Merzbow

Almost as prolific as Om Kalsoum and more dissonant than an avalanche of windowpanes, Masami Akita's Merzbow has become the most well-known name in Japanese Noise. Moving beyond Lou Reed's groundbreaking Metal Machine Music and Whitehouse's Euro-aggression, he creates lightening storms of sound with incredible complexity. He looks to sources like Free Jazz for inspiration for his patently "free" sounds. Couching his music in the extreme eros of S&M and B&D imagery, he directs listening to a visceral level, where being a docile receptacle for sound is no longer possible. Merzbow must be listened to actively. Perhaps defensively.