Call me Francis the Blind the way I bought the CD. (I haven't heard a single Mars Volta song in my life)
This was a crazy adventure. It doesn't really slow down much and when it does, the high energy insanity comes back after. When Cassandra Gemini ended, I just knew I had to give this a 100. The album didn't feel like it was over an hour long AT ALL.
Also fuck Universal for making them split the last track into multiple.
35 CD BOX / 11th CD / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/856869-35-cd-box/
Recorded on New Year's 2009, Merz uses Roland V-Drums and the EMS VCS3. Inspired by the drum solo from King Crimson's Groon or something?
The noise is mostly one-note and compared to some other releases, subdued. The drums don't really make me go crazy like on Arijigoku or Hodosan though Masami does go off at times. Least interesting disc from Drum & Noise. We'll see what the next one ... read more
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP RE-DIVE PART 31
Both this and Ugh Yoing were referred to as their 4th album, go figure! It's mostly remixes of tracks from Ugh Yoing and tracks from that time - this came out before that album btw. There's a live version of Ugh Yoing V.1 which has Ugh rapping! Here's a video from that live show: https://youtu.be/IYg2bdP0zsI
Sirocco has quite a few cool tracks but also some much weaker ones, but I would still check it out if you like this era of Satapo!
Some ... read more
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP RE-DIVE PART 30
A compilation of rare tracks sent to overseas labels and Groove magazine from 1998 to 2000 and other unreleased tracks and remixes. If you need more really early Satapo, give this a spin as it's some good stuff.
Thanks to @LikeClockwork81 for sending in their (and @StygianHollow's) album!
I died, so that sucked. But I live again now so I can at least tell you it's good! This was some really beautiful ambient/drone - more people need to hear this for sure.
35 CD BOX / 10th CD / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/856869-35-cd-box/
After yesterday's Twitter merzcrashout and subsequent cover up, it's time to continue the box.
Studio rehearsal recordings for Merzbow's performance at a Yokohama Triennale related event on September 20, 2008. There isn't really a drum performance here - only some drum samples on the second and third tracks.
The noise is decent, it's certainly much better than the earlier egregious ... read more
I know I know it's not a review whatever. Recent tweets by Merz.
Translations by DeepL and Google Translate and the original tweets below. I don't understand Japanese and machine translations aren't really the best, so take these with a grain of salt, although I guess you can get the overall message from both of these.
[UPDATE, EVERY TWEET EXCEPT THE FIRST ONE (and another one about someone calling him a corona brain) HAS BEEN DELETED I GUESS]
DeepL:
"I'm too tangled ... read more
35 CD BOX / 9th CD / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/856869-35-cd-box/
POLSKAAAAAAA!!! Why am I screaming Poland if this is a Slowdown release? Because it's the test mix for Arijigoku released by Vivo Records! It's another of these albums where Masami plays the drums on top of noise.
The noise by itself isn't really all that interesting, it sounds like monotonous static most of the time but who cares when he goes insane on the drums!
Challenge accepted, @parannemi.
While certainly groundbreaking for it's time and influential - especially with the topics moved here - the tracks here don't really make me go "Fuck yeah!" but "Yeah, it's good" instead.
European Son was kinda fire tho.
35 CD BOX / 8th CD / https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/chtc/album/856869-35-cd-box/
I've sent an email to both Masami and Slowdown about his AI use, they'll probably ignore it but there's nothing else I can do.
One alternate mix from Protean World and two from Microkosmos. Merz plays the drums (not just samples his playing like on Sphere) on top of noise.
Now - while his drumming is great, the noise isn't as interesting. Just listen to Hodosan - he goes crazy on that.
Those first, long minutes aren't even the calm before the storm, they're a distress before the storm.
After you heard the hojok for god knows how many times and it being interrupted more and more frequently, hell finally breaks loose. And then the world slowly crumbles. You're left with nothing.
![Yosuke Yamashita Trio, 大駱駝艦 [Dairakudakan] & Gerald Oshita - 嵐 [Arashi]](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/100x0/album/114851--arashi_190938.jpg)
Chaotic, creepy and at times beautiful? A ride through hell, from bat-shit insanity to moments of "calm" and back.
By the time this ends, you'll look just like the cover.
Just voice, sometimes on a multi-track, sometimes modulated with electronics.
This was pretty interesting but obviously 2 hours of voice experiments and explorations aren't gonna be for everyone.
