ULU, London
19 April 2008
Merzbow was brutal. That could be the whole review. We went in knowing he would be brutal and he delivered. We came back out deaf, balance impaired, and probably several shades paler. Merzbow, aka Akita Masami, is one of the pre-eminent industrial noise artists and has had a prolific career since the late seventies. As with some of his other recent releases, the concert had traces of beat, pounding distorted and garbled rhythms that battered the audience into submission. The guy standing next to me was trying to dance, but mainly succeeded in acting out a (more than likely) ecstasy mime representation of being deafened. The sonic attack was a mixture of laptops (with slogans reflecting Merzbow’s belief in animal rights) and a home made guitar … played with what looked like an electromagnet. It was savage, and noise needs to be savage. There are too many noise artists who lack Merzbow’s purity and aggression. Noise is extreme; it is an assault on all the senses, it bombards the listener and causes sensory overload. Merzbow did all of these; Merzbow was brutal.
-Niko Bellic-
