Merzbow

Upon first hearing Merzbow, I wasn't entirely convinced you're actually supposed to listen to his music. I still don't totally believe that. I certainly see more "content" in Merzbow's music than I did at the start of class, but I see definite differences between his work, and some of the other Japanoise artists we've seen.

The number one thing that strikes me as a damning feature of Merzbow's work is the volume ow work he produces. 400 releases since 1979, many of which are hours long, each largely impenetrable without many multiple listenings. The quantity prohibits true comprehension of Merzbow's work outside of a broad-strokes conceptual reading. To me, this categorizes Merzbow as more of an idea than an actual artifact. Where many of the other artists we've looked at have a focus on performance, to the point of becoming more important than the music itself (the more visceral performances we watched in class come to mind), Merzbow seems far more content with blasting people away from the studio.

To a certain extent, Merzbow feels a little tame after some of the other artists we've seen. While all of the artists we've looked at have similar experimentation in volume (dB) and aggressive sound, when comparing them all at a purely sonic level, they blend together to me. And in comparing a Merzbow to a Masonna, a Hanatarashi, or a Hijokaidan, the violence of Merzbow's sound begins to pale in the face of such physical violence.

The other thing I'm not in love with about Merzbow is a lot of the other artists have just been more sonically interesting to me. The No-Input music (especially No-Input mixer) created something incredible to me, and I thought that Ikeda's data music was an incredible experiment in source material. Ultimately, I've just been more impressed by others' sonic content, abrasiveness, and aggression than Merzbow's work in any of those areas. Again I think it goes back to his quantity of work. It reminds me of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's solo explosion over about 2008-2013 where he released around 30 solo records in addition to his work with The Mars Volta. Some of them were great, others simply existed, and in the end, aside from a few gems, it really didn't amount to much. With so much material, there was little time to assess and evaluate and familiarize yourself with the material, and it worked to the detriment of the body as a whole. I have the same problem stepping into Merzbow's body of work - too many options, too little to latch onto with an even slightly trained ear.