Merzbow
Cafe Oto
UK COLD SPRING RECORDS CSR331CD 2 x CD (2023)
Masami Akita here with a document of what went down when he landed at London’s Cafe Oto in October 2016, now released as two lengthy tracks ‘Untitled Knife I’ and ‘II’ across two power-surge discs.
I’m not sure if we’ve been sent a solo record by Merzbow for some time now, although this label did put out Strange City (his Sun Ra tribute) in 2016, an unhinged energy burst that tilted many a planet out of its gravitational axis. Most of the plaudits and expert appraisals of today’s item are tending to focus on the extremes – the sheer volume, the excessive frequencies, the physical presence of the noise – either referring to the live event itself, or the music on the discs, or both. Witnesses have lived to tell the tale of “a hand-built guitar-like instrument” on the table, hopefully played by our man with the same demonic insistence of a Martian invader clutching a death ray, enhanced by the customary boxes of electronic pedals and filters, and controlled by the infernal mixing desk (reputed to have been custom built by Hephaistos).
In defiance of all this, I purposely toned down the playback to a far more moderate level for today’s audition. A future date may be appropriate for the full volume acid scourge and mallets to the skull, but given my current circumstances the more sedate approach is the only correct one. And? ‘Untitled Knife’ still sounds compelling, urgent, and powerful, and viewed through the wrong end of the telescope we can still see the teeming millions moving about on the planet’s surface, as nature intended, evolving their civilisation at a frightening rate. Yes, “remorseless rhythms” are here for the taking, but you can ride them like the surf inside a water park as you descend into the black oblivion that awaits us. The other aspect that’s equally “remorseless” is the non-stop no-prisoners duration of the piece, that refuses to vary the dynamics or even allow the troops a break for a drink from the canteen, so once you’ve signed up for this commission, you have to ride it out to the end or be carried out on a stretcher.
Another day I may stand in front of the full particle cannon, but for today’s icy balm, a low-volume playback is just perfect. (16/01/2024)