New Arrivals / Last week
Eternal Music Society
*300 copies limited edition* Eternal Music Society is a Swedish supergroup emerging from the fertile experimental scene of Göteborg and Malmö, centered around the visionary Discreet label. The band unites members from some of the most distinctive underground projects of the past decade, Enhet För Fri Musik (Discreet), Skeppet, Frihet, Neutral, Leda (Knotwilg), and Kröppskanedom (Morc) to name a few. Each known for pushing the boundaries of free music, drone, and avant-rock.
Together, they form a…
Elephant
*400 copies limited edition* Brooklyn-born trumpeter and composer Adam O’Farrill, hailed as a leading light of the new American jazz scene, announces his bold new quartet project Elephant. With this ensemble, O’Farrill expands his sonic language into a fresh, genre-blurring space that fuses the intimacy of the jazz quartet with the emotional depth of 20th‑century minimalism and the rhythmic urgency of contemporary electronic and dance music.
Elephant features a powerful lineup: O’Farrill on trum…
Tonight At Noon
"Tonight At Noon" compiles tracks from two earlier recordings sessions: one session from 1957 with Jimmy Knepper on the trombone, the drummer Dannie Richmond, Saxophone player Shafi Hadi and the pianist Wade Legge, which were released on the album "The Clown" (Atlantic 1260). The second session took place in 1961 with Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk on the saxophone, Knepper, the bassist Doug Watkins, Mingus at the piano and Richmond on the drums, and was released on "Oh Yeah" (Atlantic SD 1377).
T…
Wearing Words
“I constantly felt like wearing clothes that don't belong to me, a bit like borrowing a sweater from your partner or pants from your sister who is slightly taller than you.”
Particles, Peds & Pores
*200 copies limited edition* "Jaime Fennelly, as Mind Over Mirrors, makes music that pushes the known to the lip of the unknown, where it rocks precariously and in exhilaration. He scrambles the familiar and tweaks the comfortable, not through aggression, but a throbbing estrangement. When placed at a distance, these require longer reaches to grasp. The reward for this effort is an enlarged field of perspective, experience, and also of feeling. This is deeply feeling music to feel deeply.
In al…
Muzan No Bi (Beauty Without Mercy)
40th Anniversary Release!! Recorded in 1985 and released by Polydor in 1986, Kazuki Tomokawa's seminal 1980s album “Beauty Without Mercy”. To mark its 40th anniversary, this long-awaited reissue arrives on vinyl! This defining album of the 80s features tracks including “He Was There” about his friend Takohachirō, “Beauty in Tragedy” about his brother's death, “God Was Crying in the Well”, and his signature song “Waltz”. Nakahara Chūya penned the lyrics for “A Fairy Tale” and “Boy”. Numerous dist…
Tremor
"Silva has created what could perhaps best be described as “ambient jazz”. That in itself seems like a contradiction, ambient being at odds with the spontaneity of jazz, and jazz being so vivid. But here we are. It’s partly the texture of the musical sounds that merits comparisons with jazz - far from the purely electronic soundscapes of Eno, early Tangerine Dream etcetera. Rather than tone and atmosphere over musical structure and rhythm, this is tone, atmosphere, musical structure and rhythm. …
Feedback Purple Yellow
Recorded as prototype material for the Here album (L. White Records, 2008) but ultimately unused. Deafening self-made instrument sounds run parallel with dull, boomy distorted noise, their synergy creating a strong sense of speed.
Very few sounds identifiable as laptop-generated appear—indicating increased analog equipment use following the 2005 transition. The "Etude" designation for three tracks suggests methodical exploration, studies in specific techniques. The color title evokes synesthetic…
Coma Test
Coma Test pushes toward sensory overload approaching coma-like disconnection, testing how much the nervous system can absorb. The title suggests medical experimentation, perhaps referencing animal testing practices that Akita opposes, or simply the extreme states his music induces.
Bloodour
Bloodour's visceral title ("blood" + "our") suggests shared complicity - the blood is ours, we are responsible. These recordings emerge from the Minazo/F.I.D./Merzbear period, when Merzbow explicitly addressed animal cruelty with unflinching directness.
