Despite what the title seems to imply, Collection Era Vol. 1 is apparently not a compilation. It consists of three tracks, all of which clock in at right around twenty minutes. Each has a distinctive character, and they are all quite different.
"Electric Environment" opens with what seems to be turning into a Merzbow staple in these early years: a drum solo. It makes it seem as though this album will follow logically from the previous one as Merzbow's music moves ever closer to free jazz. But no, the songs turns and heads right back into pure noise.
The second track continues this trend, but builds on a completely different set of sounds, creating a much calmer atmosphere. Where the first track occasionally devolves into squeals of grating feedback, here the frequencies are smoother around the edges. It's not quite easy listening, mind you, just not as harsh. At one point he aimlessly spins a radio dial, and pauses momentarily when a classical station catches his attention. Other bits of actual music drift in and out, but none last long. The effect is not dissimilar to "Revolution No. 9".
The final track opens by combining the radio surfing of the previous track with someone scraping away angrily at a violin, but, unlike some of the last album's guitar solos, none of the sounds emanating from the violin could be described as anything quite so musical as free jazz. Synths battle to bury the violin. The violin fights back. The track is harsh and frantic.
This whole album doesn't really make much sense. Odd though this may sound, I think this is the Merz's least consistent disc thus far. The next two are volumes 2 & 3 of the same series, so we'll see how that goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment