Merzbow "Rattus Rattus" CD
[Scarcelight]
First up on this lengthy three-track excursion is "155", dousing the listener with over five minutes of jumbled percussive snippets and chaotic arrays of crispy distorted noise with lots of panning and movement through varying styles of distorted attack - from glitchy and garbled to searing high-end that rapes your ears. It's definitely a little more... I don't know, not necessarily vibrant, and not necessarily aggressive, but... it's got a little more oomph to it than a lot of what I've heard from Merzbow in the last year. That's not to say it's all over the top and in your face, it's still got its moments of breathing room, but... you know. "166" follows with a more stripped down structure that cuts back and forth from a few layered loops and distorted textures, all with a more spacious setup that gives each element more room. At times there are rhythmic snippets within the way things are pieced together, but nothing too blatant. It picks up to more intense levels at several points, but never anything that's quite as lively as "155", though I guess it comes close in its own way here and there. So, the first two tracks total around 14 minutes, yet the disc runs more than 45 minutes. Yep, you know what that means: Closer "Rattus Rattus Suite" is a 37-minute marathon, opening with another percussive sounding sample loop and fits of raging high-end distortion twisting and turning a little farther back. Interestingly enough, depending on how you look at it, this lengthy jaunt is sort of like a combination of its two predecessors, taking the harsher and more chaotic side of "155" and fusing it with the spacious moments from "166", though of course the character of the sounds here is slightly different. It certainly plays more to a lower rumble during some of the more laidback moments, with a warm bite to some of the strangely dense midrange/treble grating. And I'd say there's enough constant variation and movement to keep it going for as long as it does. There's always going to be a few tedious moments, but for the most part this one plays out nicely. I'm not wild on the layout simply because the bright colors are inconsistent and I'm not big on all of the different fonts employed. Overall the slipcase has a professional look, I just don't care for the visuals or what have you. In the end this is a solid offering, but nothing that really grabs my attention and draws me in. This "new school" Merzbow release might appeal slightly more to his "old school" fans than some of his other recent output, but whatever the case it's another slab of true noise from the true noise master. I've never been a huge Merzbow fan, so... it's mainly that I respect his history more than anything, you know? I mean, he is fucking Merzbow. (6/10)
Running time - 50:42, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: all three are pretty even with one another]
Scarcelight Recordings - http://www.scarcelight.org

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