Ducks Battle Satan

This record was a find in the second hand section of my local rip-off independent record store. I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of this record but that wasn’t particularly suprising given how quickly Merzbow releases records. This fine example is one of his “merz” series of records (the latest of course being Merzbear.) It came out on a small US Label and I have no idea whether you can still get it. It may not have had a wide release given the fact that allmusic doesn’t even list it. So how does it stack up? Well I think this may the most accessible thing he’s done. Forget the extreme noise terror that you hear about. This record throbs! Think more Suicide and a disturbed electronic version of southern fried boogie. Think of noise getting locked in a groove. Sweet lord this could be the most poppy thing of his that I’ve heard.

The whole thing kicks off with Elephant Song which swaggers with a southern rock groove interrupted by the odd sonic gurgle and crash. It’s finished by the most sublime Suicide-esque throb since Spacemen 3. The real treat though is the tracks Inside Looking Out Pt1 and Pt2. Parts of those tracks are almost Birchville-like in their sonic subtlety and transcendent drone. There are still traditional Merzbow (whatever that means) moments on Merzzow. The track Horse is an example but it kind of feels out of place considering the sublime nature of the previous six tracks.

If you can find this and have any interest in experimental noise you need to buy it. I have no idea where to head to next with my exploration of Merzbow’s back catalogue. Any ideas?

This entry was posted on February 26, 2008 at 11:29 am and is filed under Merzbow, noise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.