Line #35 Music/Merzbow


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/merzbow_6233.jpg]]
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3	Masami Akita (born December 19, 1956), better known as Merzbow, is a Japanese ElectronicMusic artist and composer, as well as a book writer and editor for various publications.
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5	During his youth, he listened to psychedelic rock, progressive rock and free jazz, all of which influenced his musical style. He has been the drummer for various rock bands during his high school years, but began his musical career as an experimental rock artist with his high school friend Kiyoshi Mizutani.
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7	He later attended Tamagawa University to study fine art, at which he majored in painting and art theory. During this time, he developed an interest in UsefulNotes/{{Dada}}, {{Postmodernism}} and {{surrealism}}, eventually learning about Kurt Schwitters' ''Merz'', or art made from rubbish, including the installation "Merzbau", which became the source of his stage name.
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9	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 1989, however, Kiyoshi left to pursue a solo career.
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11	As of the present time, Merzbow has released over 350 studio recordings. He also has loads and loads of [[IHaveManyNames aliases]] and [[AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder side projects]].
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13	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 electronic music circles, with many indie acts drawing inspiration from his works. However, he has also made forays into [[{{Ambient}} ambient]]-ish music and musique concrète. 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.
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15	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 and 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 uninitiated 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]]
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18	!!Tropes applying to Merzbow:
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20	* AlbumIntroTrack: Several releases feature this, such as ''Project Frequency'', ''1930'', and ''Door Open at 9 am''.
21	* BizarreInstrument: The early 80s Free Improvisation era was full of this, with prepared guitars, sheets of metal, and literal junk often being used.
22	* BrownNote: His music can be a strange RealLife example of this trope in that listeners have reported that it feels like SensoryAbuse for about five to ten minutes before it starts feeling strangely euphoria-inducing. This may in fact be intentional.
23	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Considering his [[HarshNoise musical style]], his surprise vocal inserts in some songs can come across as this.
24	* DarkerAndEdgier: He did this to {{Industrial}}, which is already a very harsh genre in itself.
25	** LighterAndSofter: A portion of this work is this to the rest of his work. He's done occasional ambient works. 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 of various degrees of heaviness (most of "Headronefish" and the intro/outro to "Sun Baked Snow Cave" are both mild, for example).
26	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Early works were mostly chaotic free-improvisation AvantGardeMusic with some hints of PsychedelicRock and NoiseRock. 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.
27	* ElectronicMusic: His main output being a [[GenreRoulette stew]] of the following subgenres:
28	** HarshNoise: He is the TropeCodifier.
29	** {{Industrial}}: One of the pioneers of this musical style. It is arguable that he has made contributions to the development of IndustrialMetal with his DeathMetal-influenced mid-1990s work.
30	** IDM: He is one of the early pioneers of this subgenre, back when it was an UnbuiltTrope.
31	** Ambient, believe it or not.
32	* EpicRocking: For a certain definition of "rocking". His songs can get very long, with some being over an hour.
33	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: He even uses instruments made out of ''trash''.
34	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Merzbient'' is a box set full of mostly ambient works.
35	* GenreBusting: Go ahead. Describe his musical style with one genre. [[SchmuckBait We dare you]].
36	* HiddenTrack: The original release of ''Merzbeat'' features a remix of ''Amlux'' by Jack Dangers, hidden after 65 tracks of silence.
37	* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: The name of the game, for a while.
38	* '''LoudnessWar''': His output might sound like a huge wall of blastbeats and staticky black noise, but surprisngly, he '''''[[AvertedTrope averts]]''''' this trope: almost all of his musical output is highly polished, crystal-clear and uncompressed to the point where almost all the dynamic range is still present.
39	** In a rather extreme example of [[ZigzaggedTrope zigzagging]] this trope, he has not just produced some of the clearest albums on record, but he has also recorded the ''two most horribly brickwalled'' albums ever produced: ''Pulse Demon'' and ''Venereology'', both of which have dynamic ranges of '''''zero''''' and gain values in ''the negative twenties''. The latter of these also contains the loudest track ever put to compact disc: "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times".
40	** Some of his other albums are still fairly loud, having dynamic range values of four or thereabouts. It is highly doubtful whether anyone will ever make a louder album than ''Venereology'', though.
41	* MetalScream: The vocal work in "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times" is made up of nothing but these.
42	* MinimalisticCoverArt: Done every once-in-a-while, most famously with ''Pulse Demon's'' optical illusion cover art. Other releases that feature this include ''Scumtron'', ''Dharma'', and ''Graft''.
43	* NewSoundAlbum: 1990's ''Cloud Cock OO Grand'' marked an important shift in Merzbow's music, as it was the first album to move away from the chaotic industrial-esque, sheet metal and sound collage-heavy sound of the 80s to the harsh noise assaults that would make up the majority of his career.
44	* OddballInTheSeries: Having a discography that numbers ''well'' into the hundreds, he's bound to have a few of these. Releases of the most note:
45	** ''Aka Meme'', a 1984 release that is more or less a straightforward (if still noisy) {{Industrial}} album which is Akita now considers an OldShame and was later remixed in 1996 as ''Red 2 Eyes''.
46	** ''Vibratance'', a 1998 album that spends most of its runtime as a quiet, intimidating Drone album that eventually transitions into Merz's familiar noise.
47	** ''Merzzow'', a relatively quiet and startlingly musical album released in 2002 in tribute to various AvantGardeMusic musicians.
48	** ''Merzbuddha'', another relatively quiet and meditative album with heavy influences from Ambient and Dub music released in 2005.
49	** ''Hyakki Echo'', a 2017 album that is a straightforward callback to the days of Merzbow being a Free Improvisation duo.
50	** ''Hermerzaphrodites'' from 2019 is one half a standard junky harsh noise album, one half a free-improv piano piece with noise overlaying it.
51	* OlderThanTheyLook: That photo of him is pretty recent. He's in his late sixties.
52	* {{Postmodernism}}: He's influenced by Dadaism, PsychedelicRock and early {{Industrial}} artists.
53	* ScareChord: Most of his work contains copious amounts of these, for a certain definition of "chord".
54	* ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic: One of the biggest inversions of this trope in music: he appears like a typical nerd, with long hair, glasses and a skinny physique. [[OlderThanTheyLook He even looks fairly young for his age]]. But his musical output is ''literally'' the auditory equivalent of MindRape.
55	* SensoryAbuse: One of the masters. If your ears aren't bleeding by the end, it ain't a Merzbow album.
56	* SiameseTwinSongs: On some of his releases, as much as they can even be considered "songs". ''Pulse Demon'' is basically a solid wall of noise with track divisions inserted more or less arbitrarily. There are a couple of cases where you can clearly hear significant stylistic shifts between the tracks, but you'd have to be paying close attention for some of the others.
57	* SignatureStyle: Very loud, chattering electronics, time-signature torture, loads and loads of SensoryAbuse, and harsh, disorienting atmospherics.
58	* SomethingBlues: The track title "Ultra Marine Blues", though it doesn't sound anything like any blues you're familiar with.
59	* TheSomethingSong: "Elephant Song" from ''Merzzow''.
60	* {{Supergroup}}: Was in a band with Masonna and Zev Asher, dubbed Flying Testicle.
61	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: His occasional forays into ambient music could count as this.
62	* StylisticSuck: He has ''actual musical talent''. Yes, really, he can make traditional music if he so desires; it only happens that he makes mind-fucking HarshNoise because that's what he is most known for.
63	* TextlessAlbumCover: Done fairly often, again most famously on ''Pulse Demon''.

Context Music / Merzbow