Returning off the back of an incredible run of deep dives into numerous historical contexts of noise, Urashima launches into 2023 with the first-ever vinyl reissues of two astounding artifacts of 1990s Japanese noise: Merzbow’s “Cloud Cock OO Grand” and Masonna’s “Inner Mind Mystique”. Respectively encountering towering figures in the field pushing their own creative limits, both are truly remarkable immersions in the outer reaches of experimental sound that remain ahead of their time decades down the road.

Since its founding during the late 2000s, the Italian imprint, Urashima, has become a definitive voice in the landscape of noise. Bringing forth beautiful limited edition releases, they’ve sculpted a singular vision of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary bodies of experimental sound to have graced the globe. 2022 was a pretty incredible year for the imprint, witnessing numerous ambitious projects like Controlled Death’s "Death Synth Box”, Merzbow’s “Collection 001-010” and “Hybrid Noisebloom”, as well as Masonna’s “Masonna Vs. Bananamara”, Hijokaidan’s “Zouroku No Kibyou”, and Space Machine’s “Space Tuning box”. Judging from their first batch of the year, it looks like 2023 might be just as big.

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 40 years, setting the pace for the entire genre of noise along the way. Few projects have pushed boundaries, risen to a more iconic status, or been as influential over the same period of time.

Recorded in Holland during the autumn of 1989 and originally issued as a highly limited edition CD by ZSF Produkt in 1990, “Cloud Cock OO Grand” was the first of a series of albums to indicate a change in creative direction that Merzbow would follow over the coming decade. During the European tour during which these recordings were laid to tape, Akita was only able to transport simple, portable gear. Rising to the challenge, these limitations led to the development of a signature form of harsh noise, heavily influenced by death metal and grindcore, that would come to define much of his early 90s sound.

Comprising five individual compositions - three being side-long - “Cloud Cock OO Grand” was composed and performed by Akita on synthesizers, metal devices, noise electronics, and string instruments, all recorded at the extreme volumes for which Merzbow has always gained a unique sense of distinction. Despite being an enthralling sonic assault, driven by the frenetic presence of electronic sounds, across the length of the album’s four sides it is hard not to be captivated by a greater sense of dynamics and space within the artist’s work, resulting from sparse acoustic interjections played against Akita’s heavily processed strings. The result, while no less intense or demanding than anything before or since, reveals a surprising sense of intimacy and consideration that’s often not easily observed within the field of noise.

Easily among the most captivating gestures within Merzbow’s sprawling catalog, pushing endlessly forward while subtly nodding toward historical gestures from the early years of the avant-garde, Urashima’s beautiful double LP edition of “Cloud Cock OO Grand” marks this seminal and long unavailable album’s first time ever on vinyl.

Masonna, the moniker of the Osaka based artist Maso Yamazaki, belongs to the second wave of Japanese noise. The name alone, a pun on Madonna’s name by combining the Japanese words Maso (マゾ, Masochist) and Onna (女, Woman), illuminates the wry humour and intensity that rumbles below his work.

Masonna claims that his interest in making noise is rooted in childhood encounters with the sounds of destruction on tv. Initially playing in psychedelic rock bands, following encounters with the work of artists like Hanatarash and Nord, he disappeared from view for a number of years, quietly developing his own singular vision of the idiom, before bursting onto the scene in 1987 with a performance style, marked by frenetic energy, damaged equipment, wild body movement, and often personal injury, that quickly set him apart. The following year, he released his debut album, “Like A Vagina” - an overdriven blast of psychedelia and harsh noise - that would rattle everything in its wake.

In recent years, Urashima has dedicated considerable energy to slowly returning Masonna’s back catalog to print, many of which were issued in tiny editions and have remained virtually unobtainable since their initial release. The latest among these is the project’s “Inner Mind Mystique”, originally released in 1996 on CD. Comprising seven studio recordings that embark on a full sonic onslaught of few equivalents, the album deftly deploys Masonna’s mastery of cut-up techniques, folding screaming vocalisations, effects, burbling electro noises, high-pitched twees, and other sci-fi sounds into a hurling mass that balances between something deep and primal and futuristic. Each piece is the culmination of a vast array of electronic sound events, meticulously sequenced within a complex vocal fusion of earthly and heavenly sounds that almost transform into a form of violent ambience because of the density and consistency that they display.

Immersive and almost transcendental in effect, Masonna’s “Inner Mind Mystique” is an unquestionable high water mark in the history of Japanese noise, taking the extremes of an already boundary pushing genre into the next realm.