Merzbow

Tamayodo is a 2013 album by Merzbow, issued only on vinyl by the Italian label Rustblade as a picture disc limited to 299 copies. It holds four previously unreleased pieces, about 43 minutes in all. Masami Akita made them with analogue equipment, and they are built on pulse and repetition.

All the music is by Masami Akita, recorded and mixed at Munemihouse in Tokyo in June 2013. The label's notes present the record as a more eclectic side of his work, with the material coming from what Rustblade calls the artist's strange machines. The disc carries paintings by Laura Baldini, with the artwork put together by M. Mauracher. The record appeared in November 2013, a few months after the sessions.

Side A is given to Daraiko, a single piece of almost eighteen minutes. Side B holds three shorter studies, all credited, like the rest of the record, to Akita alone. Tamayodo 1 runs just under eight minutes, Lathe Dust a little over nine, and Tamayodo 2 closes the record at around eight. Rustblade's notes point to rhythmic noise, power electronics and piercing feedback.

Speaking to Kevin Maimann of the Edmonton Sun in May 2014, ahead of a concert at Pawn Shop Live in Edmonton, Akita grouped Tamayodo with the forthcoming Nezumimochi. He described both as "monotonic electro pulse-noise works by all analogue equipments". On stage at the time he played handmade instruments fitted with contact microphones and run through effect pedals and a laptop. The same article recalled that Merzbow had moved to digital recording in the 1990s to make touring simpler, which puts the all-analogue set-up of Tamayodo in context. The record was his third release for Rustblade, after the CD Lop Lop (2011) and the double CD Kibako (2012), both also issued in limited boxes. It was also his first for the label on vinyl. Rustblade sold it as 45 minutes of pure Merzbow, aimed at listeners of pure electronics and atonal noise.

This edition is a 180 gram picture disc LP limited to 299 copies, with MERZBOW stamped in the runout of each side, Rustblade catalogue number RBLLP002, released in November 2013.