Merzbow

Primarily computer-based but incorporating sampled drums, this album documents the earliest experiments leading to the full drum integration that would define this period. Finely cut drum sounds ricochet through space in the first two tracks, with fierce original drum performances unexpectedly emerging between the processed fragments—allowing listeners to experience drums in multiple transformed states.

Recorded just one month before the Anicca sessions, Drumorph captures the pivotal moment when Akita began reconnecting with his drummer origins. The work shows clear signs of the full-scale drum integration that would follow, bridging the laptop-only years with the explosive hybrid approach to come.

Credits: All Music by Masami Akita
Recorded & mixed at Munemihouse, March 2008
Remastered, October 2020
Mastered by Kentaro Hayashi, Osaka
A&R: Yasuyuki Nakamura (Slowdown Records)