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Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (CS)Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (CS)
Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (CS)Darling Recordings
¥1,964
“I could not be alive alone,” a longtime family friend said to Merce with a smile. “None of us could be alive alone.” Within the quiet, cascading corners of Pittsburgh lies a community – nothing short of one large family – that spans zip codes, histories, occupations, and generations, always tumbling into itself, propped up by steadfast pillars of conviction toward spiritual and emotional mutual aid. The kind of earnest community scaffolding that gets bandied about, wielded as conjecture, particularly in an age of increasing fracture through digital sublimation, is alive and quite well within the universe surrounding Merce Lemon. When asked how the city has inspired her creative practice, she responds with a characteristic joke wrapped in an earthen warmth – “There are big hills, three rivers, and more bridges than anywhere in the whole world.” Growing up in a family of art and music in a city with a small, but vigorously supportive scene, Merce has been going to shows here her whole life, even playing them with the “grown up” friends of her parents – as recently as a few years ago, her band was comprised of her own father and his peers in the Pittsburgh music community. Merce took a step back in 2020, after releasing her last album 'Moonth', to reassess during an era of anxiety and lockdown – even the reliably nourishing exercise of sharing and playing music felt precarious. “I was grappling with what kind of relationship I wanted with music in my life. It was just something I’d always done, and I didn't want to lose the magic of that – but I was just having less fun.” In this time of restless non-direction, she turned her gaze inwardly, down to the roots – figuratively and literally. “I got dirty and slept outside most of the summer. I learned a lot about plants and farming, just writing for myself, and in that time I just slowly accumulated songs.” A never-ending creative hunger, supported by the community framework she’d always been able to depend on, had been newly fertilized by the wide-eyed inspiration that came from plunging her hands into both the earth’s soil and her own. Rooting around for an answer, finding and turning in her palms what had been buried there all along – from this rediscovery, imbued with the vitality of earth’s green magic, 'Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild' sprouted forth. The album emerges, enveloped in propulsive guitars and saccharine-sweet songs of blackbirds and blueberries, from the dead-calm center of a pastoral frenzy in a manner that one could argue as erratic, reckless — a grave misconception, as Merce is just as aware of where she’s being pulled from as she is curious about where to go next. Her sound is built upon a reverence and gratitude for the natural world, how paying respect to it charts a more confident path through the choppy waters of the heart. On the soft and confessional “Rain,” she maps memory onto the stillness of the landscape around her, panning for clarity in an endlessly blue sky: “I can see your relentlessness / in the muddy puddles where retting is / shattering the splintered stalks / where golden braids pour into drops." In her music, romantic and familial love rips into and out of itself, barely registering as disparate feelings in the flurry of reckoning. Lead single “Backyard Lover” is an honest and incisive exploration of this confused, raw intimacy. In it, a warm memory gently meanders alongside warbling steel and guitars, tinged with a classic outlaw haze, before it suddenly erupts with the frustration of a broken promise, making way for a cathartic sonic fury – “what dying felt like / a wooden spoon tossed in the fire / cause nothings good enough / you fucking liar.“ The song’s climax deftly uncovers the formidable heartbeat hidden underneath the floorboards of her creative expulsion: loss. “So many of my songs are touched by and explore death, specifically in relation to the loss I experienced of my best friend when I was fifteen years old” says Merce. “That loss has forever changed me and who I am in my relationships to lovers, friends, family." In reconciling the quiet conflict of a desire for closeness and a solitude cultivated by distrust, there is a fierceness, a persistence in her vulnerability, matched in droves by the wildness of her band. These songs range, often within the structure of a single track, from ballads to blown out electric riffs combating feedback, harmonies concealed behind wailing guitars, both dependent on each other as they careen towards new meaning. They build slowly, synthesizing a naturalist’s penchant for romance and nihilism to create the warring, triumphantly escalating nature of Merce’s lyrics and her band’s heavy entropy. For Merce, the only certainty is the endlessly shifting nature of a river, roaring straight past a dogwood, never missing the opportunity to watch a petal fluttering to the ground in the rear view. They are songs of belonging just as much as they are songs of longing – ”Say I was a lonely gust of wind / could I redirect them,” she muses in “Crow”, one of the more hopeful tracks on the record. Its structure is simple, gentle acoustics pushed forward by an ever-present and fluid percussion that guides the song as naturally as Merce hopes to guide the “murderous flock,” forgoing the voyeur in all of our hearts and comfortably settling in the supportive role of a shepherd – “I’d make a city of this ghost town / even let the crows come / rest their necks / and nest their young.” There is an oaken strength in 'Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild' that makes it easy to love – once wild, still free, honest and familiar. Its genesis is timeless, its restlessness eternal – it is one cohesive yet unanswered question built around, and dependent upon, the life-giving force of nature that came before Merce. The album’s closing track also inspires its title – a lonely ballad of forlorn projection into an unknown future, forever protected by the comforting green of Pittsburgh’s hills, rivers, bridges, and homes: “Old man howling / laughing his teeth out / with the dogs down the hill. And a tree fell / I smell the wood / and the bark is coming off in sheets / I write my words down on it. And honestly / the thoughts of a husband / weighing on me.”

Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (LP)Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (LP)
Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (LP)Darling Recordings
¥3,148
“I could not be alive alone,” a longtime family friend said to Merce with a smile. “None of us could be alive alone.” Within the quiet, cascading corners of Pittsburgh lies a community – nothing short of one large family – that spans zip codes, histories, occupations, and generations, always tumbling into itself, propped up by steadfast pillars of conviction toward spiritual and emotional mutual aid. The kind of earnest community scaffolding that gets bandied about, wielded as conjecture, particularly in an age of increasing fracture through digital sublimation, is alive and quite well within the universe surrounding Merce Lemon. When asked how the city has inspired her creative practice, she responds with a characteristic joke wrapped in an earthen warmth – “There are big hills, three rivers, and more bridges than anywhere in the whole world.” Growing up in a family of art and music in a city with a small, but vigorously supportive scene, Merce has been going to shows here her whole life, even playing them with the “grown up” friends of her parents – as recently as a few years ago, her band was comprised of her own father and his peers in the Pittsburgh music community. Merce took a step back in 2020, after releasing her last album 'Moonth', to reassess during an era of anxiety and lockdown – even the reliably nourishing exercise of sharing and playing music felt precarious. “I was grappling with what kind of relationship I wanted with music in my life. It was just something I’d always done, and I didn't want to lose the magic of that – but I was just having less fun.” In this time of restless non-direction, she turned her gaze inwardly, down to the roots – figuratively and literally. “I got dirty and slept outside most of the summer. I learned a lot about plants and farming, just writing for myself, and in that time I just slowly accumulated songs.” A never-ending creative hunger, supported by the community framework she’d always been able to depend on, had been newly fertilized by the wide-eyed inspiration that came from plunging her hands into both the earth’s soil and her own. Rooting around for an answer, finding and turning in her palms what had been buried there all along – from this rediscovery, imbued with the vitality of earth’s green magic, 'Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild' sprouted forth. The album emerges, enveloped in propulsive guitars and saccharine-sweet songs of blackbirds and blueberries, from the dead-calm center of a pastoral frenzy in a manner that one could argue as erratic, reckless — a grave misconception, as Merce is just as aware of where she’s being pulled from as she is curious about where to go next. Her sound is built upon a reverence and gratitude for the natural world, how paying respect to it charts a more confident path through the choppy waters of the heart. On the soft and confessional “Rain,” she maps memory onto the stillness of the landscape around her, panning for clarity in an endlessly blue sky: “I can see your relentlessness / in the muddy puddles where retting is / shattering the splintered stalks / where golden braids pour into drops." In her music, romantic and familial love rips into and out of itself, barely registering as disparate feelings in the flurry of reckoning. Lead single “Backyard Lover” is an honest and incisive exploration of this confused, raw intimacy. In it, a warm memory gently meanders alongside warbling steel and guitars, tinged with a classic outlaw haze, before it suddenly erupts with the frustration of a broken promise, making way for a cathartic sonic fury – “what dying felt like / a wooden spoon tossed in the fire / cause nothings good enough / you fucking liar.“ The song’s climax deftly uncovers the formidable heartbeat hidden underneath the floorboards of her creative expulsion: loss. “So many of my songs are touched by and explore death, specifically in relation to the loss I experienced of my best friend when I was fifteen years old” says Merce. “That loss has forever changed me and who I am in my relationships to lovers, friends, family." In reconciling the quiet conflict of a desire for closeness and a solitude cultivated by distrust, there is a fierceness, a persistence in her vulnerability, matched in droves by the wildness of her band. These songs range, often within the structure of a single track, from ballads to blown out electric riffs combating feedback, harmonies concealed behind wailing guitars, both dependent on each other as they careen towards new meaning. They build slowly, synthesizing a naturalist’s penchant for romance and nihilism to create the warring, triumphantly escalating nature of Merce’s lyrics and her band’s heavy entropy. For Merce, the only certainty is the endlessly shifting nature of a river, roaring straight past a dogwood, never missing the opportunity to watch a petal fluttering to the ground in the rear view. They are songs of belonging just as much as they are songs of longing – ”Say I was a lonely gust of wind / could I redirect them,” she muses in “Crow”, one of the more hopeful tracks on the record. Its structure is simple, gentle acoustics pushed forward by an ever-present and fluid percussion that guides the song as naturally as Merce hopes to guide the “murderous flock,” forgoing the voyeur in all of our hearts and comfortably settling in the supportive role of a shepherd – “I’d make a city of this ghost town / even let the crows come / rest their necks / and nest their young.” There is an oaken strength in 'Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild' that makes it easy to love – once wild, still free, honest and familiar. Its genesis is timeless, its restlessness eternal – it is one cohesive yet unanswered question built around, and dependent upon, the life-giving force of nature that came before Merce. The album’s closing track also inspires its title – a lonely ballad of forlorn projection into an unknown future, forever protected by the comforting green of Pittsburgh’s hills, rivers, bridges, and homes: “Old man howling / laughing his teeth out / with the dogs down the hill. And a tree fell / I smell the wood / and the bark is coming off in sheets / I write my words down on it. And honestly / the thoughts of a husband / weighing on me.”

