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 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Masami Akita & John Duncan - The Black Album [Tourette Records - 2014]

The Black Album is a full length vinyl release on Texas  based Tourette Records, which brings together two of the world most respected figures within noise. We have japans godfather of  Masami Akita(aka Merzbow).  And Wichita, Kansas based John Duncan- a respected US noisemaker & soundscaper.

I’d hope that Masami Akita will need little or no introduction to readers of M[m], as really he’s the worlds most known noise artist- who’s released a truly huge body of work since the late 70’s.  John Duncan has also been creating work since the late 1970’s- his mix of noise & experimental soundscaping  utilizes short wave radio,field recordings & voice- over the years he has lived & worked in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam. Akita & Duncan have worked together in the past, but The Black Album is the pair’s first recorded collaborative work.

The release consists of three lengthy & untitled tracks(one on side A, and two on Side B). The first track is built around a fairly dense mat of thin glitch bound noise textures- these take in malfunctioning computer like spluttering & pitch darting tones, condescended down electro cluttering & buzzing, blurred & muffled noise haze sweeps, and reduced down electro junk detail. The track is very active & seemingly increases in it’s depth & detail as it progresses.  I found this track rewarding in it’s shifting detail, but I wish they’d been a bit more of a variation in the range of textures used, as tonally it all stays fairly mid-to-lower high ranged through-out.

The second  track really utilizes a similar sounding tonal noise range & textural selection as the first track; but this time the mesh of textures has quite a dense electro & glitching rain shower feel to it. As with the first track the  mat of sounds shift a fairly bit along the tracks length, but once again there is no great movement in it’s all over structure, and fairly constantly within the tracks guts you get this toll & locked machine/ metal-on-metal tone.

Lastly three track is more of a mix of noise texturing & factory like field recordings.  It’s  built around a selection of skittering, jittering & slicing electro tones, which are underfed by what sounds like field recordings of three or four folk lift trucks moving & shifting things- so you get a dense mesh of droning machines tone, banging’s, gluttering & shifting tones. The track spends most of it’s running time as dense textured map, but in it’s last few minute very effective electo chopping & hissing mid-to-higher range pitches are added to great effect. 

The green vinyl comes in a black outer cover which features shotgun blast patterns, which reveals the garish pink inner sleeve.

All in all this fairly effective collaboration, though nothing earth shattering- all three tracks kept my attention through-out, but I’d say side B’s second track was the most effective due to the mix of field recordings & fairly subtle yet detail rewarding noise matter.

Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

Roger Batty
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