Venereology (album)
''Venereology'' is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was inspired by death metal and grindcore. It was the first of five Merzbow albums released by the American heavy metal label Relapse Records, under their Release Entertainment imprint, and as such was responsible for bringing Merzbow's work to a much wider audience in the United States. ''Venereology'' has also gained notoriety for the loudness of its mastering, which violated American limitations on the dynamic range allowed on CDs, and for its third track, "I Lead You Towards Glorious Times", which is often cited to be the loudest track created in CD format - having a RMS value of 0.00dB. The liner notes includes an extensive thank you list in the style of many metal releases. ''Venereology'' was reissued on vinyl with a revised track list and bonus tracks by Relapse in March 2019. Background Akita then explained that his next album for Relapse, '' Pulse Demon'', was back to his normal sound and was rec ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Merzbow
is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by , best known for a style of harsh, confrontational noise. Since 1980, Akita has released over 400 recordings and has collaborated with various artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork ''Merzbau'', in which Schwitters transformed the interior of his house using found objects. The name was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic. In addition to this, Akita has cited a wide range of musical influences from progressive rock, heavy metal, free jazz, and early electronic music to non-musical influences like dadaism, surrealism and fetish culture. Since the early 2000s, he has been inspired by animal rights and environmentalism, and began to follow a vegan, straight edge lifestyle. In addition to being a prolific musician, he has been a writer and editor for several books and magazines in Japan, and has written several books of his own. He has written about a variety o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Duke University Press
Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 Duke University Press was formally established. Ernest Seeman became the first director of DUP, followed by Henry Dwyer (1929-1944), W.T. LaPrade (1944-1951), Ashbel Brice (1951-1981), Richard Rowson (1981-1990), Larry Malley (1990-1993), Stanley Fish and Steve Cohn (1994-1998), Steve Cohn (1998-2019). Writer Dean Smith is the current director of the press. It publishes approximately 150 books annually and more than 55 academic journals, as well as five electronic collections. The company publishes primarily in the humanities and social sciences but is also particularly well known for its mathematics journals. The book publishing program includes lists in African studies, African American studies, American studies, anthropology, art and a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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LP Record
The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a vinyl (a copolymer of vinyl chloride acetate) composition disk. Introduced by Columbia in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry. Apart from a few relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound, it remained the standard format for record albums (during a period in popular music known as the album era) until its gradual replacement from the 1980s to the early 2000s, first by cassettes, then by compact discs, and finally by digital music distribution. Beginning in the late 2000s, the LP has experienced a resurgence in popularity. Format advantages At the time the LP was introduced, nearly all phonograph records for home use were made of an abrasive shellac compound ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Compact Disc
The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in October 1982 in Japan and branded as ''Compact Disc Digital Audio, Digital Audio Compact Disc''. The format was later adapted (as CD-ROM) for general-purpose data storage. Several other formats were further derived, including write-once audio and data storage (CD-R), rewritable media (CD-RW), Video CD (VCD), Super Video CD (SVCD), Photo CD, Picture CD, Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-i) and Enhanced Music CD. Standard CDs have a diameter of and are designed to hold up to 74 minutes of uncompressed stereo digital audio or about 650 mebibyte, MiB of data. Capacity is routinely extended to 80 minutes and 700 mebibyte, MiB by arranging data more closely on the same sized disc. The Mini CD has various diameters ranging from ; t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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James Plotkin
James Plotkin is an American guitarist and producer known for his role in bands such as Khanate (band), Khanate and OLD (band), OLD but with an extensive catalogue outside these bands. He has played guitar for Phantomsmasher and Scorn (band), Scorn and continues to remix tracks for bands such as KK Null, Nadja (band), Nadja, Sunn O))), Isis (band), ISIS, Pelican (band), Pelican and Earth (American band), Earth. He works in the genres of grindcore, industrial metal, noise music, drone metal, dark ambient, digital hardcore and post-metal. Discography Solo work *James Plotkin - A Strange, Perplexing - 1996 *James Plotkin - The Joy Of Disease - 1996 *James Plotkin / Pole (musician), Pole - Split Series #8 (withdrawn version) - 2000 *James Plotkin / Pimmon - Split Series #8 - 2000 *James Plotkin - Kurtlanmak/Damascus - 2006 *James Plotkin - Indirmek - 2007 Collaborative releases *James Plotkin & K.K. Null, Kazuyuki K Null - Aurora - 1994 *Jimmy Plotkin & Alan Dubin (2X self-titled 7" ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pulse Demon