Meredith Young-Sowers - Agartha: Personal Meditation Music (7CD BOX)Meredith Young-Sowers - Agartha: Personal Meditation Music (7CD BOX)
Meredith Young-Sowers - Agartha: Personal Meditation Music (7CD BOX)Important Records
¥9,492

Agartha, Personal Meditation Music is a 7 CD boxed set, originally released on cassette in 1986, at the height of New Age, as an aid for meditation and alignment. Bringing to mind 20th century composers like Eliane Radigue, La Monte Young or even Brian Eno's Shutov Assembly, the time-stopping, enveloping, electronic music contained in this series sounds eerily modern, mysterious and moving. Characterized by deep analog drones, rising overtones, floating frequencies surfing on sine-waves and intervals with mystic modulation, this is truly moving, vibrational music.

In Agartha, the individual notes of each Harmonic Triad proceed in a fashion that is neither improvisational nor chance-based, nor is it generative. Instead the music flows outward as if being transmitted— or channeled — from a place outside human consciousness. There is a profound sense of cosmic depth expanding ever outward as the music fills the listener with waves of emotion, and a palpable somatic response is felt, although there are subtle differences with eachunique Triad.

Each disc is individually packaged in original replica sleeves and housed in a heavy duty cardboard clamshell box. Digitized and remastered by Jessica Thompson. Liner notes include extensive instructions for use from the original text and an essay by library music scholar David Hollander.

The original edition of Agartha, Personal Meditation Music, featured one track 30 minute track per tape repeated on both sides. Subsequent editions had unique Side B tracks on all but two of the 7 volumes. We have included all tracks in this boxed set.

"if you liked Light In The Attic’s crucial box set I Am The Center, do not sleep on this." Quietus <iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 472px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1116134619/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://imprec.bandcamp.com/album/agartha-personal-meditation-music-1985-7-cd-box">Agartha: Personal Meditation Music (1985) 7 CD Box by Meredith Young-Sowers</a></iframe>

Meridian Brothers -  VII (Transparent Lime Vinyl 2LP)
Meridian Brothers - VII (Transparent Lime Vinyl 2LP)Holidays Records
¥5,325

Before Guaracha UFO propelled Meridian Brothers onto the international stage, Eblis Álvarez was already shaping his singular sonic universe in the shadows. Released only on CD in between 2009 and 2012 via local label La Distritofónica, Meridian Brothers VI and VII never had wide distribution or media exposure. Yet, these albums represent a crucial phase in the band’s evolution, capturing the energy of Bogotá’s experimental cumbia scene at the time.

