One of my main criticisms of Merzbow is the lack of quality control. Everything he records seems to be released whether it’s good or bad. The idea of good noise, however, is oxymoronic, but in comparing this release to some of his better works and other more fruitful collaborations, it nearly ends up as a complete dud. Akita’s contribution is nothing but “Merzbow by Numbers” and only some deft work by Tamarin makes this record anything more than bargain bin fodder.
Artficial Music Machine
The concept behind this album is straightforward: Merzbow rearrangesTamarin material into new songs and Tamarin does the same with Merzbow.Like a lot of Merzbow’s current output, this album is based more aroundbeats than an all out assault on the ears. I don’t have a problem withAkita’s forays into beats but he’s done it better before (the recentalbum Merzbuta being possibly the peak of this particular direction). The opening track “Processed 3” starts off with a good beat and some nice noises that sound like digitised cicadas. That’s about as interesting as it gets.
Merzbow should be wearing the listener down but I felt the music was being worn down; becoming meek and limp. The tones change on the beat slowly over the course of twelve minutes before fuzzing out into all out noise (quelle surprise!). It is a very poor track. The other two Merzbow tracks are equally dull. All three tracks just smack of sheer laziness; there has been absolutely no effort at making any sort of interesting compositions. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Merzbow had a sweatshop somewhere with a hundred people forced to record generic Merzbowisms using various pieces of electronic equipment.
Tamarin’s half of the CD fares much better. It has a lot morecharacter than the Merzbow tracks. “Untitled 1” sounds like a glitchyrecording of solar flares in a wind tunnel. There is a lushness andspacious feeling to the sounds; it was a joy to listen to after theprevious half hour of crap. “Untitled 2” starts off with a menacing andextremely low drone, after a short while it is joined by a niceclarinet, sounding like a lonely sailor in a sea that is about turninto a heaving mass of waves. The build up to this crash iselectrifying. Static slowly erupts like the warning rattle of arattlesnake. The storm never fully arrives, it’s almost like a tantrictempest, the feeling of impending doom is far more exciting than theactual event.
Tamarin has demonstrated a far more skilful approach to remixing Merzbow’s work than Merzbow has managed with Tamarin. Too bad Merzbow Vs. Tamarin wasn’t made into two separate EPs, the last three tracks are really wonderful in their use of sound but the first half of the CD is so disgracefully amateur that it is painful to listen to and not in the usual way.
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