PUBLIC MERZSERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
If you're here from the Merzbox, THE DISC CALLED EXPANDED MUSIC IS IN REALITY EXPANDED MUSIC 2 (and it also contains half of Musick From Simulation World).
Also I don't even know where to find this one.
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP RE-DIVE PART 29
The last proper Satapo album (for now), who cares it's 13 minutes long. Their first on vinyl! From what I know, the tracks were taken from a 50-track zip they sold (though remixed/changed or something?). If you need more of The Rise and Fall Of listen to this.
Now I need to go back and go through the EPs and other stuff. Not today though.
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP RE-DIVE PART 28
Skipping The Rise and Fall Of as I have already rewritten that one.
Most of these seem to be new versions of previous footwork tracks, though there is a Takusan no Ohanasan era track here (Meat Not Wrraped). Not their best from this era, not their worst.
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP RE-DIVE PART 27
Continuing their experiments from the Construct and Green Papaya EPs, Satapo release a minimal footwork/techno album. No vocal samples, just drums and some other sounds.
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP RE-DIVE PART 26
They really went: Let's recreate a Ryuichi Sakamoto cover by standing next to a trash pile.
SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP RE-DIVE PART 25
While to many this probably will be a shit release, I like it. It's a structural analysis of footwork, Satapo recreate a few of their tracks with a synthesizer. Four tracks, all having an "etude" (just the synth performance) and "chant" (the synth and vocal samples from original track), so 8 in total.
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"@TheVULover ah of course he has a vid of him talking about it for 20 minutes. i was planning to listen to the noisextra interview(s) but i guess i'll have to watch this too, cheers"
On TheVULover's review of Whitehouse - Bird Seed
"is he really allat for people to still make music with him"
On TheVULover's review of Whitehouse - Bird Seed
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On TheVULover's review of Whitehouse - Bird Seed
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On TheVULover's review of Whitehouse - Bird Seed
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On The Gerogerigegege - 燃えない灰 [Moenai Hai]
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On TheVULover's review of Whitehouse - Bird Seed
"He still seems happy to meet corpsefucker Duncan! I don't care if he actually fucked that corpse or not, read the liners for Pleasure Escape, what an annoying twat. Fun how a nice bit of the scene seems to be cool with him!"
On TheVULover's review of Whitehouse - Bird Seed
"The Sotos dissing on Asceticists 2006 cuts for sure, but how seriously can you take it when one half is still on good terms with the person being dissed, and the problem the other half has could be something else than Sotos' "noncery""
On TheVULover's review of Whitehouse - Bird Seed
"In this thread Bennett first posts an excerpt from an interview where they say some kind words about Sotos, he only later talks shit about the guy.
https://susanlawly.proboards.com/thread/668/obvious-sotos-question"
On TheVULover's review of Whitehouse - Bird Seed
"Can you really love Bennett if you hate Sotos? He worked with him since the mid-80s, it's not like he didn't know about the arrest. Even after they kicked him out they still put the collage on this album and played it live. Best still seems to be on good terms with him, released a few books of his too. Bennett either had some kind of enlightment, or they had a personal falling out caused by something else."
On Ꝙ𑢸ᶒͤᥢ 𝜎𐍆 ᗪⱸƞՊдꓤ𐔘's review of Merzbow - Berlin Atonal 2025
"i assume they wanted to have like a sampler on the digital release and make side a and b not playable until you buy them but didn't lol"
On The Gerogerigegege - 新宿に命さびしむ歌多し [Shinjuku ni inochi sabi shimu uta ōshi]
"@hwitehouse thanks!"
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On Plookeduah's review of Ground-Zero - Consume Red
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On Plookeduah's review of Ground-Zero - Consume Red
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On Plookeduah's review of Ground-Zero - Consume Red
"everyone loving this album is a tourist because they didn't listen to the two remix albums ( ꩜ ᯅ ꩜;) "
On TheVULover's review of The Gerogerigegege - 昭和 [Showa]
"Anyone know a version of the sex tape that sounds a lot like the version on here in the middle? Like, one without 2 minutes of Kimigayo attached at the ends of it?"
On goodUsern8m's review of Obywatel G.C. - Obywatel G.C.
"i need to tap into my own countrys music fr"
On Amenonuvoco - Fafrotskies
"@ScottShelby cheers"
On Scott Shelby's review of The Mothers of Invention - 1968 10 03 - Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark
"@ScottShelby sorry, i thought it was affectionate"
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