''Pulse Demon'' is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow, released 28 May 1996. The album was reissued on vinyl in May 2018 by Bludhoney Records, and again in November 2019 by Relapse, with a bonus track. Background The holographic, shiny silver artwork is a homage to the 1970s Prospective 21e Siècle imprint of Philips Records, in particular the albums of Ivo Malec. However, the art is most similar to the work of Bridget Riley, "Fall" and "Current" in particular. The title was inspired by the 1970s afro-rock band Demon Fuzz and Akita's use of a fuzz box as a pulse generator. Some song titles were inspired by Jon Appleton's '' Appleton Syntonic Menagerie'' LP. Reception Critical reaction to ''Pulse Demon'' was mixed. ''Pitchfork'' gave the album's 2003 re-release a score of 8.7/10, their highest rating out of their eight reviews of Merzbow albums. Calling it an "incomparable classic", the reviewer describes the album as "simply pure sound, viciously unadulterated st ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joel-Peter Witkin
Joel-Peter Witkin (born September 13, 1939) is an American photographer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work often deals with themes such as death, corpses (and sometimes dismembered portions thereof), often featuring ornately decorated photographic models, including people with dwarfism, transgender and intersex persons, as well as people living with a range of physical features which Witkin is often praised for presenting in poses which celebrate and honor their physiques in an elevated, artistic manner. Witkin's complex tableaux often recall religious episodes or classical paintings. Biography Witkin was born to a Jewish father and Roman Catholic mother. His twin brother, Jerome Witkin, and son Kersen Witkin, are also painters. Witkin's parents divorced when he was young because they were unable to overcome their religious differences. He attended grammar school at Saint Cecelia's in Brooklyn and went on to Grover Cleveland High School. In 1961 Witkin enlisted in th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles
''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'' (''BW&BK'') is a Canadian heavy metal magazine. Although based in Toronto, Canada, ''BW&BK'' features writers from the US, Germany and the UK, allowing the magazine to represent metal music from an international prospective. Covering many facets of extreme music, ''BW&BK'' features a reviews section which reports on current records circulating through the underground metal world, a Metal Forecast section which tracks the release date of upcoming recordings, and a website (named just BraveWords) which reports current metal news. ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'' was founded by former ''M.E.A.T.'' magazine staffer Tim Henderson and author Martin Popoff in 1994. History Early 1990s Henderson, who had published several photocopied issues of a newsletter called ''Metal Tim Bits'' (the title a play on the Tim Bit donut served at the popular Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons), encountered Popoff in the Toronto HMV's metal section and Popoff began dis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Root Mean Square
In mathematics and its applications, the root mean square of a set of numbers x_i (abbreviated as RMS, or rms and denoted in formulas as either x_\mathrm or \mathrm_x) is defined as the square root of the mean square (the arithmetic mean of the squares) of the set. The RMS is also known as the quadratic mean (denoted M_2) and is a particular case of the generalized mean. The RMS of a continuously varying function (denoted f_\mathrm) can be defined in terms of an integral of the squares of the instantaneous values during a cycle. For alternating electric current, RMS is equal to the value of the constant direct current that would produce the same power dissipation in a resistive load. In estimation theory, the root-mean-square deviation of an estimator is a measure of the imperfection of the fit of the estimator to the data. Definition The RMS value of a set of values (or a continuous-time waveform) is the square root of the arithmetic mean of the squares of the values, or th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dynamic Range
Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of signals, like sound and light. It is measured either as a ratio or as a base-10 ( decibel) or base-2 (doublings, bits or stops) logarithmic value of the difference between the smallest and largest signal values. Electronically reproduced audio and video is often processed to fit the original material with a wide dynamic range into a narrower recorded dynamic range that can more easily be stored and reproduced; this processing is called dynamic range compression. Human perception The human senses of sight and hearing have a relatively high dynamic range. However, a human cannot perform these feats of perception at both extremes of the scale at the same time. The human eye takes time to adjust to different light levels, and its dynamic range in a given scene is actually quite limited due to optical glare. The ins ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was devastate ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heavy Metal Music
Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed a thick, monumental sound characterized by distortion (music), distorted guitars, extended guitar solos, emphatic Beat (music), beats and loudness. In 1968, three of the genre's most famous pioneers – Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple – were founded. Though they came to attract wide audiences, they were often derided by critics. Several American bands modified heavy metal into more accessible forms during the 1970s: the raw, sleazy sound and shock rock of Alice Cooper and Kiss (band), Kiss; the blues-rooted rock of Aerosmith; and the flashy guitar leads and party rock of Van Halen. During the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence,Walser (1993), p. 6 while Motörhea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |