v/a "Merzbow - Frog: Remixed and Revisited" 2xCD
[Misanthropic Agenda]
Jesus... this is one massive, massive double CD collection of a wild assortment of groups reworking and putting their own individual spins on material from Merzbow's "Frog" LP. Hrvatski opens the first disc with a mix of somewhat typical electronic blips and echoed whirrs alongside nice ambient drones and hums. It's fairly minimal and quiet, and I love the depth of the ambience, though the other textures are honestly a bit bland to me. Pita's "Merzfrog473" is a shitload louder and more abrasive, using lots of ripping distortion with a thin sheen of hiss at times. The sounds cut in and out and leave things sounding not unlike the opener in its fairly minimal, spacious presentation. It does take a curiously melodic turn partway through, which is a nice change of pace and an excellent way to end the piece. "Advancing Hordes" by House of Low Culture is the first lengthy piece at around seven minutes, starting with some deep shuffling that gradually increases in volume as some lightly distorted electronics start to ping back and forth and fade in and out while an eerie fluttering sound (very insect-like) becomes more persistent in the distance, slowly increasing in volume. Never Presence Forever's "Gekihatsu" starts out almost inaudibly quiet - straight dark ambient drones/swells with a little bit of a melodic feel. This approach persists for most of the track until things become basically silent, but watch your speakers (and your ears) if you turned up the volume, because even though the song feels like it's over the final seconds blast forth with a strange surge of erratic volume. Sunn follows with nearly 10 minutes of excellent experimental electronics that is entirely different from everything I've heard from the group in the past. There are some great harmonic textures going on, and they really carry the piece with a lot more feeling than the rather sporadic chaotic textures that bounce around in their midst. There's definitely an oppressive, droning quality apparent, but it's achieved through different means, so it's Sunn, but in a very interesting fashion that I quite enjoy. Gerritt's piece is also far different than what I'm used to hearing from him, and at around eight minutes follows Sunn perfectly with a surprisingly melodic ambient track that has a little bit of a menacing quality to it. Very well done. Up next is Terror Organ with "Necrostuprum", a brief three-minute attack of harsh electronic noise that's a bit less structured than their norm, fading to a close with a killer ambient loop. John Wiese's simply (perhaps too simply) titled "Frog Remix" is a mere two-and-a-half minutes of hyperactive, schizophrenic cutup noise that ranges from obscenely loud and gratingly harsh to whisper quiet wisps of dead air... jarring, to say the least. Merzbow himself closes the disc with a monstrously long 15-minute song that covers all the bases from quirky and almost relaxing to loud, distorted, and in your face. Oddly enough there are some recognizable elements from the original "Frog" release mixed in there without a great deal of variation, which is sort of intriguing. But really, as a whole, the stronger moments don't save the whole track from being a bit wasteful. After all, do we really need to hear Merzbow remix himself for 15 minutes when a good two or three other projects could have taken a crack at it instead?The second disc begins with Fennesz's "Frog Remix" (Where have I heard that strangely unoriginal title before?), which is a slick blend of musical elements and noisy elements that starts the disc off strong. To my dismay, the Ulver contribution, which I had been the most eagerly anticipating, is actually a bit boring. It's one of the only tracks that clearly uses vocals (albeit under massive effects), but the sounds aren't all that interesting and there's no real atmosphere, which is quite opposite Ulver's usually powerful approach. A real disappointment, this one. I'm really not that into Russell Haswell's piece either. I've never really been fond of the "clicks and blips" sort of sound, and that's what "Masamifrogmaster (Edit)" amounts to: Seven minutes of clicks, blips, and lots of spaciousness. It's too long and it's insanely boring, to put it bluntly. Hecker's 10+ minute attempt takes awhile to get going, beginning quietly and building into a somewhat laidback presentation of stuttered distortion and percussive sounds. Once again, in all honesty this piece is not at all interesting or moving, and it's too long. "Dark Side of the Pink Frog", by When, uses the frog samples from Merzbow's LP among quiet layers of subtly percussive textures and is a bit more moody than the preceding three tracks on this disc, granted it's still not very exciting, it is a solid effort that helps revive this half of the release's breathing. Thankfully Boris' 20-minute "Froggie Bee-Baa" takes up a huge chunk of time and ends things off with a mix of chilling midrange tones and plenty of the thundering guitar sludge and feedback for which the Japanese act is revered. This is definitely the one song from this entire set where the remixer truly takes matters into their own hands and makes the work their own. Awesome. The layout on this thing is pretty cool. The two CD's come in thin white sleeves and are wrapped in a high gloss digipack of sorts that folds out from the center into the shape of a plus. There are a couple of images of frogs throughout the package, but it's mostly just layers and layers of circles spiraling all over the place and creating a sort of psychedelic movement. The tracklist is inside, while the participating artists are listed on the back flap. That's pretty much it, it's minimal, but pretty interesting and something different visually. I think the best thing about this collection is being able to hear so many projects working outside of their usual element due to the "remix" factor, and having many of them pull it off in fine form. Anytime there are 15 tracks in nearly two hours things are going to get a little bit bland at times, but there's probably a little something here for everyone to some degree. It's not the most cohesive compilation, not that it really should be, and I am deeply saddened that disc 2 is practically a waste of an hour. The brutal truth? This would've been a better release if Merzbow's track was chucked (along with most of disc 2) and Boris and Fennesz were tacked onto the end of disc 1 - making for a one-disc collection that would run as long as possible. I'm not kidding. This is still worth checking out, though. Don't write it off... The truly great tracks outweigh the bulk of the bland material. (7/10)
Running time - 1:56:45, Tracks: 15
[Notable tracks: Pita, Sunn, Gerritt, Fennesz, Boris]
Misanthropic Agenda - http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

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