Welcome to the Internet Merzbow Database! Merzbow is the most prolific creator of experimental music alive. His enormous discography is only rivaled in size by that of Sun Ra and Muslimgauze. This makes understanding his body of work very difficult and intimidating to approach. This site is an attempt to make Merzbow's incredibly large body of work more accessible via an annotated discography and a classification system which groups albums by sound, theme, and production methods. Site News 2005-02-21: Happy New Year, etc. Merzbow has a new official website located at http://merzbow.net, there's not much English on it, but from what I can tell there are a large number of CD's coming soon, including Sphere on Tzadik, which we all hope will be at least as good as his last Tzadik cd, 1930. I'm still rocking out to Sha Mo 3000. There's a killer auction of Merzbow cds on ebay right now including the Metalvelodrome box set and if anyone feels like buying it for me, please do. 2004-10-25: A quick update: I'm still here, just extremely busy. Some discussion is underway to finally create the dynamic version of this website. Some brief album impressions: Fantail is awesome, Yoshinotsune is different (3 epic tracks, one with strong use of granular synthesis) and quite nice, Merzbird is the "sequel" to Merzbeat and it has some really ass-kicking tracks on it, and finally: Rondo / 7Phases / Blowback collaboration cd with Kim Cascone is a masterpiece, my current pick for best Merz cd of 2004. Anyone know where to get "EMU (Electro Magnetic Unit)"? I've ordered the (now sold out!) limited edition of this: http://www.essence-music.com/releases/merzbow_ess003.htm, and I'll update again once it arrives. 2004-07-31: Albums Added: Hummingbird 7" (2001), Unknown Tape (Split CD With Aural Torture Mechanism, 1999), Red Two Eyes 10" (1996), Spiral Honey (1996), New Takamagahara (1998). Special thanks to Jouni Luoma for contributing information and images for the first three of these new entries. If you would like to contribute information and/or images for a release that is not yet listed, please get in touch via email. 2004-07-30: This site now appears on the first page of Google hits for Merzbow! Also, I've updated the links page. 2004-07-24: 5 more albums will be added soon: Fantail, Yoshinotsune, Spiral Honey, New Takamagahara, Megatone (Collaboration with Boris). Special Thanks to Clu Clux Clam and John Murphy for album acquisition assistance. 2004-06-23: Albums Added: Rainbow Electronics 2 (1996), Voice Pie (Split with Bastard Noise, 1995), Pinkream (1996). 2004-06-09: Albums Added: Tamago (2004), Mazk: Live at Milk Club Tokyo 1999-2000 (2001). 2004-05-19: Added 2 external interview links. 2004-05-17: Albums Added: Batztoutai With Material Gadgets (De-Composed Works 1985-86) (1993), Loop Panic Limited (1993), Merzzow (2002). More typos fixed. 2004-05-15: Albums Added: Catapillar (1997), Medamaya (1998), Maschinenstil (1998), Springharp (1999), Live Magnetism (2003) 2004-05-08: Albums Added: Frog Remixed And Revisited (2003), Ikebukuro Dada (2002). Some typos fixed. 2004-05-07: Albums Added: Hybrid Noisebloom (1997), Cycle (2003), SCSI Duck (2004), 1930 (1998), Space Metalizer (1997), Great American Nude / Crash For Hi-Fi (1991), Tauromachine (1998); Added images to 24 Hours - A Day of Seals page. 2004-05-05: Site is open to the public, beta testing and updates continue. Presentation given for MLIS 553 at 5 pm est today. 2004-05-04: The site goes live and is rapidly being beta tested and updated. Check the albums page for the bulk of the real content currently hosted. Site Goals / Known Issues: - Fix Amlux images. - Create sensible Contact Information page. Until then, this will do: Email Me at Anthony (at) Overwhelmed (dot) Org. - Create album profiles for all releases that I own (approximately 40 releases). Solicit contributions from people with larger collections. - Conduct interviews with people involved in the production, distribution and marketing of Merzbow's work. - Migrate away from static html site towards fully dynamic database-based site that allows for users to search and display information how they like. - Develop Classification / Categorization system beyond the rough sketch currently used; tie this in with dynamic site; include audio samples that represent the different categories.