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Merzbow, "Duo"
At first I was not sure how this box set slipped by me when it was released last year, but then I remember this is Merzbow we are talking about. He puts out more boxes in a year than most artists do single albums. This is one, however, that should not have gone overlooked. As indicated by the title, this is Masami Akita not alone, but with Kiyoshi Mizutani, and consists of ten discs of raw improvised sessions recorded between 1987 and 1989. Deeply entrenched in the Akita’s junk noise phase, it a sprawling, yet captivating document of the best years of Merzbow.
These sessions acted as raw materials for some Merzbow releases of the era, such as S.C.U.M., but here are recordings without the tape edits or further processing.This is just two men and a slew of instruments (traditional and otherwise) improvising in the studio for hours.Because of that, it does inch towards overkill since it documents the source material that was intended for further treatments.It is a voluminous collection (well over ten hours), but taken in bite sized chunks remains extremely enjoyable.
At times, the recordings come together more like extremely unconventional free jazz:"Duo 1987" is a blend of harshly bowed strings that could almost be manic duck calls with junky percussion.The combination almost resembles a horn/drum duo as far as sound goes, but is far more dissonant and pleasantly ugly."1 May 1988 A" has the same feel, but this time via rapid guitar noodling and rhythmic variations.Finally, "20 September 1987" is another bird of the jazz feather.What sounds like a bass guitar and random metal percussion paired up as if Akita and Mizutani tried to recreate Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz" with whatever they could find at a junkyard.After a bit of organization they give up and just bang away jovially, with a loose and almost fun vibe to be had.
Other skewed attempts at making music show up throughout the set as well.The second part of "16 April 1989" leans not into jazz, but rock.What begins with someone screwing around on a guitar and a percussion section that sounds like flicking an empty soda can builds into a full on improvised guitar and drum performance, leading into a mass of sludgy stoner metal.The bit of straight up "music" works brilliantly amongst the otherwise pure dissonance and noise that has characterized Merzbow.
As expected, much of the recordings in this set are less structured and more chaotic masses of sound.Due to the duo working with a wide variety of instruments and effects, however, it never devolves into the mass of distortion pedal generated dull roar that blended much of Merzbow's output in the 1990s into a dull blur.High pitched feedback and electronic bursts on "19 June 1988 Part 1" are quite harsh, but the noisy metal percussion gives it additional depth.The second half of the piece accentuates the more piercing noises into a painfully shrill work without any clearly discernible source as far as instrumentation goes.
Metal scraping and distorted effects make up much of "25 June 1988 A", but the layering and density is not as intense, and with the addition of guitar it is more diverse than contemporary work from Akita."9 October 1989 Part 3" features the same array of cheap, probably broken effects pedals, with an almost sitar-like passage and a wonderfully sloppy start/stop structure that helps it to stand out.
The limited Art Edition of the Duo box features an 11th disc that is a bit odd compared to the rest, dating back to November 1979.While it is pretty far removed from the rest of the set's timeline, it still is a collaborative recording between the two.With Akita on drums and Mizutani manning the keyboards, it is a 41 minute improv that may be a bit self-indulgent, but its transitions from jazz to disco and into psychedelic rock are fascinating, even more so considering what Akita has been involved in for the 35 years since then.
Masami Akita's work as Merzbow from the project’s inception until the late 1980s has always grabbed my attention the most diverse and engaging.For that reason, I was extremely eager to hear this set, and was not disappointed.The variety of sounds and instrumentation is so much more pleasing and captivating than his later penchant to just crank a bunch of pedals up as loud as possible and repeating for hours.Essentially being unedited, it might lack the focused impact of Ecobondage or Batztoutai With Material Gadgets, but the untreated recordings are fascinating in their own right.Unquestionably one of the top tier Merzbow releases of all time.
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