History Music / Merzbow

* OlderThanTheyLook: That photo of him is pretty recent. He's in his mid-sixties.

** "Hermerzaphrodites" from 2019 is one half a standard junky harsh noise album, one half a free-improv piano piece with noise overlaying it.

** ''Kibako'', a 2012 double/triple album with long DarkAmbient passages that slowly evolve into noise, somewhat similar to Vibratance mentioned above.

* SpiritualSuccessor: Because of his apparent influence to many industrial artists, he is sometimes considered as this to Music/ThrobbingGristle.

Merzbow's music is a matter of debate among ElectronicMusic fans, owing to its highly experimental and abstract nature. He is frequently cited as an early pioneer of {{Industrial}} music in TheEighties, alongside acts such as Music/ThrobbingGristle and Music/{{Whitehouse}}. Due to this, he has gained substantial attention in underground ElectronicMusic circles, with many indies acts drawing inspiration from his works. However, he has also made forays into ambient-ish music and musique concrete. It is also arguable that he had a role in establishing/influencing the intelligent dance music (IDM) genre when it was still an UnbuiltTrope, before artists like Music/{{Autechre}} and Music/AphexTwin entered the spotlight.

Despite being highly acclaimed in many musical circles, '''''Merzbow's music is definitely NOT for everyone'''''; much of his work is ''extremely'' harsh, dissonant, mechanical and rough-sounding, and often employs ''every form'' of musical SensoryAbuse imaginable, including, but not limited to: heavily distorted, chattering electronics, tape loops, an emphasis on both heavy, sub-sonic bass and piercing ultrasonics, and extensive use of reverb, feedback, and static, which is even made more harsh and sonically abusive through his [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth rough production style]]. His music comes across as overwhelming and difficult to listen to, and to the uninititated, may come across as sounding like a massive wall of black noise. [[note]]Remember this as you keep reading, however; [[HiddenDepths you're in for a big surprise]][[/note]].

Merzbow's music is a matter of debate among ElectronicMusic fans, owing to its [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible highly experimental and abstract nature]]. He is frequently cited as an early pioneer of {{Industrial}} music in TheEighties, alongside acts such as Music/ThrobbingGristle and Music/{{Whitehouse}}. Due to this, he has gained substantial attention in underground ElectronicMusic circles, with many indies acts drawing inspiration from his works. However, he has also made forays into ambient-ish music and musique concrete. It is also arguable that he had a role in establishing/influencing the intelligent dance music (IDM) genre when it was still an UnbuiltTrope, before artists like Music/{{Autechre}} and Music/AphexTwin entered the spotlight.

* OlderThanTheyLook: That photo of him is pretty recent. He's in his early sixties.

Despite being highly acclaimed in many musical circles, '''''Merzbow's music is definitely NOT for everyone'''''; much of his work is ''extremely'' harsh, dissonant, mechanical and rough-sounding, and often employs ''every form'' of musical SensoryAbuse imaginable, including, but not limited to: heavily distorted, chattering electronics, tape loops, an emphasis on both heavy, sub-sonic bass and piercing ultrasonics, and extensive use of reverb, feedback, and static, which is even made more harsh and sonically abusive through his [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth rough production style]]. His music comes across as overwhelming and difficult to listen to, and to the uninititated, may come across as sounding like a massive wall of black noise. [[note]]Remember this as you keep reading, however; you're in for a big surprise[[/note]].

Despite being highly acclaimed in many musical circles, '''''Merzbow's music is definitely NOT for everyone'''''; much of his work is ''extremely'' harsh, dissonant, mechanical and rough-sounding, and often employs ''every form'' of musical SensoryAbuse imaginable, including, but not limited to: heavily distorted, chattering electronics, tape loops, an emphasis on both heavy, sub-sonic bass and piercing ultrasonics, and extensive use of reverb, feedback, and static, which is even made more harsh and sonically abusive through his [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth rough production style]][[note]]Remember this as you keep reading, however; you're in for a big surprise[[/note]]. His music comes across as overwhelming and difficult to listen to, and to the uninititated, may come across as sounding like a massive wall of black noise.

Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned. If you really, REALLY, '''REALLY''', '''''REALLY''''' want to take a shot at his music, then [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGqzaPzrQG8 go ahead and listen]]. Just pray that your eardrums won't get blown off in the process.

* DreamTeam: Often collaborates with other artists, with Gore Beyond Necropsy, Music/{{Boris}}, Music/SonicYouth, Music/SunnO, Music/{{Ulver}}, Xiu Xiu, and Full of Hell being notable examples. On the noise front, his collaborators have included the Haters, the New Blockaders, and Francisco Lopez.
** Was in a band with Masonna and Zev Asher, dubbed Flying Testicle.

* SensoryAbuse: One of the masters.

* UpToEleven: Merzbow's music is simply HarshNoise plus this.

** Ambient, [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent believe it or not]].

* ContemptibleCover: Most of the ''Pornoise'' releases have... well, [[ShapedLikeItself pornographic album covers]], but it's a sort of {{justified|Trope}} or {{invoked|Trope}} example given the project's name. The packaging was literally comprised of collages Akita created from discarded (usually pornographic) magazines. The idea was that the collages would be like cheap mail-order pornography. Sexorama was another project Akita created with a similar concept, but, according to Wiki/ThatOtherWiki, this featured other "artists involved in the international industrial/noise mail music scene".

