Merzbow - Frog

  by Jon Rogers

published: 22 / 5 / 2003

Label: Misanthropic
Format: CDS

intro

"Unremitting barrage of noise and guitar histrionics" from massively productive, but melodically unstable Japanese maverick musician, Merzbow

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in his notes when he was preparing to write what would posthumously be published as 'The Will to Power': "The decay of melody is the same as the decay of the 'idea', of dialectic, of freedom of the most spiritual activity - a piece of clumsiness and constipation that is developing to new heights of daring and even to principles; - finally, one has only the principles of one's talents, one's narrowmindedness of a talent." There is no melody in Merzbow's (aka Masami Akita) 2001 release 'Frog', just an unremitting barrage of noise and guitar histrionics. Akita is massively productive (some might say overly so, to the point of being the opposite of constipated), constantly releasing album after album. He's even released the retrospective 'Merzbox' which contained 50 CDs, 20 of which had never been released before, but now 'Frog' has been re-released along with an extra CD of additional material along with a remix and a CD-ROM video/screensaver. No doubt this is just what you wanted - even more self-inflicted, grinding noise to your ears - with no time off for good behaviour. Along with pounding, industrial noise there is the odd bit of frogs cawing (basically at the very beginning of the first track) before the onslaught begins. Then the whole thing ends 34-minutes and five tracks later. A mushy mess of sonic aggression, tape loops and just down right weird noises. There's no charm, finesse or panache. Only the final 'Catch 22' shows any signs of promise. If I was sadomasochistic I would have listened to the other disc as well. Plato thought that music is an access to what the French call jouissance (enjoyment, pleasure, possession). He obviously hadn't head 'Frog'. Then again he probably wouldn't count it as music either.

Track Listing:-