On VI, Álvarez crafts a hallucinatory patchwork of cumbia and vallenato, using his guitar as the guiding thread before layering other instruments on top. VII pushes experimentation even further with a custom-built sampling algorithm, generating unpredictable loops and grooves. These two albums laid the foundation for the radical fusion and irreverent spirit that would later define Meridian Brothers.

Now reissued on vinyl for the first time, these historic recordings offer a raw and fascinating glimpse into the origins of one of Latin America’s most forward-thinking musical projects.

Meridian Brothers - VI (Carambolo Yellow Vinyl 2LP)
Meridian Brothers - VI (Carambolo Yellow Vinyl 2LP)HOLIDAYS RECORDS
¥5,325

Before Guaracha UFO propelled Meridian Brothers onto the international stage, Eblis Álvarez was already shaping his singular sonic universe in the shadows. Released only on CD in between 2009 and 2012 via local label La Distritofónica, Meridian Brothers VI and VII never had wide distribution or media exposure. Yet, these albums represent a crucial phase in the band’s evolution, capturing the energy of Bogotá’s experimental cumbia scene at the time.

On VI, Álvarez crafts a hallucinatory patchwork of cumbia and vallenato, using his guitar as the guiding thread before layering other instruments on top. VII pushes experimentation even further with a custom-built sampling algorithm, generating unpredictable loops and grooves. These two albums laid the foundation for the radical fusion and irreverent spirit that would later define Meridian Brothers.

Now reissued on vinyl for the first time, these historic recordings offer a raw and fascinating glimpse into the origins of one of Latin America’s most forward-thinking musical projects.

Mermaid - Dub Forever (LP)
Mermaid - Dub Forever (LP)BEER & RECORDS
¥3,960

DUB FOREVER blends Reggae, electronic texture, his own vocals and references to classics — Bach's Air on the G String, Gossec's Gavotte, the traditional Japanese song January 1st, and more.Limited to 500 copies.

Mermaid - Dubmaid (LP)
Mermaid - Dubmaid (LP)BEER & RECORDS
¥3,960

Japanese musician MERMAID focuses on new roots dub with all bases in sine wave. The songs have plenty of echoes of chamber music, Japanese folk songs and chopped his own voices, giving the listener layered sounds with a rather odd sense of humour :) MERMAID is one of the members of DDM (Dangerous Dance Music), which is the movement originated from the Tokyo record store 'Los Apson?'. After contributing to various dub and electronic compilations and continuing his own research into reggae, he now unveils 10 tracks in DUBMAID. Limited to 300 copies.

Merope - Naktės (LP)Merope - Naktės (LP)
Merope - Naktės (LP)STROOM.tv
¥2,928
The 3th album by MEROPE (2018) with arrangements of Lithuanian folk songs and own compositions. A unique trio sound with a blend of acoustic instruments, voice, el. guitar and electronics. Naktes presents a world full of wonder, inspired by the atmosphere of the night. After the release of Merope 'Salos' (STRLP-051 / gran21) we decided to repress Merope's previous album Naktes too. A collaboration with Stroom & granvat.
Merope - Salos (LP)
Merope - Salos (LP)STROOM.tv
¥2,928
London hyper-connector label Accidental Meetings hustle exclusive work by Jay Glass Dubs’ Wild Terrier Orchestra, Rupert Clervaux, Susu Laroche, Bruce, Luke Lund, FUMU, Ausschuss, Dijit, memotone, Giant Swan’s Robin Stewart and more in aid of charity for victims of the Pakistan floods Converging from myriad disciplines, the artists on board all channel a certain mix of self-reflective solemnity, intensity and optimism into their musics here. We’re particularly struck by the cold tonal abstraction and grind of Bruce’s away day ‘Self Doubt’, and likewise the haunting shape of Abu Ama’s trampling Arabic drums, charred drone and ululations on ‘Away With You’, the anxious grapple of FUMU on ‘Tougher than Dartmoor Tundra’, and a pair of meditative wonders pivoting around Dimitris Papadatos in the autotuned dub prayer ‘The Creatures in Defence’ as Jay Glass Dubs with X. YPNO, or the radiant microtonal ritualism to ‘Osman Takas’ by his Wild Terrier Orchestra. Egypt’s Youth affiliate Dijit also charms with the sitar-laced illbient downstroke of ’Sharq’, MAL’s Ausschuss lays down gravelly drill shades away from Mobbs in ‘True Partner’, and Angel Hunt serves a set highlight of Arabic-inflected 2-step on ‘Rainham Steel’, chiming with club-adjacent tackle in Luke Lund’s Beau Wanzer-esque grinder ‘Imposter (Bristol Action)’, the Muslimgauze-like percussive rattle of Rupert Clervaux an HMOT’s ‘Zum F/F’, plus Livity Sound paralleling rhythmic workout from Saskia and the restless uptempo slug of Robin Stewart .iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 373px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2639086951/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless>Islands by Merope
Mert Seger - Empire Des Pulsions (CS+DL)Mert Seger - Empire Des Pulsions (CS+DL)
Mert Seger - Empire Des Pulsions (CS+DL)PLAQUE
¥2,315

