Reissues
Electronic Union
Electronic Union suggests synthesis, merger, coalition - multiple electronic elements combining into unified sonic statements. These mid-2000s recordings demonstrate Akita's mature integration of diverse digital techniques, creating hybrid approaches…
Merzbird Variation
Merzbird (Important Records, 2004) stands among the most celebrated laptop-era releases. This "Variation" offers alternate perspectives on that material - different plumage for the same sonic creature. Bird imagery connects to Akita's growing animal …
Plasma Door
The evocative title conjures thresholds between states of matter - solid becoming liquid becoming gas becoming plasma. Plasma Door captures Merzbow at a moment of material transformation, sound itself seeming to change state under extreme pressure. P…
Sphere Sessions
Sphere Sessions suggests three-dimensional sound constructions - recordings enveloping listeners in dense, immersive noise environments. Akita's spatial awareness reached new sophistication in these mid-2000s productions - creating environments rathe…
1633+
1633+ exemplifies Merzbow's confident command of laptop production techniques refined over five years of intensive experimentation. The numeric title resists interpretation - perhaps a date, perhaps a catalog number, perhaps pure abstraction. 1633 sa…
Yoshinotsune Metamo
The title references Yoshitsune, legendary Japanese warrior-hero - though "Metamo" suggests metamorphosis, transformation. Yoshitsune's story involves disguise, flight, and tragic loyalty - themes resonating with Akita's own constant transformations.…
Enclosure
Enclosure suggests both confinement and protection - sound as shelter, sound as prison. The title carries multiple resonances: the enclosures that contain animals in zoos and farms, the enclosure movement that privatized common lands, the sonic enclo…
Antimonument Tapes
The "Antimonument" concept looms large in Merzbow lore - the original 1985-86 album is considered a landmark in noise history, a foundational text for the genre. *Antimonument Tapes* offers invaluable context, documenting the creative process that yi…
Insect 801
Three tracks from the production of Konchuuki (Essence Music, 2015). The 28-minute centerpiece employs oscillator-modulated rhythms from a vintage Mach Rhythm Box RB-801, creating distinctive rhythmic patterns throughout—the album title references th…
Pi-Eggplant
The Merzbow Archive series by Slowdown Records, which has released ten editions so far, enters its twelveth edition. This edition consists of recordings made between 2008 and 2009, when Merzbow developed a style that incorporated drumming. Although M…
Groon Lesson
Recorded during the height of the 13 Japanese Birds series production, these three performances capture Merzbow at peak drumming-era intensity. The centerpiece - a commanding 32-minute second track - demonstrates the extended improvisational structur…
Red Brick
Test mixes for Arijigoku (Vivo, 2008)—Merzbow's first full-fledged combination of live drums with improvised noise performance. Drums were recorded separately in a rented studio, then mixed with noise at a later date. This preliminary version offers …
Ensemble Drums
Alternate mixes from two essential albums: Protean World (Noiseville, 2008) and Microkosmos (Blossoming Noise, 2009). Drumming was recorded separately in rented studio space, capturing Akita's return to the instrument after decades.
The first track f…
Drumorph
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 fi…
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 ide…
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 e…
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 directne…
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 - transla…
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. Th…
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 sugges…