Two major acquisitions this weekend:
Merzbow Merzbient (Soleilmoon) - 12 CD box set
Absolute Body Control Tapes 81-89 (Daft) - 5 CD box
No chance to play the Merzbow box yet (the ABC is en route)...I admit I picked up this new 'Merzbox'
out of curiousity, as the idea of 'ambient Merzbow' (talk about an oxymoron) piqued my interest. Earlier listening to samples revealed that the box is not as ambient you might think — this is still, indeed, Merzbow, after all — but there does seem to be at least a mitigation of his usual noise assaults. The pieces were scattered over many years (80s-early 90s) and many tapes; as I'm not exactly what you'd call a Merzbow enthusiast (I have maybe 3 discs, a few of which are collabs), I'm hoping this collection will reveal a hitherto unseen side of his character...perhaps a more approachable side...?
Absolute Body Control was Dirk Ivens' first group; he later went on to form Klinik, one of the prime Belgian EBM outfits. ABC created what is now termed 'cold wave': minimal synth/rhythm box pieces with detached vocals and eerie atmospheres, sort of a reductionist electro, with echoes of early Cabaret Voltaire, Suicide, D.A.F., etc. ABC still sounds damn good, even by today's standards, and this new box set is certainly of historical (as well as sonic) note, presaging what is again a 'mini-movement' (small but persistent) in contemporary electronica...what goes around, comes around / everything old is new again, etc., etc.
Further snags:
Amongst Myselves Fragments
Analogue Kid Live Science
A Split-Second The Parallax View EP (remixes)
Asura Life2
Bobby Previte Dull Bang Gushing Sound Human Shriek (early recording, all electronic)
Boreal Taiga Isopectic Isotac
Daren Keck 7 Years Under
John Ellis Destination Everywhere & Shock of Contact
Galactic Anthems 3 discs
Phil Miller Digging In & Split Seconds (used to own these, dumped them, reacquired)
