Where to start with Japanoise: The Extreme Edge of Sound
Japanoise: The Extreme Edge of Sound is a music scene from Tokyo & Osaka, Japan, 1960–2000. Its principal artists include Merzbow, Boredoms and Hanatarash. This issue covers 10 essential albums and 14 dated events.
Start here
- 1
Automatism / Object
Group Ongaku · 1960The first Japanese noise recordings, planting the template for turning any object into a sound source.
- 2
Soul Discharge
Boredoms · 1989Introduces the two elements, Eye's processed screaming and Yoshimi's tribal drumming, that anchored Boredoms for a decade.
- 3
Pulse Demon
Merzbow · 1996Original release: Release Entertainment · RR 6937-2 · CD · US 1996Widely regarded as Merzbow's harshest record, marking noise reaching the outer limit of what the genre could do.
Go deeper
- 4
Collection series (10 cassettes)
Merzbow · 1981Released in 1981 on Akita's own Lowest Music & Arts label, this run of ten cassettes set the junk-art aesthetic and DIY distribution model Merzbow would run on for decades.
- 5
Hanatarashi
Hanatarash · 1985Recorded in 1985, before the band was banned from most venues in Japan, Hanatarashi documents the sound of on-stage destruction as music: power tools, screaming, metal percussion, and feedback captured close to the source.
- 6
Pop Tatari
Boredoms · 1992Original release: wea · WMC3-24 · CD · Japan 1992Released in 1992 on Warner Bros./Reprise, Pop Tatari counts as one of the strangest albums a major label ever put its name behind.
- 7
Vision Creation Newsun
Boredoms · 1999Released in 1999, Vision Creation Newsun marked Boredoms' hard turn from noise-rock chaos toward hypnotic psychedelic drone: seventy minutes of trance-inducing repetition, built around three drummers and almost no vocals.
- 8
Merzbeat
Merzbow · 2002Original release: Important Records · imprec-004 · CD · US 2002Released in 2002, Merzbeat surprised longtime listeners by folding beat-oriented pieces and sampled drums into Merzbow's sound, proof Akita was willing to move past pure harsh noise even after two decades of defining it.
For the obsessed
- 9
Pornoise/1kg
Merzbow · 1984This 1984 box set paired Merzbow's harsh noise with pornographic collage artwork, treating noise as a multimedia sensory assault rather than an audio-only experience.
- 10
Merzbox
Merzbow · 2000Original release: Extreme · XLTD 003 · CD · Australia 2000Released in 2000 on Extreme, Roger Richards's label in Melbourne, Merzbox gathered fifty CDs spanning 1979 to 1997, twenty of them mainly unreleased material, packed into a black rubber box…
The stories behind every record are in Japanoise: The Extreme Edge of Sound, a members' issue.