If you have only heard of one noise artist, that artist is probably Merzbow (real name Akita Masami).
Noise is, by its nature, difficult for most people to listen to. The genre’s name is actually quite perfect in that regard, “noise” being something that people consider bothersome or unpleasant sound, and chances are if you put on some Merzbow for an unsuspecting guest, their reaction will range from confusion to outright hostility. I remember my parents saying “how can you listen to this noise” when referring to the heavy metal I was playing in my room in the 1980s. I can only imagine their reaction to Merzbow. They’d have probably taken me to a psychiatrist.
For whatever reason I’ve found myself acquiring and listening to a fair amount of noise over the last few years. A search of my collection on Discogs gives 179 hits for “noise”. Some of these clearly are not noise albums… but scrolling through the list, I’ll bet there are at least 100 that fit. How does this happen? I’m not entirely sure. There are micro-labels I follow fairly religiously, so some things will sneak in that way. But in other cases I’m buying up everything by dedicated experimental/noise labels like Hundrað Prósent Plastík, Inferior Press Productions, Negativ Notion, and Eostre (all of which are or were based in Iceland). At times I fear these physical objects are sort of fetish items, though I do in fact listen to each and every one of them at least (and usually only…) once.
Noise is transgressive. It could be argued that much of it does not, in fact, meet the definition of “music”. But it is sonically performative if nothing else, and does tend to evoke an emotional response from listeners. On one end we have ambient noise, minimalist and often subtle sounds; on the other extreme are subgenres like harsh noise wall, which basically demolishes even the slightest pretense of musical structure, instead assailing the listener with something static-like. My preferences tend toward the more ambient end of the spectrum, though I find almost all if it fascinating in its own way.
So what about Merzbow (real name Akita Masami)? Well, he’s been at it since the late 1970s and put out literally hundreds of albums. There have been podcast series dedicated exclusively to his work. Australian label Extreme put out a 50 CD box set of his music back in 2000, the legendary Merzbox, (which is still available for purchase via the label HERE), and a few intrepid music bloggers documented their attempts to listen to all 50 discs, at times describing how so much Merz was starting to affect them mentally. And if that wasn’t enough, in 2021 スローダウン Records put out a 60 CD Merzbow box set, because, you know, why wouldn’t you. He’s also written over a dozen books, much of it orbiting pornography (often in its more extreme forms), though in recent years his energy has been focused on animal rights. In fact there was some drama a few years back between the artist and one of the aforementioned podcasts after they did an episode that discussed some of the pornographic ties to his art, something he appears to want to distance himself from today.
I picked up this new 2xLP vinyl re-release of 1996s Pulse Demon the other day, and it’s only my second foray into the world of Merzbow (the other being a vinyl copy of Tomarigi I bought last year). If I’m thinking about it along a spectrum with ambient noise on one end and harsh noise wall on the other, it’s probably somewhere just past the midpoint towards harsh noise wall. I say this because many of the sonic elements are grating – it’s not something you can ignore, even on low volume. The sounds will bore their way past the passive listening filters in your brain and force themselves into your consciousness. You can’t ignore nor avoid the sonics of Pulse Demon – they will aggressively push through all your defenses. Perhaps most interesting, at least to me, was the startling effect of the sudden silence that came at the end of each side – the absence of grating noise is a shock to the system.
If you’re interested in exploring noise for the first time, Pulse Demon is a reasonable starting point – though I’d likely point you in a more ambient directly like Mávar’s Hér, Þar Sem Illgresið Vex or Acteon’s Phase 3. Given the sonic range of the genre, you’ll be able to find something that fits you.