Merzbow - Camouflage

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4...according to our Phil on Thu 12 Feb, 2009.

I thought I'd give Merzbow another chance. Being all charitable and that I think everything is worth a listen and has to be judged on it's own merits. And if it's shit then so be it but you have to come to that decision yourself. Here's his new CD Camouflage on the Brazillian Essence label which is tastefully housed in an oversized cardboard digipak with some really bright imagery. So far so good. I like bright things. Who doesn't?? The music is Merzbow by numbers as far as I can tell. I must have heard about 10 albums by him and they're all reasonably similar. He's got his sound and you either like it or not. It's harsh power electronics with lots of knob twiddling and distortion. Plenty of fuzz and disturb-o-frequencies to try and sing along to when The Wheels On the Bus starts to get on your tits. I'd rather crack this on for half an hour than have to listen to that one again. I believe all music has it's place whether you like it or not. There may be something you hate but given the right circumstances you'd enjoy it or it would serve it's purpose. I used to work in a record shop in Leeds years ago and we used to put Whitehouse on at closing time to get folks out of the shop. It worked... it's served it's purpose. There's some pretty intense headfuckery going on here and weirdly I'm getting into the catharticness of it all. I must be ill. I'll hate it tomorrow I'm sure...

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The elemental excitement for each new MERZBOW album remains intact among us here and, after four long years, the
undisputable master returns to Essence Music with a new installment of his unique brand of harsh psychedelic noise assault. A bit distant from “Sha Mo 3000”’s pulsing, often rhythmic strategies or the recent albums featuring freestyle drums by Masami Akita himself, Camouflage plays by the more straight MERZBOW rules, going back to his comfort zone of audio barbarism. We salute the ferocious torrents of abused, imploding and exploding electronics, the sharp, pulverizing and abrasive high frequencies and the unrelenting punishment of frenzied throbbing machine-screams witnessed in the controlled cacophonic environment of Camouflage! Presented in our deluxe, sturdy gatefold mini-LP packaging featuring intriguing psychedelic collages by Mr. Akita. Limited to 800 copies.

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