27 August 2006
Another precisely dated document from the animal rights period, continuing intensive summer 2006 documentation. Together with the August 15 companion, it provides comprehensive insight into Merzbow's live approach during this activist phase - translating ideological commitments into sonic form.
The twelve-day gap between recordings allows comparison of performances, revealing both consistency and variation in Akita's live practice.
15 August 2006
This live recording from Metro in Kyoto captures Merzbow in confrontational performance mode. August 15 holds significance in Japan as the World War II end anniversary - whether intentional or not, this historical resonance adds layers of meaning. The date marks both defeat and liberation, ending and beginning.
Significantly, 2006 marked Akita's return to performing with analog equipment and live drums alongside laptop - a hybrid approach combining digital precision with physical immediacy.
Cred…
Pig AY
Pig AY extends animal-themed titles becoming prominent following Akita's veganism adoption in 2003. The pig - intelligent, social, routinely abused by industrial agriculture - would become a recurring figure in later work. This early reference suggests themes gestating before full ideological commitment.
Pigs possess intelligence comparable to dogs and young children, yet endure conditions unthinkable for companion animals. Akita's interest in pigs reflects both their abuse by human systems and …
Material For Structure I
Recorded in September 2002, Material for Structure I unfolds across 50 minutes as a continuously evolving sonic organism. The first half emphasizes repetition, gradually building toward chaotic avalanches of sound. Throughout, electronically randomized frequencies color the space, demonstrating mature command of computer-generated textures.
Remarkably, despite the digital tool shift, performances retain the freakish intensity of 1990s analog sessions - proof that expression transcends equipment.…
SCSI Duck 2
The title playfully merges computer technology (SCSI interfaces dominating 90s computing) with animal imagery - collision typical of Akita's conceptual approach. The "Duck" suggests both the animal and evasive movement - ducking, dodging. These recordings demonstrate characteristic humor often overlooked by commentators emphasizing intensity.
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) represents an era when connecting devices required specialized knowledge and cable; the "duck" perhaps navigates the…
3rd Of May Vol.1
Precisely dated to May 3, 2003, these recordings document Merzbow during the exceptionally productive period yielding Cycle, Merzbird, and Tamago. Listeners familiar with Tamago will recognize kindred elements - particularly drum-like samples erupting from multiple directions in midsections, creating quasi-rhythmic structures amid textural chaos.
The date perhaps references Goya's famous painting "The Third of May 1808," depicting war's brutality - a connection that resonates with Merzbow's own …
3rd Of May Vol.2
Volume 2 features extended development of repetitive elements, with beat-like samples undergoing extreme abstraction through effects processing - documenting Akita's ongoing stylistic experimentation even within established methodology. The continuation from Vol.1 allows deeper immersion in that single day's creative output.
Necro 2000
As the millennium turned, Necro 2000 marked both ending and beginning - death imagery presiding over Merzbow's laptop era birth. The "Necro" prefix invokes death and decay; the year "2000" signals apocalyptic transition. Y2K anxieties, millennial dread, end-of-history discourse - all contributed to the moment's charged atmosphere.
These morbid associations belie the forward-looking nature of recordings demonstrating that digital transition maintained continuity with Merzbow's essential character…
Process 9611
The clinical title emphasizes methodology over mysticism - appropriate for this period of technological transition when Akita was systematically exploring new tools' capabilities. "Process" suggests procedure, algorithm, step-by-step transformation. The numbered designation reflects systematic investigation as he developed fluency in his new digital language.
Unlike more poetically titled works, Process 9611 announces its interest in how sounds are made rather than what they mean. This transpare…
Tentacle (1st Mix)
Tentacle suggests oceanic creatures, reaching appendages, multiple simultaneous touches - apt imagery for Merzbow's newly expanded digital toolkit. Where analog equipment imposed physical limits on simultaneous operations, computers enabled unprecedented complexity. Tentacles reach in all directions at once, grasping multiple objects simultaneously.
This "1st Mix" preserves initial instincts before subsequent revision, documenting Akita's first responses to new capabilities. The cephalopod image…
