The Merzbow Archive series by Slowdown Records, which has released thirteen editions so far, enters its fourteenth edition. This edition contains a collection of unreleased recordings from 2014 that were performed using a sequencer. Performances in this style are included in previously released works such as Nezumimochi (Cold Spring, 2014) and Wildwood (Dirter Promotions, 2015). The sequencer used is Dwarfcraft Devices' 8-step sequencer The Pitch Grinder. The six albums that make up the series are titled Double Beat Sequencer Vol. 1~6, where ''Double Beat'' is the name of Merzbow's favorite Roland AD-50 Wah Fuzz pedal.
This work, Double Beat Sequencer Vol. 1, contains three about 15-minute performances recorded in January 2014. In all of the tracks, a solid framework is felt through the presence of repetitive phrases by the sequencer, and one can enjoy the dizzying changes in noise that run over it. In the second and third tracks, as time progresses, the sequenced phrases change and become buried in the noise, and there are moments when the relationship between the mechanical loop and the improvisation on top of it becomes difficult to grasp.
yorosz(aka Shuta Hiraki)
credits
released August 24, 2022
All Music by Masami Akita
Recorded at Munemihouse, Tokyo January 2014.
Mixed at Munemihouse, May 2021.
Mastered at Kentaro Hayashi, Osaka, Japan.
Yasuyuki Nakamura (slowdown records) : A&R
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