“merzbowporridge”
Merzbow/Genesis P-Orridge
A Perfect Pain
Cold Spring
A Perfect Pain sees Masami Akita and Mr./Miss P-Orridge doing some of their finest material in a while. This disc is remarkably strong for something that could have very easily been utter shite.
Both of these artists are famous for making more than a bit of glorious noise in their heydays; P-Orridges’s was about 20 years ago, and Akita is enjoying his now. Indeed, this could be the bridge between the old and new schools of noise! No, I take that back; there was never a gap in the first place. Regardless, this CD represents a meeting of two minds that are fixed on the most extreme end of the sonic spectrum.
Merzbow’s noise here hearkens back to his old “junk-noise” collages. There is plenty of anonymous crashing and banging about, but with a very crisp, digital feel. That collage is augmented by shrieking feedback and tumultuous waves of distortion. Akita always keeps things very dynamic and has a distinct sense for extra-musical flow. Genesis P-Orridge is less apt to ramble here than in the past, one might even say that his lyrics are focused on this record. The content seems to be the same content-wise: free associative verbiage about violence, death, industrial decay, sex, all of the things we’ve grown to love him for. The pair does a rendition of Throbbing Gristle’s “Kreeme Horne,” whose relation to the original I cannot vouch for, as I have not heard it. The music is augmented by the excellent artwork courtesy of the illustrious Cold Spring design team.
Cold Spring (c/o Dutch East India, http://www.dutch-east.com), 8 Wellspring, Bilsworth, Northants, NN7 3EH, England, http://www.coldspring.co.uk
