This bundle includes two of the newest Urashima vinyl releases:

Merzbow "Cloud Cock OO Grand" (2LP)
Masonna "Inner Mind Mystique" (LP)



Merzbow "Cloud Cock OO Grand" (2LP)

**Limited Edition of 299 copies.** Merzbow came roaring onto the Tokyo scene in 1979. To this day, the project remains one of the most prolific and aggressively forward-thinking acts in experimental music. Initially a duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, before settling as the moniker of Akita alone, the project took its name from German artist Kurt Schwitters' pre-war architectural assemblage, The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau, and quickly set out to challenge entrenched notions of what music could be. Embracing technology and the machine, even in its earliest iterations, Merzbow broke boundaries and pushed toward new territories of the extreme, arriving at an unadulterated manifestation of sonic expression that has continued across the last 44 years, setting the pace for the entire genre of noise along the way.

When it comes to Japanese noise, few projects have pushed boundaries or risen to a more iconic status than Merzbow. The mutant child of punk and experimental music, the project’s blistering sounds - as singular and wild as they are unique - are among the movement’s most important, definitive statements, continuously laying the groundwork for countless artists who have followed in its wake. Cloud Cock OO Grand marks a new era for Merzbow, the first of many CDs that will go in the direction we’d see in the ’90s. It is also the first time that this seminal document from Merzbow’s '90s period has ever appeared on vinyl. Composed and performed on synthesizers, metal devices, noise electronics and string instruments, all recorded at extreme volumes, Cloud Cock OO Grand’s five tracks present an enthralling sonic assault, deeply driven by the presence of electronic sounds, played against the sparse interjections of Akita’s heavily processed strings, that push toward new territories of the extreme, while subtly nodding toward historical gestures from the early years of the avant-garde. On the double vinyl, the tracks are not only remastered by Merzbow, but are recontextualized and open up a new sense of his studio experimentation at the time.

Reissued as a double vinyl edition of 299 copies with cover that faithfully reproduces the original art work plus a poster,Cloud Cock OO Grand is a stunning feat of remarkable importance within the genre of noise, delivering this long unavailable masterstroke back into our hands, while further illuminating the project’s crucial work from the 1990s. This is an absolute must for the indoctrinated Merbow fan as much as those just entering this incredible world.



Masonna "Inner Mind Mystique" (LP)

**Limited Edition of 299 copies + Poster** Along with Merzbow, Incapacitants and Hijokaidan, Masonna is one of the best (known) Japanese noise projects. A psychedelic touch, cascades of electronic noise and vocal belching mixed together constitute the ingredients of Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, the double-barrelled named for Masonna. Yamazaki “Maso” Takushi created Masonna in 1987 and simultaneously he started recordings on cassette tapes and seven inches for his own label named Coquette. His plentiful productions were presented in an ultra limited edition, sometime totally confidential (one sole copy), and contributed to create a mythology based above all on the astonishing intensity with which “Maso” devastates and reprocesses the vocal cords, in a true total electronic song. In his impressive live performances he created and electrically overcharged universe, punctuating the electric and vocal sonorous power with some quite moments and brief interruptions, conferring a very particular dynamic to his pieces.

Inner Mind Mystique, released for the first time in 1996, includes seven studio recordings are making full use skillfully editing how to edit cut-up, in which elaborate lump-sum making has been performed with the effects, burbling electro noises, high-pitched twees, and other sci-fi sounds, erupting out to drown out the screams, as if to make full use of the ancestral vocal sound. With the ''harshtronics'' , the extensive set of pedals that is used by Masonna to filter vocal and feedbacks, are surpassed all extremes with a full frequency violence that is as fast as it was psychedelic. Everything is scraped, cosmic and beautiful and focuses an electrically overcharged universe, punctuating the thrilling and vocal sonorous power with some quite moments and brief interruptions, conferring a very particular dynamic to work. Each pieces display a vast array of electronic sound events meticulously sequenced to a complex vocal fusion symbolizing the entire spectrum of earthly and heavenly sounds. Dynamic extremes evoke a restless flight through space, or through the depths of human subconsciousness, between dream and reality. Ultimately the noise disappears, like a dot in the sky gradually fading into nothingness - an "ascension" that closes the loop in a ritual of life that can begin anew again at any time.

Reissued as a deluxe vinyl edition of 299 copies, with A3 poster and cardboard insert, faithfully reproducing every aspect of the original 1996 release on Release Entertainment. Truly stunning and historically monumental within the genre, it can’t be missed by any fan of Japanese experimental music and noise.