Description
“Aqua Neuromancer” is Masami Akita’s psych-noise mantra, originally released on CD in 1998 by Alien8 Recordings, now reissued as an expanded double LP in gatefold cover. Remastered by Masami Akita in 2021 with additional material from the same sessions.
Review of the original release, published in 2012:
Expect the unexpected. Masami Akita, corrupt mastermind behind the bound and gagged and tossed into the jet engine noise of Merzbow has, over the last years, really begun to stretch the limits of what he sonically does. Seems, with releases (Tauromachine, Hybrid Noisebloom, 1930…), there has been more variety within the choppy slabs of noise that he designs. What we have here is, quite possibly, the most varied Merzbow release to date. Why? Because, amidst the stalk and squeal noise, Masami has seen fit to add lots of trippy, sometimes jazzy, inherently odd, sampled beats from bands like Soft Machine and L’Orme. Tracks like “Soft Drums” and “Contrapuntti Patto” are as much a product of the added beats as they are the usual Merzbow onslaught; the beats seem to have given Masami direction and, more so, revealed a side to his noisetrations that can only be deemed psychedelic! Yes, for all the noisicians who feel they are tapping into 60’s psychedelia while still pummeling us with the same monstrous (though fun) regurgitations, Aqua Necromancer is a mind-altering example of noise that can actually be called groovy. Far out! – J.C. Smith
