Spirulina Blue was one of the best Merzbow tracks from "recent" times, so when you name your release Spirulina Green, you have me intrigued. The title track has similar synth drones to its predecessor, but instead of noise chaos around it, it has this noise sludge with industrial clanging. It's a decent sequel. It was originally part of the Audiosphere exhibition organized by Museo Reina Sofía.

For Adult was previously included on Adult Swim's N O I S E compilation. ... read more

Studio rehearsals for several live performances that Merzbow held in the summer of 2023. Masami uses the Korg Kaoss Pad KP3 here, manipulating loops sampled from tracks like Cannibal of Machine, Minotauros, Wounded Cycad Dub, Tokyo Times Ten, and Seitaka. The third track features 1-second loops from a homemade instrument played on the Next DD-1100 sampler. Is this anything mind-blowing? No, but it's a harsh, fun time. These aren't going to replace the original tracks, obviously, but ... read more

Oh, this is just insane. The first tracks sound like the world collapsing, then it switches to someone power-drilling your brain, and then it comes back to utter destruction. Loud waves of feedback, and I'm certain Yasutoshi is screaming his ass off in there somewhere. A must-hear if you love assaulting your eardrums.

Music of indifference. The album's title perfectly sums up Vomir's work; it's all just a continuous, unchanging, and full wall of static. There is no message or idea behind it (for the most part); the focus is on the noise itself—how you experience and react to it is entirely up to you. Sure, there is something about nihilism and isolation/asociality, but I'll touch on that another time. Every person is going to hear different things in these walls; your brain, when ... read more

I'll be honest, I've heard only the work of Government Alpha and Vomir (just a few releases), but this seems like a really stacked and interesting lineup. This truly is something that happens "once in a lifetime": two hours of noise/free improvisation, a merging of different styles (including non-noise music) and artists.

This means that there's quite a bit of variety on here, from the synth lines and dramatic drums of "All the Power to the People…" or ... read more

I'm fairly certain those zero scores are from people who haven't even heard this album and either hate AI art (which I'm not a fan of, but we're reviewing music here, not the album cover) or just feel like zero-bombing Merzbow for no reason.

Rilievo sees Masami collaborating with violin improviser Hideaki Shimada under his Agencement alias. You might think this would mean a noise wall with a violin slapped on top of it, but this is not the case. It seems that Merz is ... read more

Better than all the AI music we get nowadays.
AI Deviation is a collaboration with Professor Tony Myatt from the University of Surrey, UK, and a team of researchers. They trained Kohonen neural networks on performances using Tone's MP3 Deviation software, creating AIs simulating his performances. The software he's using here uses multiple of them, and I assume they work off of what they're all generating and that Tone has control over them. This album is a performance (and ... read more

"I'm sure that if Takayanagi (Masayuki) were alive, if Abe Kaoru were alive, they'd be playing noise. That's why now is the time for noise to take a step towards jazz." ~Jojo Hiroshige

Besides progressive rock, free jazz (like the Yosuke Yamashita Trio) was one of Hijokaidan's influences. On the day of 9th April 2012, Hijokaidan (with a lineup of Jojo, Junko, Toshiji Mikawa, and Fumio Kosakai) joined forces with Akira Sakata (sax) and Sabu Toyozumi (drums); the ... read more

It's very fitting for Hijokaidan to collaborate with an alt-idol group like BiS, especially when you look at what the fuck they were doing. Hijokaidan just slaps noise on existing songs here, you know, guitar, electronics, Junko screaming. It isn't in the foreground, but its appearance does give the songs an edge. The thing begins with a cover of Jun Togawa's Suki Suki Daisuki, and it's pretty cool; the BiS tracks aren't bad either. BiS_kaidan is the noisiest on here, ... read more

Last of Analog Sessions consists of three albums made between 1997 and 1999, the last ones to ever use analog equipment before Masami started using computers in his work. Each one brings something different to the table.

