''Pulse Demon'' is an album by the Japanese noise musician
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 ...
, released 28 May 1996. The album was reissued on
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
in May 2018 by Bludhoney Records,
and again in November 2019 by
Relapse
In internal medicine, relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, multiple sclerosis and malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes very long periods of dormancy, followed by relapse or r ...
, with a bonus track.
Background
The holographic, shiny silver artwork is a homage to the
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War i ...
Prospective 21e Siècle imprint of
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label founded by the Dutch electronics company Philips. It was founded as Philips Phonographische Industrie in 1950. In 1946, Philips acquired the company which pressed records for British Decca's Dutch outlet in A ...
,
[ in particular the albums of ]Ivo Malec
Ivo Malec (30 March 1925, in Zagreb – 14 August 2019, in Paris) was a Croatian-born French composer, music educator and conductor. One of the earliest Yugoslav composers to obtain high international regard, his works have been performed by sy ...
.[ However, the art is most similar to the work of ]Bridget Riley
Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France.
Early life and education
Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in West Norwood, No ...
, "Fall" and "Current" in particular.
The title was inspired by the 1970s afro-rock Afro rock is a style of rock music with West African influences. Afro rock bands and artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s included Osibisa, Assagai and Lafayette Afro Rock Band.
Style
The style relies on the use of rock string instruments ...
band Demon Fuzz
Demon Fuzz was an English rock band which was formed in 1968 and broke up in 1972. Its members had all immigrated to Britain from Commonwealth countries. The band's name means "devil's children or bad policemen". The band's music has generally b ...
and Akita's use of a fuzz box
Distortion and overdrive are forms of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a "fuzzy", "growling", or "gritty" tone. Distortion is most commonly ...
as a pulse generator.Jon Appleton
Jon Howard Appleton (January 4, 1939 – January 30, 2022) was an American composer, an educator and a pioneer in electro-acoustic music. His earliest compositions in the medium, e.g. "Chef d'Oeuvre" and "Newark Airport Rock" (1967) attracted at ...
's '' Appleton Syntonic Menagerie'' LP.[
]
Reception
Critical reaction to ''Pulse Demon'' was mixed. ''Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' 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 static", going on to state that "music cannot get much more extreme than this. Maybe John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
's ''4′33″
''4′33″'' (pronounced "four minutes, thirty-three seconds" or just "four thirty-three") is a three- movement composition by American experimental composer John Cage. It was composed in 1952, for any instrument or combination of instruments, ...
'', and that's so far to the limit, it's probably cheating. This is the edge of music, of sound in general." Also praised was the album's packaging, being called "more valuable than some people's lives."AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's dismissive two-line review from Jason Ankeny simply said "Merzbow's second American release offers more of the deafening white noise
In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines, ...
that is his trademark, mastered
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via met ...
for maximum loudness. Not for the faint of heart, but ideally suited for the hard of hearing."The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'', in their review, described the album as "genuinely extreme, downright torturous sounds that are strangely compelling in their shredding intensity."
Track listing
Original version
Remastered version
Notes
*All composed by live noise concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
. No over dub.
*Mastered at SAE Mastering, Phoenix, AZ, January 1996.
Personnel
*Masami Akita – metals, EMS, audio generator, shortwave, noise electronics, tape, voice
*Colour Climax – visual
*Bill Yurkiewicz & David Shirk – mastering
Release history
References
{{Authority control
Merzbow albums
1996 albums