MERZBOW

Rattus rattus

CD, scarcelight

It is hard to write a valuable review on Merzbow. Masami Akita has produced such an enormous mass of records and even though his actual soundspectrum is quite small, he has explored it on every milimeter, so that it is virtually impossible to say something new about Merzbow that is also worthwhile (if you are not getting the news from himself personally, that is). Okay, so he has changed to laptop, but that doesn’t say much in the earsplitting white noise power area. There is a link to PETA on the record sleeve, but what about it? (There is a link to some PETA-thing on this website as well.) One common way out of this dilemma is to praise Akita for the noise-legend he rightfully has become. The other common way out is to describe what you get on the record. I have provided that in the paragraph below. What else is there? Well, every new piece in Merzbow’s work is as important as the one before. To some whatever recorded here is just the same noise as always. To those ready to find the differences between noise and noise, between noise-record and noise-record, every new Merzbow-record will be important (even if they never get around to purchasing or listening to them. It is the attitude that I am talking about.) Just like the little “Thanks to those who keep on listening” that the labelowner has written into the cover of his own record (Accelera Deck’s “Pop Polling”) and which to me has evolved into a sort of mission statement for the label, the music released thereon and a whole attitude of handling music. As in “To Those Who Keep On Listening”. Now here is the classic bail-out review:

“Rattus Rattus” is divided in three parts of different lengths. The first, “155” is 5 and a half minutes, the second “166” is a little over 8 minutes and the third, the “rattus rattus suite” clocks in at an epic 37 minutes. A definite noise symphony piece, with the first two tracks – named by their opus-number? – are sort of ouvertures for that. “155” starts with the clatter of a hundred satanic typewriters but soon enough the well-known devilish thunderstorm of noise and mangled frequencies sets in, carrying with it the demonic cries of a hundred tortured souls. This track has a lot of changes and is pure, unmanipulated (?) Japan Noise. “166” starts unexpectedly low and soft, almost constructed and slowly stacks piece upon piece to build up a wall of noise that sounds like the stuff you need. Instead of building up a big monster of noise that is out to devour you, this is more like suddenly finding yourself trapped by an army of killer-termites and you wonder if running across them and stomping them will ever lead you out of this dangerous situation. The “Rattus Rattus Suite” starts off more as a classical Merzbow-piece and it won’t disappoint fans of the genre, especially due to its varying parts that mix high screeching noise pierces with basic clatter and klang, then break into full-fledged noise storms, that take itself back within 30 seconds to sound something like holding your ear into a fast moving welding machine on a crowded highway in mid-germany (where they are allowed to drive without speed limits.) And ever so on from new sound / noise to next sound / noise. An enormous piece of music.

From all of that I get the feeling that on “Rattus Rattus” Masami Akita has worked a lot with a voice basis – the affinity of the sounds to Masonna is easily recognizable – plus using his electric-current-mix-thing, that strange magnetic coil he likes to trash around with an enormous pick up on. In this regard, we are talking about a Retro-Noise-record here. Wow, if that is true, this genre has come a long way and Masami Akita is written all over its book.