David Novak — Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation (Book)

Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation is part noise show memoir, part scholarly debate on the Japanese noise form, and part noise history lesson. The just over 300 page book attempts to tell the story of the Japanese form of noise created by the likes of Merzbow, Incapacitants & Masonna,  and it’s effect on American shores. But I’m afraid to say I came away from the book both disappointed & frustrated.

I think my main criticism streams from the books inability to stay in one place long enough. Novak (who is an associate Professor of Music at the University of California) jumps all over the place- moving from fond & well described noise show write-ups, onto scholarly quote heavy debates about the meaning of noise, through to japanoise city based tours of record shops/venues, onto rather learn historic write-ups about the scenes main players. 

The whole book just seems to lack both focus & any really depth; as Novak  darts back & forth so much.  It almost feels like he’s been told to condense a larger say 700 page book into 300 pages, but in the process lost a lot of the interesting detail & depth of the work.

When I became aware of this book I was very excited to see that someone had decided to try & write about the Japanese from of noise music, and it’s effect inside & outside of  it’s country of origin. But I’m afraid to say this is far from a wholly rewarding or definitive work on the scene/subject…sure I enjoyed elements of the book, but ultimately I came away feeling very short changed & more than a little underwhelmed by the whole thing.  I guess this might be of interest if you are a academic/ scholar who is unaware of Japanoise, but otherwise it’s best to steer well clearly, as you’ll find the whole thing too unfocused, and more than a little stuffy & highbrow.