Merzbow – ZaRa

2010 • Licht-ung

I barely listen to noise much anymore, unfortunately, even Merzbow, whose albums take up a significant chunk of my library. ZaRa came out a few years ago and I'm really only getting to it now; that could be because the big M simply hasn't put out much particularly interesting in the last few years, or it could just be my changing tastes. Listening to this album with an essentially clean palate when it comes to Merzbow is kind of a weird experience; I've lost a lot of the framework by which I decide what makes a good noise album and what doesn't. So the fact that I'm not sure if I'm enjoying ZaRa might not really mean anything at all.

It's relatively standard for Merzbow, mostly on the boundary between "harsh noise" and "non-harsh noise". "Za" focuses on mutilating a sample of a guitar (or bass?) while "Ra" is mostly layers and layers of wave oscillators and glitches and rapidly-panning static. It's more of an exploration of how badly one can cut up and process samples before they become unrecognizable that they were even samples in the first place. The layering sometimes gets really out-of-hand, sometimes amping up into a total assault of a dozen things going on at once (especially in "Ra"), although for the most part it still sounds pretty clean and usually everything is quite audible. It's tastefully-arranged, too; there's enough dynamics and change in aesthetics enough to keep it from getting too boring. There's not a lot of epic soundscaping here, not that I expected it, but I was surprised by the intermittent bits of drumming (I had forgotten that Akita had become big into adding his own drumming recordings into his noise). On the whole, though, it is maybe a little silly and not particularly deep or insightful (inasmuch as noise can get).

But it's alright. I've heard great Merz albums and horrible Merz albums, and this probably falls somewhere in the middle. Not one to worry about if you're not already a fan, but not a waste of your time for the more intense fans like I was. Though occasionally dipping back into albums like this is good for a bit of a nostalgia trip back to when I listened to this kind of thing almost every day (okay that was only a few years ago, but still...).