The Austalian Extreme label's announcement of a forthcoming $500 50 (fifty) CD boxed set (the "Merzbox") of Merzbow's music provoked the following selected reviews of the CD output of Masami Akita from 1990 to the present day. The boxed set is said to include in addition to 50+ compact discs a full color book, an interactive CD-ROM, a commemorative medallion, a T-Shirt, a series of post-cards, stickers and a poster all packaged in a specially designed box. With the knowledge that this is forthcoming, to include a complete discography in this article is as ridiculous as it is pointless. Maybe Masami himself has kept track- I personally doubt he has a complete listing of his recorded works- but I wouldn't be surprised if he does. A listening guide of some sort is also pointless- noise seems to be even more subjective than non-noise musics. One man's masterpiece is literally unlistenable to another, and for the most part, the fact that some noise music is unlistenable is the aesthetic victory the noise musician is striving for. Merzbow music is unlistenable in that sense. But it's not just about the music, its the man himself, the mystery engendered by the endless stream of music emanating from his home studio. It's the fact that he's been doing this for so long, and can pull it off live worldwide. He's an art critic noise rock and roller who writes articles about pornography for a living.

The Art Brut and Automatist analogies are apt ones, and the two definitions below are as good an explanation of Merzbow's motives as any analysis of the man's music itself. The massive distorted portions of Merzbow's music are less obviously surrealistic, and are perhaps his impressions of Art Brut, deranged and surreal in his intent to remove himself from any high art aesthetic AND assault the senses of the observer with rough unbearably loud bursts of feedback noise and pornographic visions. The porno imagery is more difficult to explain. It is not an expression of freedom, so much as it is a symbol of claustrophobia and opression. Even the sickest porno aims for some sort of sexual gratification- that is not entirely Masami's intent. He seeks some sort of anonymous symbol of extreme cultural production- porn is a pretty good one of that, with all its social implications: violence against women and children, and its primitive singular purpose. His music is essentially about visceral, emotional power- his intent might have an intellectual foundation, but the result resembles a hammer to the head more than any other aesthetic experience I can think of. In photos he looks like Klaus Schulze behind a mass of cryptic electronic equipment. In fact, the one person you could compare Masami to the most perhaps is Klaus Schulze, a man who tosses off 30 minute electronic tracks in his sleep and has amassed an impressive and almost equally insurmountable discography over the years. And like Masami, Schulze has ambition:

"Everyone though it was a joke when Klaus Mueller* announced the plans for a 25 CD set entitled The Jubilee Edition. Yes 25 CD's of unreleased Klaus Schulze, adding to the two 10 CD sets and who knows how many more solos and collaborations over the past few years...when I quizzed Klaus Schulze about it, after the Derby gig back in April, he was quite serious." Alan Freeman, Audion magazine (UK) #36 Autumn 1996 *Yes, this is the same Klaus Mueller who wrote the article "The Real Krautrock Story". Kraut Rock Conceivably, might there not be someone out there who intends to purchase both the Schulze and Merzbow sets? Unlike Klaus, however, so much of Masami's music is available domestically (in the USA, that is) its staggering. I would have to recommend as starting points for the loud legendary typical Merzbow, the recent releases that are most recognizaby his own, "Electric Salad" and "Pulse Demon" in the USA, and "Spiral Honey" in the UK. Or, if you can find it, treat yourself to the excellent Noisembryo, on Releasing Eskimo (Sweden). For the less spastic and listenable side of Merzbow, try the two "Music for Bondage Performance" releases, or especially the "Ecobondage" reissue. For a glimpse into where the sound of Masami might be headed, I suggest "Hybrid Noisebloom", "Space Metallizer" or the even more different Masami solo disc "The prosperity of vice, the misfortunes of virtue". Still, if you only buy one Merzbow release a year you're probably better off not buying any Merzbow releases at all. And if you actually do have $500 to spare, send a check or money order to me c/o Angbase.

"Surrealism rests in the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association neglected heretofore; in the omnipotence of the dream and in the disinterested play of thought." (Encyclopedia definition of Surrealism, as quoted by Andre Breton in "What is Surrrealism?" 1924)

SURREALISM Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, verbally, in writing, or by other means, the real process of thought. Thought's dictation, in the absence of all control exercised by the reason and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations. (Andre Breton, "What is Surrrealism?" 1924)

AUTOMATISM (In the plastic arts) "The Canadian 'automatists' distinguish between three types of automatisms: 1. mechanical automatisms, the result of strictly physical processes; plissage (paper crinklings), grattage (scrapings), frottage (rubbings), deposits, fumage (smoky trails made by a candle flame on the surface of a picture), gravitation, rotation, etc. 2. psychic automatism, based on the recollections of dreams (Dali) hallucinations (Tanguy), 'chances of all kinds' (Duchamp): 'interest centres more on the subject treated (idea, resemblance, image unforseen association of objects, mental relation) than on the actual subject (plastic object, dependent on the expressivity of the substance employed).' 3. superrrational automatism, impromtu plastic writing: one form invokes another until a sense of unity is arrived at or until one can proceed no further without destroying the artifact. During the process, no attention is paid to 'content'." (From The Encyclopedia of Surrealism by Jose Pierre 1972)

ART BRUT "This term, invented by the painter Jean Dubuffet c. 1948, in contradistinction to 'cultural art', designates the artistic creations of the self-taught, isolated- for social reasons or through individual circumstances- from ordinary cultural activities and places where resulting artifacts are displayed (art schools, galleries, museums). 'Art Brut', henceforward no longer the product of a social rite but of a strictly individual impulse, is characterized by a kind of spontaneous generation, since the artist derives the total substance of his work from his own imaginative experience. The question is the degree to which this kind of artist approximates in the process to the surrealist painter or sculptor who by recourse to automatism or the most banal figurative code (e.g. Magritte)aspires to a 'similar state of grace'.This convergence seems less surprising if we emphasize the number of 'medium painters' in the ranks of 'Art Brut' who draw or paint on the 'automatic' principle. But the largest proportion is represented by painters suffering from mental derangement, among whom the schizophrenics make up the largest and most glorious contingent. The study of schizophrenic art has high-lighted some general characteristics (use of bourrage, the stereotype, etc.) which should be compared with similar phenomena in the automatism of mediums and surrealists. The third category of 'Art Brut' comprises self taught artists who depend neither on psychiatry or spiritualism, although their works have affinities with those of the other two categories. The Surrealists, and Breton first and foremost, have been anxious to show that they regard then all, mediums, schizophrenics, and autodidacts as exemplary creators." (From The Encyclopedia of Surrealism by Jose Pierre 1972)

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