Today, Merzbow is mostly associated with memed-to-death albums such as »Venerology.« Not to disparage anyone from diving into Masami Akita’s 1990s discography, but as a card-carrying merznerd it is my duty to highlight this massive box-set. In 1981, Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani cranked out ten cassette releases, now finally made available on wax through Urashima for the first time. On Collection 001-010, the duo still drew on surrealist techniques, live instrumentation, and tape fuckery to make music that felt like someone had locked Peter Brötzmann, Nurse With Wound, and Pierre Henry into a crashing elevator—not as quote-unquote funny as »Woodpecker,« and serious business instead.
Merzbow – Collection 001-010
