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Flare Blues

by Merzbow

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Matte laminate jacket, black inner print, colour vinyl plus a signed silkscreen print of a Merzbow's collage for the 1980s produced by 7th Disaster and a XL Merzbow Hoodie

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    1 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $100 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Matte laminate sleeve, black inner print, blue vinyl

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    5 remaining
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Matte laminate sleeve, black inner print, black vinyl

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $19 USD or more 

     

  • Limited Edition Colour LP + Signed Silkscreen print
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Matte laminate jacket, black inner print, colour vinyl plus a signed silkscreen print of a Merzbow's collage for the 1980s produced by 7th Disaster.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Colour LP + Hoodie + Signed Silkscreen Print
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Matte laminate jacket, black inner print, colour vinyl plus a signed silkscreen print of a Merzbow's collage for the 1980s produced by 7th Disaster. Please specify hoodie size (XL, L and M available)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • MERZSET - Flare Blues Colour LP, Signed Silkscreen Print, Totebag Hoodie + CDs
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    An incredible catch all - Flare Blues colour LP, signed silver silkscreen print of one of Merzbow's collages, Hoodie (xl,l,m,s available, please specify) + CD copies of Monoakuma, StereoAkuma, Noise Mass (with book!), EXD and Scandal.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Colour LP + Hoodie M + Signed Silkscreen print
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Matte laminate jacket, black inner print, colour vinyl plus a signed silkscreen print of a Merzbow's collage for the 1980s produced by 7th Disaster and a M Merzbow Hoodie

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Colour LP + Hoodie L + Signed Silkscreen print
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Matte laminate jacket, black inner print, colour vinyl plus a signed silkscreen print of a Merzbow's collage for the 1980s produced by 7th Disaster and a L Merzbow Hoodie

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition Colour LP + Hoodie S + Signed Silkscreen print
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Matte laminate jacket, black inner print, colour vinyl plus a signed silkscreen print of a Merzbow's collage for the 1980s produced by 7th Disaster and a S Merzbow Hoodie

    Includes unlimited streaming of Flare Blues via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

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Deathmetal 06:33

about

Flare Blues reimagines two of Merzbow’s long out of print EPs from 1994, Flare Gun and White Blues. Revisiting the original pieces and adding previously unreleased materials recorded during these sessions, Flare Blues tethers together a set of Merzbow’s most exploratory work, creating a visceral linkage between a pair of vital works.

Originally recorded in June 1994, Merzbow's Flare Gun is a pulsating and hammering collection of pieces that grinds ever forward with a sense of bludgeoning determination. By contrast, White Blues recorded the following month (which draws its title from several of the samples used as raw material that originate from blues inspired British rock bands), maintains a more unsteady sense of movement and musicality, matching degraded samples against a flurry of theremin and electronics which are overdriven and saturated in ways that would later go on to become some of the trademark sonic actions of Merzbow's live performances.

On Flare Blues not only are the pieces remastered by Merzbow, but they are recontextualised and when heard together with the previously unreleased bonus materials open up a new sense of his studio experimentation at the time.

What marks these recordings as critical is they trace a line through a period of significant discovery and refinement for Merzbow. Having been recorded just months after Venereology, this set of works bares the marks of Merzbow’s deepening awareness of extreme forms of distortion, compression and also his dynamic mixing approaches that simultaneously allow multiple or singular elements to occupy the entirety of the available sound spectrum.

Ultimately, these works are morphic, often churning and erupting with a magma like quality. When they do fall into waves of pulse, those patterns are never held long and the intense sense of cutting into the sound creates a feeling of endless anticipation as Merzbow guides you through an ever-evolving sound world that is uncompromisingly restless and relentless.

credits

released October 8, 2021

All Music by Masami Akita
Recorded & Mixed at ZSF Produkt, Tokyo June-July 1994
Remastered at Munemihouse Feb-March 2021

All tracks of 'Flare Gun ' and 'White Blues' are bit longer and a different mix to the original release.

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Room40

Room40, a beacon of sound...ringing out from the deepest south. Also home to our sibling labels Someone Good and A Guide To Saints.

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