The name Merzbow is inevitably associated with superlatives. Discogs alone lists over 550 albums under this name, and on RateYourMusic it appears in connection with over 1,100 releases. These include the "Merzbox," a compilation of 50 CDs released in 2000 that has become (in-)famous in the meantime, although since the release of the "10×6=60CDBox" in 2021, it is not even the most extensive release in his discography anymore.
However, both are eclipsed in size, at least if the rumours around a very unconventional release is to be believed: when the label The Releasing Eskimo put out the album "Noisembryo" in 1994, its owner allegedly rigged the CD player of a used car in such a way that it automatically played the album without interruption after the automobile was started and put up the "Merzcar" for sale as a limited special edition-though, according to a statement released later, he did not succeed in selling it.
"Noisembryo" is also one in a series of Merzbow albums from the 1990s that were mastered much louder than was standard or simply legal at the time. For years there was nothing louder than a Merzbow CD. And of course what could be heard on those albums pushed the boundaries as well: high-frequency hissing and gnarly bass throbs, pulsating and explosive bursts of sound that are hard to listen to-harsh noise, presented usually without much pause for breath for more than half an hour of playing time. And when Merzbow shows up to a Boiler Room set, it's with a buzzsaw in hand.
These facts and figures contribute to a myth that has made Masami Akita's project somewhat infamous around the world. However, few listeners know more than a handful of albums from his broad discography. His two solo albums on Relapse, "Venereology" (1994) and "Pulse Demon" (1998) with its iconic artwork, as well as "1930" (1998, Tzadik) or "Noisembryo" are commonly associated with the project. "Merzbow has so many works that few listeners are aware of many of them," Akita confirms in an email. "It's fine if relatively well-known works such as ›Pulse Demon‹ and ›1930‹ are appreciated."
However, this also means that broad sections of the public are at best familiar with a very specific era in the career of an artist whose work in and with sound and noise has taken very different forms over more than four decades.
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