Search - Merzbow :: Scumtron

Upwardly Mobile young IDM artists remix dangerous noise

donkeye | all up in your face | 11/07/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Worth it for the Autechre track alone. Merzbow, for my money, isn't worth money. Merzbow is generally considered the greatest Japanese noise artist ever, and I don't see any reason to argue or compete for the title.
Nevertheless, the music of Merzbow has influenced everybody who makes music based around noise constructions, and is revered in circles so tight you could make coal turn to diamond just trying to squeeze into one. Merzbow is for people who are interested in music from the perspective of an anthropologist, as someone who is curious what cultures have developed to express themselves.
Quite naturally, from the ashes of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the music of Merzbow is a brutal riposte to the decimation of a culture.
On this CD, artists try to come to terms with their own feelings towards this artist, whose name comes from a German fellow who hung around on the fringes of the Dada parlour, and made some wicked collages.Autechre do a great job. Their song is fantastic. Other artists, well, it's hard to know. What do you do when you try to remix pure noise? There's nowhere to dig but up."