‘She who loves silence’.

Founder of KUMP and Meth.O tapes, Lyon’s Marc-Étienne Guibert (AKA Gil.Barte) awakens his new Mert Seger moniker for a shadowy Plaque excursion. Nine slow burners strike from the murk with venomous precision.

Merzbow & Akio Jeimus -  Any Other Utterance (LP)
Merzbow & Akio Jeimus - Any Other Utterance (LP)Honey Farm
¥3,206

All music by Merzbow & Akio Jeimus

Recorded at Munemihouse & Avant Chop Studios 2025

Mixed by Masami Akita at Munemihouse

"Fusia's Joule 1" and "Fusia's Joule 2" recorded live by Ki Moon Song at Polaris, Tokyo March 2, 2025

Mastered by Cedrik Fermont at Syrphe

Photo by Akio Jeimus

Inner poster artwork by MA AI generated

Design & Layout by Parker Thiessen

Since adopting the Merzbow moniker in 1979, Masami Akita has collaborated widely with artists across noise, free jazz, and experimental music. 2025 saw him recording with Akio Jeimus, a Chicago-born, Japan-based drummer who has worked with Toshimaru Nakamura, Akira Sakata, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Otomo Yoshihide, and currently performs as a member of the Osaka group goat (jp). Jeimus approaches the drum kit with restless, intuitive physicality, marked by a fondness for chance interplay and extended techniques. Consisting of studio sessions as well as recordings taken from a live performance in March 2025 in Tokyo, Any Other Utterance captures noise and drum set locked in motion, where patterns continuously form, self-destruct, and collide.

Opening with the studio track “Florescent Silhouettes,” the record bursts out of the gate with a flurry of cascading drums as Masami’s electronics roar and churn. Midway through, the noise condenses into a stuttering, squirming pulse as cymbals and snare drum volley in response. By the end of the track, the electronics pierce through the percussion, a high-pitched squall stretching into a sustained howl.

The B-side, comprised of “Fusia's Joule 1” and “Fusia's Joule 2” (perhaps named after the color of the dynamic lighting at the venue that night), captures the duo in raw, unrestrained form on stage — a storm of noise introducing itself immediately and refusing to relent. But the storm suddenly cuts out six minutes in, leaving only Jeimus’ clattering percussion, unrelenting in its own way. He moves between percussive bursts and crashes of cymbals and bells, scraping and smearing the kit to draw out blurred textures. Masami soon returns with sharp, surprising stabs of sampled piano. Interlaced with blasts of distortion, the piano punctures the air of the 70-person venue in downtown Tokyo, as the performance mutates into a kind of twisted free-jazz duo.

Across both halves, Any Other Utterance documents a shifting relationship between the drum set and noise: two forces chasing, interrupting, and reshaping each other in real time. What’s left isn’t resolution, but the sense of motion itself.

- Jake S.

