Ducks Battle Satan

H.O.L.Y F.U.C.K.  This is a bit full on.  Bit of an angry one this Pulse Demon. 

This is analogue Merzbow from the mid-1990’s. If your thinking of dabbling stay the fuck away from this one. The primary difference between something like Pulse Demon and the excellent Merz series is that in the Merz series, Merzbow allows other ideas to flourish. The electro-squall fuckery lies above the other ideas (for instance the guitars of Merzbear or the technobeats of Merzbeat). On Pulse Demon, if you listen carefully (and I’m still not convinced that that was the best idea I’ve had this week), you’ll get a aural glimpse of something else poking through the relentless noise. For instance on Woodpecker One there is what sounds like some robo-vocals, on Ultra Marine Blues some industrial clatter can be heard and even some distorted guitar in places, but the effect doesn’t last long before the offending contrast is bludgeoned to death under the cruel  and sickening noise.

Sometimes when I’m listening to Merzbow I wonder what the great man thinks about those who buy his records. Does he have the Lou Reed attitude and find it odd that anyone actually subjected themselves to Pulse Demon (or in Lou Reed’s case Metal Machine Music).  

 Pulse Demon will never be my most played Merzbow record. It’s better than Bloody Sea for instance but my softspot will always be for Merzzow.  There are moments of restraint  on Pulse Demon that give some respite to the sheer aural nastiness of it all and when it gets held back just a bit the noise on Pulse Demon is not a whole lot different to some found on Merzbear, particularly on the longer tracks suck as Tokyo Time Ten. The thing is you have to listen carefully and as I’ve said that may not be such a good idea. (Time to get that nice Necks record out. Ears…need…to…heal)

This entry was posted on November 18, 2008 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Merzbow, Music, noise with tags Merzbow. 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.