- Catapillar (1997) [80]: A beat-based release, no samples here, just synths. The noise maybe isn't some kind of harsh monstrosity, but the rhythm part is infectious. Not a spectacular album, but a really solid one—there are some weaker moments, but nothing too ... read more

Masami teams up with HEXA (Jamie Stewart and Lawrence English) on Achromatic. Oppressive dark ambient soundscapes are intertwined with walls of noise. Each Merzhex part is different: Part 2 has the most subdued noise; the track is the most ambient. Part 3 must be the noisiest. Part 4 sounds kind of fire due to the synth bass and "whoo" loop. It sounds like there is some kind of pulse in most of them. Hexamer, on the other hand, is a monolithic, nearly 18-minute track that sounds like ... read more

2 tracks, 40 minutes of runtime. The wall of rumbling static in the foreground is what's probably going to catch your attention; it feels very dissectable—you could focus on various parts of it. There's also this static/synth wall beside it. Obviously loud as hell, but I would say the noise itself isn't brutal.

Les Rallizes Dénudés are a band mostly documented by bootlegs of their live performances. These are a great document of the band considering how many there are, but they also aren't—their sound quality ranges from horrid to exceptional, and they aren't always complete. Some shows have plenty of sources of various quality; some have only one, and some might not even have one (don't take my word on this). There's a beauty to this imperfection; it's ... read more

Masami brutally assaults those who murder animals on this record. Okay, that isn't quite what happened. The album shows that Merz can still put out a decent ear blaster long after his peak. Static madness with some synths and junk noise alongside it.

Vibractance is more so an ambient drone album; even with the assaults here and there, it's a nice one—it makes you feel like you're on a space station, although when looking at the track titles, nature comes to mind. Really cool soundscapes, and a great Merzbow release to check out if you like drone or if you don't want your ears obliterated.

Warning, there are no cat samples on here! CATalysis is full of junk noise rhythms and quite tame noise that creates soundscapes. Besides that, you sometimes get beeps (CATalysis No. 3 is basically made out of them) or something harsher as a treat (CATalysis No. 4 has all of these). The last track, Hat 1046, takes the album into the harsh territory you know and love Merzbow for. Nothing too crazy; it's a decent album that could've been shorter. :3

For my 1000th rating, I decided to blast my ears with some HNW as I feel I'm ready to dive into the genre. I wanted something on the shorter side, so I landed on this 2021 Vomir release. I have finally lost any single shred of sanity I had left as I have enjoyed a release made under a genre that's even "less musical" than harsh noise itself. Okay, I don't actually think I've gone insane or anything, and I definitely wouldn't go around calling HNW fans crazy. ... read more

An album like Merzbow's Hybrid Noisebloom has something you can hold onto, but this album is apocalyptic—it's loud, psychedelic, and really fucking brutal with its dense aural assaults. The use of a theremin gives it a cosmic edge; I think I can say that about the synths too. It's like hearing millions of stars exploding at the same time—pure bliss or pure hell.

Yo, NASA, you do sonifications, right? Make a harsh noise album out of those telescope images.

Romance is a 77-minute-long slab of noise; noise is all there is to it—no kind of meaning, no concept, nothing. Once the guitar makes its first sounds, the wall is set into motion—screaming, and electronics also appear. All three sounds are distinct, and the noise is dynamic for what it is. I can understand why some fans of harsh noise might not enjoy this release, but I've personally grown fond of this style. It's fascinating how something that seems uneventful manages to ... read more

It's 2020, and Toshiji and Fumio can still put out a quality album.
Sonic Seasoning is a swirling track, as that's how I can describe nearly every sound in it—it's really nice, yet loud (of course). Eco-Dharma, even with its inclusion of screaming, is pretty atmospheric, I would say. There is some brutal feedback in it, but it also feels subdued, you know what I mean? We Saw U.F.O. is the closest thing to classic Incapacitants on here (maybe because it's a live track), ... read more