Merzbow & Lawrence English - Eternal Stalker (Red/White Swir Color LP)Merzbow & Lawrence English - Eternal Stalker (Red/White Swir Color LP)
Merzbow & Lawrence English - Eternal Stalker (Red/White Swir Color LP)Dais Records
¥2,992
On their first official collaboration, Japanese noise pioneer Masami Akita aka Merzbow and Australian sound sculptor Lawrence English present a harrowing, surrealist portrait of nocturnal industrial activity, spawned by field recordings made in a sprawling factory complex seven hours north of English’s home in Brisbane. He characterizes the area as “uneasy and unsettling,” awash in the sickly glow of smelters and refinement machinery, somehow not of this world – a liminal quality vividly captured in Andrei Tarkovsky’s sprawling purgatorial opus, Stalker, to which the title alludes. Akita, too, described early drafts of Eternal Stalker as feeling “like the soundtrack to a dystopian science fiction opera.” A mood of mechanical dread and ruined futures permeates each of the album’s seven potent compositions. Opener “The Long Dream” sets the stage with steady rain on sheet metal, punctured by thunder and metallic echoes, reverberating to the rafters in a collapsing warehouse. Quickly the tempest rises. “A Gate Of Light” and “Magnetic Traps” both convulse in churning furies of electric demolition and rattling chains, roaring and relentless. “The Visit” and “Black Thicket” operate more at a distance, surveying the topography of steam, rust, and liquid metal from above, their flickers of violence like gunfire swallowed by blankets of darkness. This is noise at its most elemental and unknowable: brooding, bristling, and opaque, stalking forbidden peripheries of chaos and creation. Discussing Akita’s music, English refers to its “intense substrata that is purely psychedelic; it consumes and confounds.” The seasick swells of friction and fracture subsume the listener, forcing an auditory surrender: “this saturation of the senses can be a euphoria.” Proof comes halfway through “The Golden Sphere,” when the howling mayhem subtly recedes, revealing an eerie siren drone hovering in the void, like the resonance of a dead star galaxies away. Slowly a seething, venomous wall of volume returns, shredding the signal until its frequencies fray, whipping away into the eye of the storm. The combined effect merges obliteration and liberation, rapture and ravagement; it’s the sound of dissolution as resolution, uprooted and unmoored, finally freed from form.
Merzbow & Total -  Merzbow Mixed Total (LP)Merzbow & Total -  Merzbow Mixed Total (LP)
Merzbow & Total - Merzbow Mixed Total (LP)No Holiday
¥2,923

The two masters, thousands of miles apart, released this fearsome collaboration in 1997 on Sterilized Decay. Matthew Bower's source sounds were processed, mangled and reassembled by Masami Akita for 50 minutes of unbridled destruction. At once a summation and reconfiguration of both artist's incredible work throughout the 1990s. Remastered and with a new layout based on the original tape.

Merzbow + Agencement - Rilievo (CD)
Merzbow + Agencement - Rilievo (CD)Pico
¥2,420

I've just released a collaboration CD album under the name of my Agencement with Masami Akita's Merzbow, which was recorded in autumn 2024.

I hadn't been in contact with him for a very long time, but we were recontacted and considered for a collaborative project for a few years, and we finally did it this time.
We also did the cover artwork for each side.

This is not a digital-only release, so please pick up the CD and listen to it.

Merzbow + licht-ung - merzlicht (10")Merzbow + licht-ung - merzlicht (10")
Merzbow + licht-ung - merzlicht (10")licht‑ung
¥3,678

Merzbow, aka Masami Akita, and Seyfried A. Hatter, aka licht-ung, based in Cologne, Germany, have collaborated on a 10-inch limited edition release titled Merzlicht. A psychedelic and minimalist noise excursion. licht-ung's abstract silence contrasts with Merzbow's intense noise explosions, yet they seamlessly blend together. The dramatic transition from licht-ung's delicate layered construction of violin and noise to Merzbow's explosive noise, as if revealing his true nature, is particularly striking. An intriguing collaboration that harmonizes the textures of both artists. Limited to 100 copies—don't miss out!

Merzbow -  Animal Magnetism (Purple Vinyl 2LP)Merzbow -  Animal Magnetism (Purple Vinyl 2LP)
Merzbow - Animal Magnetism (Purple Vinyl 2LP)Urashima
¥6,472

For over four decades, Masami Akita, the man behind Merzbow, has remained one of the most singular and uncompromising figures in experimental music. Known as a pioneer of Japanese noise and a tireless sonic innovator, Akita has consistently pushed boundaries, exploring sound not as a vehicle for melody or harmony, but as a raw material to be shaped, sculpted, and sometimes obliterated. His prolific output spans hundreds of releases, each one revealing a different angle of his evolving sonic philosophy — from dense analog textures to intricate digital manipulations.

Originally released on CD in 2003, Animal Magnetism is now receiving a long-overdue vinyl reissue — a deluxe edition that not only revives the album but enhances it. This new edition has been meticulously remastered by Lasse Marhaug, a respected figure in noise and experimental music who brings on vinyl reissue new clarity, weight, and depth to the recordings. Spread across two vinyl LPs and housed in a gatefold sleeve, the reissue replicates the original artwork, including Masami Akita’s own photographs, while also adding a previously unreleased bonus track, “Quiet Comfort #2.”

