time or my idea of how huge it is. Anyway, I tend to prefer things which are small, or seem it, but have huge secret undercarriages, which feels like the opposite of Zelda. Glad to hear Efteling was good, I’ll put it on my theoretical bucket list.
Dennis, thanks for the opportunity to share some work that I loved, and good to hear Efteling was fabulous. Glad you liked yesterday’s post, Jay, Roma, HaRpEr, and Hugo.
Another fine return, Merzbow. It’s been awhile, might be a noisy day here.
Ben, I am so envious you have conversations about Schwitters with your mom.
Bill
Will you be posting any photos from Efteling?
I’m not sure if it’s wise to admit this in public, but I’ve started a channel on the Internet Archive under the name “globalfilmlover,” posting rare films (such as Piotr Szulkin’s FEMINA, Raul Ruiz’s THE LOST DOMAIN and THE BLIND OWL, Robert Kramer’s OUR NAZI and Dariush Mehrjui’s DIAMOND 33.) I’ll be adding at least a dozen more in the next few weeks. The link’s here: https://archive.org/details/@globalfilmlover
My next episode of “Radio Not Radio,” which airs on the 24th, will mark its 6-month anniversary! 2025 has really screwed with my perception of time, for multiple reasons.
I watched HOMME AU BAIN last night. Was that your only appearance as an actor?
Hey. The heat was pretty terrible here a couple of days ago, it was overcast and okayish today but humid as hell. I’ve been feeling sort of unwell today and yesterday and I can’t figure out why. I found this lump on my body a couple of days ago and I felt so fatigued and dizzy that I convinced myself that I was dying one night when I couldn’t get to sleep. It’s probably just a cyst. I’d hate to have to see a doctor, that would be humiliating.
Anyway, my malaise aside, I read ‘The Ballad of Peckham Rye’ by Muriel Spark and really liked it. It has a certain quality that I’m always trying to look for that I can’t accurately characterize, but which reviewers will resort to calling ‘peculiar’ and other similar adjectives. Her writing is so simple and complicated at the same time, I have a hard time talking about any of it or why I like it, which probably means that she’ll be a writer that stays with me and will be interesting to study. I already read ‘…Jean Brodie’ which I liked but I liked this one more, and am eager to read more. I saw the ‘Identikit’ movie so ‘The Driver’s Seat’ is at the top of my list.
I remember ‘Pulse Demon’ being a formative listening experience for me or something to that effect. I went through a period of listening to a lot of his early nineties stuff and also the album with Xiu Xiu but then I needed a break and for some reason never went back. I didn’t know about the Genesis P-Orridge collab! Cool. On that subject I’m intrigued by the new doc.
Hi Dennis! Merzbow’s stuff sounds great, thanks for sharing. I find that listening to noise really helps me focus so will definitely be utilizing him.
I’ve been good, was dealing with some bad headaches these past few days but I seem to be recovering, finally. Tomorrow is my company’s birthday and they’ve organized a cake-baking competition, so I’m looking forward to having a very sweet lunch.
Btw, any rides at Efteling you’d recommend?