merzbow: grand owl habitat

For The Death Of Rave, Masami Akita aka Merzbow submits two petrifying pieces of psychedelic, technoid sturm und drang. Harking back to the feral attack and pulsing rhythmic disciplines of his early work (recently collected on V-o-D's excellent Lowest Music & Arts 1980- 1983 box set), the howling 12-minute pummel of A-side "Grand Owl Habitat" appears on vinyl after release on Handmade Birds' Dark Icons series. An ecstatically abusive, furious maelstrom of colored noise is rail-eroded by a pistoning undercarriage that sounds like it careened out of mid-'90s Berlin into a noise-techno receptive 2013. The intent behind it is meditative malevolence, seeking to dilate and masticate mind and body to euphoric effect. The three-part, 20-minute B-side, "Obusuma" is exclusive to this release. Here, the roiling bass patterns are initially submerged, consumed by virulent squall and piercing, frightening frequencies in part one, before the lurching, elliptical chug surges forth to struggle against the consumptive, polymetric oscillations which rain down without remorse, culminating a final battle of apocalyptic sensation between primal pulses and convulsive noise. It ain't for everyone, that's for sure, but the most fearless DJs and those with a high tolerance for Alberich, Maurizio Bianchi, the most extreme L.I.E.S., Whitehouse or Prurient are urged to get a fix. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy.