MUSIC
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With their debut album, "Isn't Anything," released in 1988, the band revolutionized alternative music and introduced a new approach to guitar music in the years that followed. Their sound became the template for numerous sub-genres and presented a groundbreaking approach to guitar music and studio production. The genderless vocals of Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher, who sing in the same vocal range and blend perfectly together, serve as another melodic layer that complements the dizzying intensity of Shields' guitar. The album is characterized by the eerie sense of space present in many of the recorded tracks, which range from intensely propulsive to quiet and unsettling.
Japanese obi included.
Mastered from original 1/4" analog tape using Studer A80 VU-PRE and Neumann VMS 80
180g vinyl weight
Standard gatefold outer sleeve
Four 300 x 300 mm art prints enclosed
Includes DL code (24-bit | 16-bit | mp3)
Tape comes in only 199 copies with O-card 300g wrapping clear box with j-card and laser print orange shell.
Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The moniker of Japanese artist Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1979. Inspired by dadaism and surrealism, Akita took the name for his project from German artist Kurt Schwitters's pre-war architectural assemblage The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau. Working in his home, he quickly gained notoriety as a purveyor of a musical genre composed solely of pure, unadulterated noise.
Originally released on CD in 1990 by Alchemy Records as part of the Good Alchemy Series, Rainbow Electronics marks the pinnacle of Merzbow's late 80’s noise phase. Selected and transformed from about 21 hours tape of primitive raw material recorded during three years (1987-1990) in 14 fragments lasting about 74 minutes, this monumental work is an aural trip through a cold plotted universe of intergalactic space ships and golden celestial bodies. Remastered in December 2019 and split into four parts directly by the artist for the double vinyl version it opens up with a slow, kind of creepy tempo, reaching from dirty harsh noise flows coupled with eerie reverbed screeches and scrapes of iron objects. Noise and blasts come from every angle, and all you can do is sit and take it. Then continues with solid drumbeats briefly emerging from the static and disappearing just as quickly, again long stretches of subdued electronic drones buzzing along sleepily and the occasional sudden shift of noise into something more violent, though it all happens kind of slowly and gradually. A truly mesmerizing and immersive body of sound and its intense finish is something of pure artform.
“I don't need a lot of words about Merzbow. All you have to do is immerse yourself in the sound.” translated from Japanese liner notes of Alchemy Records CD by Toshiji Mikawa.
Double vinyl comes in only 299 copies with gatefold cover that faithfully reproduces the original art work plus a 12" size insert. If you looking for a great starter title by Merzbow, an amazing piece of art, or something to get high to, this double LP is perfect!
Tape reproduces the original art work and comes in just 199 with O-card 300g wrapping clear box with j-card and laser print green shell.
Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The moniker of Japanese artist Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1979. Inspired by dadaism and surrealism, Akita took the name for his project from German artist Kurt Schwitters's pre-war architectural assemblage The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau. Working in his home, he quickly gained notoriety as a purveyor of a musical genre composed solely of pure, unadulterated noise.
Green Wheels is Merzbow in its most straightforward, most genuine, most uncontrolled and refined form. Originally released by the legendary US label Self Abuse Records in 1995 on CD and 5-inch vinyl record, both housed in a foil-lined cardboard box with the abstract and impressive art work created by the artist himself, which has become another of the fetishist objects of Merzbow and now incredibly hard to find. Like all of his work since the early nineties, Green Wheels is an uncompromising cascade of brutal noise. In this album you find nothing of the minimalism of his early 80s, completely overwhelmed by synthesizers and handmade objects that become his unconventional weapons to create bursts of noise.
The three tracks of the CD which are neatly reissued on the first three sides of the vinyl, radiate the listener from the rackets of a rain of nails on metal plates, the synthetic crashing of bombing, industrial percussion and the metal (green) wheels that roll and scrape. The last side of the record contains the two very short 5-inch tracks that hurt you with thousands of jabs in just a matter of minutes. Then closes with two unreleased tracks from the same fantastic mid-1990s period which can undoubtedly be considered two wonderful discoveries for their intensity and beauty; musical pieces that blend perfectly and complete the reissue on this double vinyl. When you get to the end of the fourth side, you will feel purified, once the granite landslide subsides. It is like mental liposuction, eradicating all anguishes and hesitations.
Everything was perfectly recorded and mixed in March-May 1995 at ZSF Produkt Studio, Masami Akita’s home studio from the late 80s to late 90s; the outcome it's warm and bright as the bare steel of Shinjuko skyscrapers under the (rising) sun of hot Japanese summers.
Of all the incredible artists to have emerged from Japan’s thriving noise scene, it is hard to call to mind a figure as iconic, visionary, or influential as the composer and performer Masami Akita. His work represents ground zero for nearly everything that has followed in its wake. In addition to its incredible noise sounds, this positions Urashima’s newly remastered and expanded Green Wheels 2LP in only 299 copies with gatefold cover that faithfully reproduces the original art work as an incredibly important event. Not only does it present the best sounding release of these recordings to date, but it expands to a double LP, with a never before issued two tracks recordings. Yet another crucial reissue offering from Urashima that towers with historical importance, this one is impossible to recommend enough.
Red/White two-color body cassette.
Limited edition of 200 copies.
All profits from this release will be donated to Ukrainian volunteer groups UAnimals and Save Pets Of Ukraine.