Re: [microsound] Re: merzbow

[Jeffrey Shell <eucci.group@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 16:18:30 +0300, visa <visa.tapani@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> So what is this Fantail then? If it's his newest release, how can it be sold
> out already?

The label that released Fantail, http://www.c3r.ca/ , does have a few
back in according to their site.  'Yoshinotsune' is their newest
Merzbow release with a release date of May 14 2004.  C3r is giving
away their extra copies of Fantail (cracked cases) with every third
order of Yoshinotsune.

Merzbow seems to maintain no label affiliation, although he has done a
number of releases with specific labels (Alien 8, Relapse/Release,
Vinyl Communications).  This adds to the variety of his work in ways
beyond sound - packaging, availability, etc.  There are many small
labels who do limited runs of Merzbow, perhaps to drum up some money
to sustain their other releases.

I wasn't really expecting much for Fantail.  The packaging is
extremely basic, and I was expecting the sound quality to be mediocre
as well.  The sonic difference between some of the late 90's
recordings, such as between the well done 1930 and smaller releases
such as Mercurated and Oersted can be quite obvious even though the
composition style may be similar.  But, as I've said earlier in the
thread, Fantail really surprised me.  Except for the live track, which
is mediocre.  But the first half is excellent.

This may be another area where there are some advantages to going
purely digital for noise versus going analog - it may be easier for
Masami Akita to do most of the mastering step himself, or just to get
a really good clean mix before sending it off to whichever label picks
it up.  I don't know.  But there really is a surprising quality to
Fantail that took me by surprise.


Also - people on this list may be interested in the Merzbow / Kouhei
Matsunaga split on Tigerbeat.  Merzbow's half is a good (but not
great) example of digital era Merzbow.  Kouhei's half is often very
minimal and beautiful.  They work quite well together, actually.

http://www.tigerbeat6.com/html/meow041.htm

--
J.Shell for Eucci
http://euc.cx/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org