Ikebana: Merzbow’s Amlux Rebuilt, Reused, Recycled

Remixes of songs by Japanese noise artist, Merzbow. This condensed promo version of the double album has half pure noise based remixes and half beat based remixes. I prefer beat based music, so I tended to pick beat based tracks as my favorites. If you like purer noise, be sure to listen to those tracks yourself. I don’t think there is a bad track on here, and I’d play all of them. Oh god I wish they had sent us the full double cd.

(((1)))) DJ Spooky – Great sound collage, beat based piece, scratching take on Merzbow. I really like this track, but he had to include a “fucking” at -3:13. play it anyway, just bleep out the FCC.
2) Plug – fast paced piece incorporates (at times, funny) vocal samples, synths and uses noise samples to create a beat. IDM/DnB beat comes in around 1:30.
((3)) Alec Empire – heavily distorted beat, synths, off tune keyboard melody. Swirly noisy sounds. oh yeah!
((4)) Nau-Zee-Aun – beat-oriented noisy landscapes. Beeps, swirly electronic sounds, guitar, crunchy beats.
((5)) Mouse on Mars – rapid directed noise. (some parts sound like a dentists drill!) noise full of synths and distortion runs over MoM’s type of bubbly electronic melodies.
(((6))) Negativland – Blip ridden distorted noise interrupts the reading of a radio attack warning by an “official” announcer and some sick guy reading the same transcript.
7) Atom - slow, alternating beats, noise hiccups, light repeatative electronic melodies. (((8))) Cornelius – natural recording of a rainstorm is slowly broken up by noisy blocks that overtakes it.
9) Bola – very pretty dark synths, slowly works up to IDM beats with electro sounds and the same dark synths.
(((10))) Kawabata Makoto – starts with cricket sounds and crackles that get louder and becomes accompanied by clicking drones. Breaks into underwater sounds that cycle from left to right making me go cross-eyed.
11) Nobukazu Takemura – Some printer style noise and other sounds interrupts the constant squirly squishy noise.
((12)) Abstinence – scratched up vocal samples about noise, heavy noisy discordant beats.
13) Jack Dangers – scratchy noise that gets added to by lots of noisy crunchy sounds and low synths.