[.ca] Pulse Demon

zero stars:
I'm a big fan of noisy stuff like John Zorn's Naked City, Fantomas, and the Melvins, but this is just plain bad. It's ear-splitting static for 72 minutes. No variations, no hint of music or even sound effects. Sure, it's extreme, so I can brag about it: "I own the most annoying CD ever recorded!" But, other than that, it's a waste of time and money.

very human:
Im new to Merzbow, so excuse any shallowness in the commmentary. I mean i want to groove to this, and i bet i could contrary to some opinions, but the overwhelming noise forces you to just sit there and take it. When i first listened to this i thought it was too incosequential, but upon later listenings you realize that despite the anarchy of many of these sounds, there is a certain consistency and deliberateness to the changes, to the extent that theyre is an almost ubiquitous sense of rhythm or something. there are so many interesting pulses and sounds seeping out of this machine that it is never boring, to the extent that a half an hour listen is really no problem at all. despite the harsh mechanicalness of many of these sounds there is still something very human about this cd. there are portions, though only at times, when one can vivldly sense complex emotions in the relationship between sounds. As for the people who say this is nothing more than harsh noise, of course it is! thats the idea, but that does not diminish in anyway the complexity of these tracks which will, in my opinion, keep you more metally engaged than lots of conventional music. This being said not everyone will enjoy this CD. If you really want to hear something based on patterns repetion, or any conventional sense of order, then wait a bit for your mind to open a little more. my only suggestion for listening to this is that you ignore time, if you are thinking about how much longer is left you might turn it off out of impatience and miss something.

Who would have thought......:
Merzbow is an acquired taste. Japanese improvised electronic noise. Like historic noise groups such as AMM ,MEV and even Borbetomagus getting used to pure noise and knowing the difference between say garbage and talent is a tricky thing. AMM were the very best and still going since 1966. MEV were a sixties oddity and Borbetomagus are hit and miss talent wise but all were acoustic. Merzbow is electronic and pure sonic distortion. His early stuff was cut up tape manipulation followed by electronic/keyboard shriek. Then to now lap top computer. This album is pure WHITE NOISE. Pretty much nothing else! One of his most successful and most extreme releases. At first I thought this thing was absoloutely mad but then I was drawn in. At the right level and in the right mood this album is hypnotising. Bending twisting manipulated wall of white noise. It will clear a room and leave you wanting more. Shocking!

Dizzying and Intense:
Pulse Demon is an album where the packaging, title, and audio all combine flawlessly. The one I purchased was in a cardboard tri-fold packaging with the CD neatly placed in the middle, held in place by two folding cardboard strips. A man could get lost just staring at the cover with its reflective silver and black rolling stripes. It provides the visual intensity to complement the audio inside. Pulse Demon was recorded during the height of Merzbow's use of vintage electronic synthesizers such as the EMS Synthi A and VCS 3, along with metal, voice, etc. It drops you in with the excellent "Woodpecker No 1" which kicks off with an aggressive pulse generated rhythm with squall of noise punching through. Rapid pulses from the analog synths add to the frenetic pace through the rest of the track, and then appear in different (slightly less frenetic) form in "Woodpecker No 2". From there on, it's mostly intense noise and swoops until the sixth track, "Tokyo Times Ten," which starts off with low rumbles and occasional metallic pulses that punch through before building back up to big wall of noise. "Tokyo Times Ten" then drops into "Worms Plastic Earthbound," a nearly twenty five minute tour de force of still more noise that feels rather well composed. The album ends with "Yellow Hyper Balls" which sounds at times like a less frantic version of "Woodpecker No 1". A driving pulse based rhythm underscores Yellow Hyper, but not at the same pace that dominates the early tracks of the album. Of the Merzbow I've heard from this period, Pulse Demon is among the best. You get a lot of Merzbow for your money (73 minutes worth). I only give it four stars instead of five because I feel that Pulse Demon is eclipsed by Merzbow's "1930" album, which is released on the Tzadik label. 1930 features better composition and the recording/mastering quality seems to be a little bit better than Pulse Demon. But Pulse Demon remains an excellent CD and is worth having in any Merzbow or harsh noise collection.

Another Merzbow release:
Unlike most other forms of music, there is a right and wrong way to digest and rate noise. Some might say noise is art, but this is Merzbow. Merzbow makes noise music. It is to be listened to for pleasure. Therefore, it would make sense that Merzbow's releases would be rated by how much pleasure the listener feels while listening to them. I have listened to over 100 Merzbow CD, so I should know the range of pleasure Merzbow music can evoke. Out of 5, I would give Pulse Demon a 4. It takes the listener on a darker ride than the other album from the same live studio session of that era, Electric Salad (a 5 for endurance and cleverness). It reaches its peak well into the album so there's more of a build to it. It's a high-frequency sort of release. Mid-low ranges are seldom heard which gives it a sort of apocalyptic white wash feeling. Track names? Who cares? They mean nothing and have little to do with the experience of the album. Album titles mean the most with Merzbow, and that's not saying a whole lot. Packaging of the limited edition foil digipak would give this release a 5. I stared at that for about an hour once, someone told me. No, I wasn't high!

• Woodpecker No. 1
• Woodpecker No. 2
• Spiral Blast
• My Station Rock
• Ultra Marine Blues
• Tokyo Times Ten
• Worms Plastic Earthbound
• Yellow Hyper Balls