Album: Expanded Music
Artist: Merzbow
Genre: Noise
Suggested by: grindy
Familiarity: Listened to the rest of the albums up to this point.
1. Manipulation 1 - Hello, who is it? Damn phone's ringing. Knowing Merzbow as well as I do, it will probably go away halfway through the song. I mean, this is interesting, but it sort of makes my ears bleed. About 3 minutes in, it's intercut with something else briefly. I get the idea we're gonna have this same basic thing on repeat over and over. Just through some effects in every once in a while to change up the sound a bit. Nope, nevermind, it stopped, and now another annoying sound has come in. ****, I can't listen to this ear rape any longer. I ****ing quit.
2. Manipulation 2 - God, this is really terrible too. Loud high-pitched noises and me don't go too well together. Yeah, **** it, I quit this one too. This is so much worse than Merzbow's regular noise, this is unlistenable.
3. Manipulation 3 - Audio of a crowd, on top of noise, or underneath it, whatever. Not totally unlistenable, but still really bad. It seems like there's been a change of style somewhere here. Alright, less annoying high-pitched noises, and gibberish. I can handle this. Still not enjoyable, but not nearly as bleeding terrible as the last two.
4. Manipulation 4 - Crazy noise! Yup, that's it.
5. Manipulation 5 - A bit of percussion here at least, nothing fun in the slightest though. Again, annoying but not unlistenable.
6. Manipulation 6 - More noise. I tell you, it's inescapable.
7. Manipulation 7 - Some tinny, glass breaking sort of noise. Interesting. And not too long either. That was quite alright.
8. Manipulation 8 - And for the last manipulation, it's low growling stuff. This is the stuff I like Merzbow for. Good. Much more like what I'm used too.
9. M.F.S.W. 1 - Starts out with some loud growling noises in the same vein as the last track, except perhaps with a hint of grinding. Like metal grinding against other metal, that kind of thing. Continous noise throughout, and I'm very impressed. This long track is much better than any of the others, which basically means it's the same minus the annoying bits. Great.
I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed in Merzbow. Perhaps I'm just not in the mood for it, but it seems his output has become quite a bit more erratic and unwelcoming. Of course, with the exception of the last couple of tracks, which seem to have much more thought put into them. The rating would be a four, but because the last track is so long, I'll adjust it to a five instead, as that represents my enjoyment a bit more fairly as well. Hopefully the next one will be a bit more pleasurable for me.
OVERALL RATING: 5/10