Merzbow / Nordvargr – Partikel III (Cold Spring, 2013)
Throbbing, glitched-up noise experimentation from two masters. Merzbow is the Japanese king of bombastic, harsh noise innovation, but his collaborations tend to mellow out his abrasiveness with slow, expansive soundscapes. Unlike other notable joint ventures with the likes of Richard Pinhas (with and without Wolf Eyes, he’s put out some great releases on Cuneiform Records), the drone backdrop to Masami Akita’s blistering sound is more Nordvargr (Henrik Nordvargr Björkk)’s abstract and cavernous sound, somewhere in the Throbbing Gristle , Lotus Eaters spectrum of field recording laden drone. Lots of dramatic tension, unexpected sounds, syncopated loops, kaleidoscopic bursts of joy. Play this.

1. (7:49) Subtle, driving beat with really jittery, fuzzed-out noise at the edges; Merzbow’s harsh bursts threaten to destroy everything but never do more than lurk. Instead they take us down into a cavernous abyss, from which we may never return…
2. (8:12) Eerie alien didjeridoo whine starts to drone on, loop, while scraping power electronics emerge to swallow everything up in its rusty chainsaw sound by the end.
3. (14:21) Fuzzy throbbing pulse plows onward into oblivion while Merzbow builds tension with quiet yet jarring modulations
4. (16:36) Part II continues the anxious dissonance, with dense, amorphous layers of noise entering gracefully and crescendoing into an abrasive clutter balanced out by steady, meditative drones. The soft denouement is the cherry on top of this masterpiece.