Customer Reviews

Venereology

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It goes without saying that some people, (maybe most people) won't like this or even understand what this sort of thing is about. This might even be too much for hard core fans of the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Neubauten and most Power Electronics. I for one love it. Merzbow, despite his criticizers, is a genius of sound sculpture and noise orchestration. To understand this release, or any of his, one must throw every notion of what is "music" out. This isn't something to snap your fingers to. It is reflective ambience of the absolute most extreme variety. It's adrenaline rush inducing, breathtaking, and extremely interesting. It even screws with your brain if you let it. It's audial performance art. It's not pretentious, it is very honest and abstract sound sculpture. To those who appreciate this sort of thing, it has great meaning. However it's totally understandable if some don't get it. I would accept a statement like "This is too much for me. I don't understand it. etc...", but to say "this is talentless garbage" shows a great deal of ignorance

The sticker on the plastic wrap covering the album when I bought it declares "the most extreme album you will ever own! You have been warned!" There have since been a few bands whose unrelenting walls of sound have surpassed those on here-- not least of which coming from Master Akita himself-- but it's still one of Merzbow's best discs, and one of the loudest pieces of digitized tin ever recorded. Someone once described Merzbow to me thus: "take all the noises of a factory. Record them. Filter and distort them. Turn the whole mess up to 11. That's what Merzbow sounds like." I think he'd just had his first taste of Venereology.

Not to say it's as chaotic as a factory. There are rhythms, both subtle and out front. There are pieces of sample or frequency that crop up throughout the disc to keep you on track and remind you of what you're listening to. And there's a whole lot fo unrelenting, harsh, brutal noise whose sole purpose seems to be to make your ears bleed.

To paraphrase Adam Parfrey, the "music" created by Merzbow and his legion of followers (noise, being easy to create and manipulate electronically, is an astoundingly popular genre from the artists' side these days) won't appeal to too many people. But those who understand the idea and feel the flow will find this to be a pure balm, an extract of what we hear around us every day and our ears filter into the background, but this time it's brought up and splayed in front of us like a piece of roadkill. And it's just as tasty, from the opening rhythmic burst to the last martial explosion.

If you've never heard a noise recording before, and you want to go to extremes your first time out... you could do a lot worse than this one.

You'll notice that this disc carries an "explicit content" warning. This is curious, because in the brief moments when vocals show up on the album, the words are not even intelligable, let alone offensive. Yet the explicit content is there; it comes in the form of the music.

"Venerealogy" is fifty minutes of harsh, punishing noise, amped up to an impossibly devastating volume, devoid of rhythms, harmonies, or a human presence of any kind (except for the aforementioned 'vocals,' which come in the form of distorted roaring and laughter and are really just another element of the music). It roars, screams, and pulses with a thunderous fury that is at first shocking, disturbing and overwhelming. Listen to a few minutes, and the "explicit content rating" actually makes sense. There is the potential here to permanently damage ears and traumatize the weak of heart.

It is also an album that is, if handled properly, potentially therapeutic. At first the sensation is of some massive ferocious beast preparing to tear you to shreds, but as the noise continues, unrelenting and drone-like, it quickly becomes familiar and you start to like it. The man behind Merzbow, Masami Akita, has stated repeatedly that his music is not about anger and destruction; it is meditative, and infused with eroticism. If viewed in this context, 'Venerealogy' has the potential to be as listenable as any CD in your collection. The noise will become a release of tension rather than a build-up of it, because there are no crescendoes or schizophrenic levels of intensity; the noise is up-front and relentless, and so overpowering that the rest of the world can be literally shut out.

I recommend a purchase of this, and other Merzbow albums such as "Pulse Demon." Play it for metalheads who think they are "hard," just to shut them up, play it at parties to get rid of the people who aren't cool, and play it on dates; if your girl tolerates it, she really is special.

Noise requires a completely different perception of how `sound' can become art. It is not music, and it doesn't try to be. One of the basic fundaments of Noise is the manifestation of chaos in perception, antagonistically speaking to composition or music, which follows structure and order. Noise is used as a sonic onslaught of complete disarray and disorder, it's meant to deconstruct through construction, on the grounds of music.

Akita Masami has experimented on this front in several ways and has come up with splendid results more often than not. Some of his works serve only as gentle doorways to more developed sonic experiences, but that's a common thing amongst experimental music, ever since Stockhausen. Venereology is one of his most vivid attempts at the industrial Noise since Noisembryo, and also one of his most abrasive efforts in what concerns sheer rawness and intensity. Very little `music', per se, is found here, and what we find for the most part is an unrelentless barrage of deformations that vary greatly in texture, color and vibrancy.

One thing that strikes immediately after being submitted to Merzbow's cacophony is that the `world' appears, upon return, sonically coherent. The most rudimentary, and apparently incoherent sounds of our mundane world acquire order, and no longer feel random or directionless. Ananga-Ranga, the centerpiece of the album, is a particularly provocative excursion through post-apocalyptic landscapes and industrial pandemonium. Shades of remembrance of music do appear occasionally in pseudo-rhythmic figures, and certain vibrancies, but Merzbow makes it clear that his point is to dismantle any formal structure in sound to allow an unrelentless perception to take place.

