Antimonument

Antimonument
Studio album by Merzbow
Released June 1986 (1986-06)
Recorded February–May 1986
Genre Noise
Length 61:51 (reissue)
Label ZSF Produkt
Producer Masami Akita
Merzbow chronology
Chant 2
(1985)		 Antimonument
(1986)		 Batztoutai with Memorial Gadgets
(1986)

Antimonument is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was originally released as a picture disc LP[1] and reissued on CD by Art Directe in 1991. The CD is now considered a bootleg since the label did not pay the artists.[2]

The CD has a bonus track, taken from the cassette compilation Infidel Psalm Vol. 1 (1986 Mental Decay).

On October 13, 2014, it was reissued by menstrualrecordings as double picture disc LP with the bonus track included.[3]

Background

The album is "[...] a homage to the strange architecture of Étienne-Louis Boullée, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Goetheanum of Rudolf Steiner, Nishōtei, etc. – they all made their own pleasure domes."[4]

The sides of the record are named after the two main shrines of the Ise Grand Shrine.

In an interview with Arthur Potter, Masami Akita explains how this LP and Batztoutai were inspired by his native culture:

[...] musical composition and behavior are always related to the structure of one's own language and way of thinking. I'd like to use Japanese-like images and words on purpose, as a way of randomly mixing significant cultural details. For example [...] On the Antimonument picture disc, I used the sign of the shrine of "Ise" (shrine of the Emperor's family) and ancient heterodoxine lettering. These were not presented directly, but as subliminal images. Of course, the Japanese did not respond to them in the context I placed them.

The reason those images were used was that I'd been researching misreadings of Japanese public history, and wrote about that in a book called Mannerism of Heterodoxa.

— Masami Akita[5]

Akita then explains how the sound of his music changed over time, saying that Batztoutai "uses lots of loops" and that on Antimonument he "expanded the loop sounds with harsh metal ones."

Track Listing

Vinyl version

All music composed by Masami Akita.

Side 内宮
No. Title Length
1. "Tatara"    
2. "Bardo Song"    
3. "1560 °C Saiseikan no Owari"    
Side 外宮
No. Title Length
1. "Pleasure Dome"    
2. "Grid Module"    

CD version

All music composed by Masami Akita.

No. Title Length
1. "Tatara"    
2. "Bardo Song"    
3. "1560°C"    
4. "Saiseikan no Owari"    
5. "Pleasure Dome—Grid Module"    
6. "3 Types of Industrial Pollusion" (Bonus track)  
Total length:
 61:56

(Note: the CD lists six tracks, but has only five index points.)

Personnel

Notes

Release history

Region Date Label Format Quantity Catalog Sold Out
Japan 1986 ZSF Produkt Picture disc LP 225 SH 61-01 Yes
Sweden 1991 Art Directe CD unknown AD I Yes
Italy October 13, 2014 menstrualrecordings 2×PD LP 254 LH57 No

References

  1. ↑ "Merzbow - Antimonument (Vinyl, LP)". Discogs. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Merzbow - Antimonument (CD)". Discogs. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  3. ↑ "MERZBOW - ANTIMONUMENT". menstrualrecordings.org. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook: The Pleasuredome of Noise. Extreme. ISBN 0-646-38326-4.
  5. ↑ Potter, Arthur (1989). RRReport. RRRecords (1).
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