Animal Magnetism occupies a unique position in Merzbow’s vast catalogue. It is a work that remains firmly rooted in the artist’s signature approach — dense layers of distortion, feedback, and electronic debris — but it also stands out for its sense of structure, variation, and surprising accessibility. It’s an album that, while intense, is not impenetrable. It invites the listener to explore its textures and uncover subtle melodic patterns and rhythmic shifts beneath the surface noise.

The opening title track sets the tone: a chaotic yet strangely hypnotic blend of static, metallic clangs, fractured beats, and synthetic tones. There's a sense of tension throughout — familiar in Merzbow’s work — but here, it builds gradually, revealing layers rather than overwhelming the listener all at once. There’s even the faint outline of something resembling a melody, buried deep beneath the sonic rubble, slowly emerging and fading as the piece unfolds.

What makes Animal Magnetism distinctive is its balance between harsh noise and a more refined, composed sensibility. Where many Merzbow albums plunge into total abstraction, this one maintains a sense of movement and progression. Tracks evolve over time, flowing into one another with a kind of warped continuity. Noise isn’t just a wall here — it breathes, pulses, and shifts form.

One of the album’s highlights, “Quiet Men,” is a surprisingly playful and kinetic track. High-pitched, swirling sounds bounce around in cartoon-like patterns, giving the piece a strange but infectious energy. It’s vivid, bright, and almost whimsical — a striking contrast to Merzbow’s more oppressive works. Yet, it never abandons the core aesthetic of noise: distortion, friction, repetition — only here, it’s presented with a lighter touch, almost like a satire of dance music through a noise lens.

The album’s longest piece, “A Ptarmigan,” stretches to more of twenty minutes and showcases Merzbow’s gift for long-form development. The track shifts dramatically over its runtime — starting with a sense of movement and brightness, before descending into slow, grinding dirges. At one point it feels almost celebratory, the next meditative and ominous. It’s a miniature sonic journey that encapsulates many of the album’s contrasts: playfulness and heaviness, speed and inertia, chaos and control.

Later, “Super Sheep” picks up the pace, with a more aggressive rhythmic drive. While its bass line may evoke familiar electronic or break core structures, Merzbow twists and mutates it into something uniquely his own. The distortion here feels intentional and compositional — not just as an effect, but as a central part of the track’s logic. It’s not chaos for chaos’s sake, but a carefully controlled burn. Another standout, “Pier 39,” veers into ambient territory. Gentle scraping textures, soft frequencies, and minimal movement make it a quiet anomaly in the tracklist — but also a necessary one. It shows how even within the noise genre, Merzbow is capable of creating space and silence, of dialing back the intensity to explore fragility and restraint. The newly added bonus track, “Quiet Comfort #2,” fits seamlessly into the album’s sound world. It serves as both a continuation and a reflection, extending the album’s themes while offering something fresh.

Today, as interest in Merzbow continues to rise — with new generations discovering the depth and breadth of his work — this reissue feels especially timely. It’s a reminder that noise can be complex, emotional, and even, beautiful. Animal Magnetism is not just for seasoned noise fans, but also for adventurous listeners looking for a unique and challenging experience that rewards attention and repeated listening. This edition is a must-have for collectors and newcomers alike: an essential document of an artist who continues to redefine the outer edges of sound.

Merzbow -  Hatonal (LP)Merzbow -  Hatonal (LP)
Merzbow - Hatonal (LP)Industrial Complexx
¥6,442

Nobody feels the sound fracturing as Masami Akita, nobody understands noise better than Merzbow. This Japanese artist is for more than forty years the maximum exponent of a style that has been catalogued and denominated with perhaps, the most descriptive word of modern music. Noise can have very diverse connotations, however, when we transfer this term to the pleasure and enjoyment that a piece of music generates in the listener, when we treat non-music as music, we understand that sound expressions can be endless, and that noise is a sound tool with the same recreational functionality as any other musical genre.

Blod, together with Heathens, is a Swedish platform that operates as a single entity and divides its activity between experimental music (Blod) and music created expressly for the dancefloor (Heathens). Blod allies with the Spanish label Industrial Complexx to release Hatonal, a work that shows the evolution, style and strength of Merzbow to generate an extreme sound, based on chaos, in the sum of frequencies, in its subsequent distortion and in a continuous and controlled feedback. The release is divided into two pieces of absolute psychological cut, with electric impulses, metallic scratches, pumping feedbacks and expansive dissonances.