Despite being highly acclaimed in many musical circles, '''''Merzbow's music is definitely NOT for everyone'''''; much of his work is ''extremely'' harsh, dissonant, mechanical and rough-sounding, and often employs ''every form'' of musical SensoryAbuse imaginable, including, but not limited to: heavily distorted, chattering electronics, tape loops, an emphasis on both heavy, sub-sonic bass and piercing ultrasonics, and extensive use of reverb, feedback, and static, which is even made more harsh and sonically abusive through his [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth rough production style]][[note]]Remember this as you keep reading, however; you're in for a big surprise[[/note]]. His music comes across as overwhelming and difficult to listen to, and to the uninititated, may come across as sounding like a massive wall of black noise. Due to this, his music is very, VERY high on the MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness. [[note]]He is the last artist on the scale, with one of his songs being classified as the hardest song in the '''entire''' scale.[[/note]]

** LighterAndSofter: A portion of this work is this to the rest of his work. He's done occasional ambient works, which are basically a 1 or 2 compared to his usual 11+ on the MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness. His collaborations with other artists could also be considered to qualify; he still does his usual harsh noise thing, but since it's underpinned by works with more traditional musical qualities it's still more accessible, making it usually reside in the 6-9 range. Finally, live, while still mind-fuckingly loud, he's not quite as harsh as he is in the studio. His collaborations with Music/{{Boris}} may be a nice place to start with him for people who are afraid of tackling his more typical works; these works generally run the gamut from 1-9 or so on the aforementioned {{Mohs Scale|OfRockAndMetalHardness}} (most of "Headronefish" and the intro/outro to "Sun Baked Snow Cave" are both 1, for example).

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: His output is a VERY, '''VERY''' hard '''[[UpToEleven 11]]''' ''at the lightest'', but what's surprising about him is the fact that, despite being known for his Level 11 music, he has also done Level 1 ambient/chillout music, and in live shows, he is known for toning down his music so as to bring it to around 8-10. Most of the time, though, he cannot be ranked lower than 11 because most of his music is just so hard and brutalizing that it easily goes off the high end of the scale.

Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merzbow_discography has a comprehensive list of his known works]].

** GenreAdultery[=/=]AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: He also produces ambient music, which can be totally jarring when compared to [[HarshNoise his usual]] [[{{industrial}} musical style]].

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: A lot of his works, ever since the early 2000s, have had 'limited' or 'deluxe' versions available to purchase at [[CrackIsCheaper quite]] a high price, and a production run of [[NoExportForYou likely a thousand (or hundred) copies]]. It starts out simple; extra discs containing mixed material, vinyl stickers and maybe postcards/collages of his. But then you get to the absurd stuff including hand-cast metal medallions (Merzbient) and ''swiss army knives'' (Kibako). Most likely they are packaged in either tote bags or elaborate boxes which can be plastic, wooden or even bamboo.
** Not that it's not counting some ''regular'' editions; the [[CompilationRerelease Merzbox]] has '''''eighteen''''' other physical items that aren't in the '''fifty'''-disc box set [[note]]If you were wondering; a poster, 6 stickers and round cards, a biography/essay collection hardbook, two CD-ROMs (one being an interactive multimedia disc, and the other being a catalog/press kit of sorts), a medallion, and a shirt.[[/note]]

* [[WidgetSeries Widget Artist]]: [[CrazyAwesome Hands down, the most eccentric musician in the J-music scene]]. He's even more weird than all of them combined. Also, he is one of the weirdest ElectronicMusic producers ever to gain recognition.

* OddballInTheSeries: Having a discography number ''well'' into the hundreds, he's bound to have a few of these. Releases of the most note:

** ''Hyakki Echo"", a 2017 album that is a straightforward callback to the days of Merzbow being a Free Improvisation duo.

Merzbow began in 1979 as a duo consisting of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani, initially playing {{Industrial}} music, which was not well-recognized during their time. They began garnering recognition in TheEighties with their record label, Lowest Music and Arts, as well as its SpiritualSuccessor, ZSF Produkt, which released material produced by other industrial artists. During this era, the duo began producing recordings for various international labels. Merzbow performed in the USSR in 1988, and have toured the US, Korea, and Europe in TheNineties. In 1993, however, Kiyoshi left to pursue a solo career.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Early works were mostly noisy PsychedelicRock. Merzbow later scrapped this for harsh {{Industrial}} music akin to early power electronics artists such as Music/ThrobbingGristle, and again in TheNineties for a harsher, darker and louder sound influenced by early Brutal DeathMetal bands.

* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: Quite a few, the most notorious being his short-lived trio Flying Testicle, which featured Masonna and Z'ev.

* DreamTeam: Often collaborates with other artists, with Music/{{Boris}}, Music/SunnO, Music/{{Ulver}}, Xiu Xiu, and Full of Hell being notable examples.