Appreciating Merzbow requires a complete openness to sonic perception. It resists any form of structural analysis, because its essentially seeking to corrupt that structure. If composition was a line that proceeded from the cero of silence, then Noise is the left-handed side of sonic experimentation, the negative figure: decomposition. It serves also particularly well as a broad representation of the technological wastelands that lead the mechanization and degeneration of humanity, and serves as a wonderful soundtrack for a fantasized apocalypse. Merzbow is best listened to in a phenomenological way, without preconceptions of composition or order, but simply `experienced'. The intensity to be drawn is truly unique, and does serve for very intriguing reflections.

That being said, Venereology is not a landmark album, it rarely does anything new for Noise, sound or within Merzbow's own catalogue. But seeing `Noise' is far from being mainstream or overdone, its always interesting to hear it, specially from Akita's talented brush. For those seeking a safer introduction to Noise, I recommend Kazumoto Endo's `Brick and Mortar', or some of Massimo's work. In any case, for those who appreciate these masochistic and twisted experimentations in art and perception, Venereology is an excellent option. It's a recommended listen.

It's not about being "underground". I don't hail Merzbow as being avant-garde, genius, or artistic. And, I don't "pretend to like it" whatsoever. I just straight-up love this stuff. Merzbow makes some exceptional noise, and if you like that kind of thing, then buy this record.

oh my god this is amazing stuff. when I first heard about Merzbow and the japanese Noise scene, i answered back with a very angry confused and annoyed 'WHAT!!' But it really drew me in. This album to me can serve two purposes a) be played very loud as a sort of cleansing of the soul as the sound passes through you. Or b) be played a little quieter where it chills me right out, seems to suck all the stress out. I adore falling asleep to it, I look forward to it. This is my first and only noise cd, and it won't be my last. I have been introduced to many styles and noise has to be one of my favourites. I personally do not think Merzbow as 'music' but of just sounds, but brilliantly presented. I never thought myself as liking this album, and you probably don't either until you listen to it.

DH, Avant Garde, Jazz and Noise. Ahhhhh what a combination :D

You'll have to make your own mind up, of course, as you always should. But I find it hard to take seriously the reviewers who accuse Masami Akita of being a charlatan and his listeners as merely wanting to look hip, cool and underground. Another reviewer has used the word 'honest' a few times and I can't think of a more honest artist than Merzbow, except Masonna I guess. He does what he does without shame, has never tried to fit into a scene, and remains totally true to his principles.

'Venereology' is one of his most abrasive records and in many ways a definitive Merzbow release. Sure it's atonal, arrhythmic, non-melodic. By most dictionary definitions I suppose it isn't music -- expect the one that has music as organised sound. Because this is certainly organised, for those who have ears to hear: brilliantly produced and mixed, with layer upon layer of textures and timbres creating a constantly shifting vista of immersive noise. It really is ambient music, hypnotic and, dare I say it, relaxing. Perfect for scouring your ears and head of all the UNwanted noise the world bombards us with.

Merzbow's discography is insanely huge, but not that hard to find your way into. This is a good place to start; "Pulse Demon", "Tauromachine" and "Bastard Noise" offer similar but subtly variant experiences. "Dharma" and "Sphere" are more 'composed'-sounding. "Frog", "Merzbird" and "24 Hours: A Day of Seals" find Akita in (relatively) more gentle moods. "Aqua Necromancer" is a more conventional collection of beat-based pieces. After that you're on your own -- enjoy one of the most unusual and suprising sound-worlds in modern music!

This is to piss off the haters and enlighten the curious people: I often refer to this album as the pan-ultimate MERZBOW album. It servers as a great entry point for anyone curious about the noise /avant-garde music. It you can handle and appreciate this release, you are in the glorious realm of Merzbow. There is only one artist that matches or even exceeds the harshness and intenstity of Merzbow, and that is WHITEHOUSE, which was a direct influence on Merzbow and continues to make the most extreme music ever recorded. Of course, listen first before you buy! To all the haters, go back to day care, have your dipers changed! There should be no surprise here. When something is catergorized as noise or avant-garde it means exactly that.

This is one of my favorite albums by anybody.

It ain't "shake your groove thang" music,it's an

intense meditation on harsh textures and VOLUME!!

The first couple times I listened to it was on

nice headphones at full volume and I think it

altered my brainwaves,and I'm all about altered

brainwaves.It's all the hideous organized sounds

and textures of Death/Black Metal set free from

the drums & rhythm to terrorize the country side.

Ultimatly you'll either want to blast it or bury

it and music that is That polarizing and strange

is,to me,freakin' awesome.

oh my god this is amazing stuff. when I first heard about Merzbow and the japanese Noise scene, i answered back with a very angry confused and annoyed 'WHAT!!' But it really drew me in. This album to me can serve two purposes a) be played very loud as a sort of cleansing of the soul as the sound passes through you. Or b) be played a little quieter where it chills me right out, seems to suck all the stress out. I adore falling asleep to it, I look forward to it. This is my first and only noise cd, and it won't be my last. I have been introduced to many styles and noise has to be one of my favourites. I personally do not think Merzbow as 'music' but of just sounds, but brilliantly presented. I never thought myself as liking this album, and you probably don't either until you listen to it.

DH, Avant Garde, Jazz and Noise. Ahhhhh what a combination :D