Named after a type of Taiwanese duck, this release continues a strange recurring sort of animal theme to the artwork and titles of many more recent Merzbow releases. Unlike the recent "Sha Mo 3000" release, however, "Minka Part-1" opens this disc on a far harsher and more chaotic note. While not as overbearing and blistering as the Japanese pioneer's early work, of course, it's definitely got some truly searing distorted textures happening, with a few looped sounds adding depth underneath. The title track follows at more than 11 minutes (no track falls under the nine-minute mark), opening with rhythmic crunches and percussive sounds layered through loops, which help add some aesthetic punch once the more chaotic distortion starts to take hold and overpower. "Minka Part-2" (nearly 13 minutes) quickly pieces together a few layers of droning distortion that have more low-end and an eerie tonality. Some of the foreground sounds fighting to be heard have more of a glitchy electronic franticness going on, but that works well with the sinister undercurrents brought along with the low-end dragging around in the distance. That "evil" sort of atmosphere makes this one of my favorites herein. The sparse introduction to "Minka Part-3" is built around samples of percussion and vocals, it seems, chewed up and spit back out with another glitchy sounding sequence, while quick fits of distortion break in succinctly amidst the unusual arrangement. About halfway through the track louder crunching/crackling sounds take over and shift back and forth between deeply rumbling bass textures, making this "shorter" piece (nine minutes) a blatant standout in using much different components in its structure. Closing things out is "Bariken (Reprise) ~ Mother of Mirrors", an almost ridiculously massive 30-minute epic that opens with another rhythmic shuffle of low-end sounds, having an almost abstract industrial bent. But scorching howls of distortion quickly pop onto the frontlines. Things are a little more persistently repetitive in this one, shifting quite a bit at certain points, but always maintaining a consistent feel that becomes almost hypnotic in larger spurts, so it's another of my favorite songs - and actually could have made for a very nice release all on its own... it just possesses more feeling than this kind of work often achieves. Of course the recording is loud as fuck, with the sound coming off as a bit thicker with midrange than some of Merzbow's recent outings. It's not too piercing, though a few good bites do take place, and overall there's a fiery sense of warmth to most of the textures. The disc comes in a slim cardboard slipcase with strange artwork of the type duck after which the album is named superimposed over buildings and stuff. The cover looks good, though the back cover isn't working for me as the text is rather hard to read and the collaged image looks far less effective visually. As is often the case, I have to confess finding well over an hour to be far too long this release, with some of the songs being too much to take, and some coming off more effectively than others. Oftentimes there's a lot of shifting blended with effective repetition/similar sounding passages, but it still feels like a long haul when all is said and done. It's certainly not a weak effort, and far from the worst of the bunch in Masami Akita's enormous discography, but I'm not quite as intrigued as I have been in the past. So... nice work, but it could be a touch stronger.
[Blossoming Noise]
Running time - 72:20, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Minka Part-2, Bariken (Reprise) ~ Mother of Mirrors]
Blossoming Noise - http://www.blossomingnoise.com
