Merzbow – Marmo (New Europa Cafe) 2010
The inspiration for Merzbow’s latest album is marble. The press release says that he was in Venice and liked the marble and here is the noise that resulted. It’s all pretty comical really. Those of us who have bought the Birds records and the animal rights ones have probably realised that the sound inside has no link to the title of the CD nor the particular “inspiration” Merzbow felt before he made it. One might suggest that his homage to a particularly memorable can of baked beans would result in a similar noise.
Of course that is not to say that the noise on many of these records is not fantastic. Marmo is not quite up to the standard of Ouroboros but is a pretty sound noise record none the less. In many of my posts on Merzbow’s work I have used the word”scree”. Scree is the small rocks that lie on a mountain slope and it is a word that makes sense when listening to Marmo. Those looking for the cool elegance of marble may need to look elsewhere. What Merzbow adds to the mix of layers on this one is a sound that reminded me of some of the incidental music of the classic French animation Les Planetes Sauvage, particularly the neo-futurist minimalist beeping and bleeping. To get what I mean check out the clip below for around ten seconds at the 102 second mark. And if you haven’t seen that movie you should check it out. One of the strangest things you’ll ever see. Marmo isn’t a great Merzbow record but it still works in a vaguely psychedelic way.
June 16, 2010 at 9:54 am
i dont know why but i really enjoy reading your reviews, i guess you have a really unique way of interpreting sounds and noise and stuff.
keep it up
June 16, 2010 at 11:13 am
cheers