Merzbow -  Magpie (Black Vinyl 9’ lathe cut)
Merzbow - Magpie (Black Vinyl 9’ lathe cut)Frei zum Abriss Kollektiv
¥4,400

German independent label Frei zum Abriss Kollektiv (FZAK) presents Merzbow (aka Masami Akita)'s 9-inch lathe-cut record Magpie. This release is both an example of Merzbow's new sonic explorations and a collector's item, with only 20 copies of the clear vinyl available in this artistic lathe-cut format. Despite being a 2024 recording, this latest work inherits Merzbow's traditional profound noise aesthetics while also capturing the warmth and physical presence of a handmade recording, having been recorded and mixed at Akita's home studio, “Munemihouse.”

Merzbow -  Red Magnesia Pink (CD)
Merzbow - Red Magnesia Pink (CD)No Holiday
¥1,986

First released by Extreme in the massive, infamous 'Merzbox,' "Red Magnesia Pink" is extracted and recontextualized as a standalone release for the first time. Recorded in 1995, "Red Magnesia Pink" sees Merzbow in peak form. A psychedelic whirlwind of synthetic transmissions; harsh, wet, screeching sounds that could only be produced by Masami Akita. Featuring two previously unreleased bonus tracks from the same era.

Merzbow -  Red Magnesia Pink (LP)
Merzbow - Red Magnesia Pink (LP)No Holiday
¥3,866

First released by Extreme in the massive, infamous 'Merzbox,' "Red Magnesia Pink" is extracted and recontextualized as a standalone release for the first time. Recorded in 1995, "Red Magnesia Pink" sees Merzbow in peak form. A psychedelic whirlwind of synthetic transmissions; harsh, wet, screeching sounds that could only be produced by Masami Akita. Featuring two previously unreleased bonus tracks from the same era.

Merzbow -  Torus (LP)Merzbow -  Torus (LP)
Merzbow - Torus (LP)JEZGR
¥2,200

Jezgro is proud to present the second release by the almighty god of noise Merzbow. "Torus" is bleak, twisted and uncompromising EP, that has a tendency to disturb and sooth, both at the same time, your inner dark parts and make you question your moral.

Merzbow - Aka Meme (CS)
Merzbow - Aka Meme (CS)Old Europa Cafe
¥2,476

*199 copies limited edition* Aka Meme by Merzbow was first released on Music-Cassette in 1983 on Masami'a own label ZSF Produkt and on V2 Uitgave (a Sub-label of V2 Organisation). Tape was later re-released in other two editions but is long time sold-out and impossible to find. Finally OEC is going to re-release that special tape once more. This is Industrial-Noise from the very first era made by the master of Japanoise. Recordings are mixing many different sounds that range from: ritual-sounds / vocals / found-sounds / treated-guitar / many different rythms / noise.... and a wired and wide range of other bubbling & rumbling sounds! A total merzexperience!

Merzbow - Amlux (20th Anniversary Edition) (Silver Colored Vinyl 2LP)Merzbow - Amlux (20th Anniversary Edition) (Silver Colored Vinyl 2LP)
Merzbow - Amlux (20th Anniversary Edition) (Silver Colored Vinyl 2LP)Aurora Central Records
¥4,923

Celebrating 20 years of one of the most brutally honest and experimental albums in the last 50 years. A true gem that is coming for the first time on vinyl as a double metallic gray colored LP. Newly remastered album by Masami Akita himself, this release includes 4 new tracks and new artwork revisiting the location of the famous Amlux tower 20 years in the future taken by the artist. This is limited to 300 copies Worldwide.

Every copy purchased through our Bandcamp will include a limited edition print of the artwork signed by the photographer Jose Moreno Rahn of one of the new artwork included in the 20th anniversary edition of the vinyl record.

Merzbow - Aqua Necromancer (2LP)
Merzbow - Aqua Necromancer (2LP)Absurd Exposition
¥3,395
Masami Akita's psych-noise mantra originally released on CD in 1998 by Alien8 Recordings. Expanded double LP reissue available now in standard black and limited white vinyl editions. Remastered by M.A. in 2021 with additional material from the same sessions.

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