Antimonument

Antimonument is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was originally released as a picture disc LP[1] and reissued on CD by Art Directe in 1991. The CD is now considered a bootleg since the label did not pay the artists.[2]

Antimonument
Studio album by
Merzbow
ReleasedJune 1986 (1986-06)
RecordedFebruary–May 1986
GenreNoise
Length61:51 (reissue)
LabelZSF Produkt
ProducerMasami Akita
Merzbow chronology
Chant 2
(1985)		 Antimonument
(1986)		 Batztoutai with Memorial Gadgets
(1986)

The CD has a bonus track, taken from the cassette compilation Infidel Psalm Vol. 1 (1986 Mental Decay).

On October 13, 2014, it was reissued by menstrualrecordings as double picture disc LP with the bonus track included.[3]

Background

The album is "[...] a homage to the strange architecture of Étienne-Louis Boullée, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Goetheanum of Rudolf Steiner, Nishōtei, etc. – they all made their own pleasure domes."[4]

The sides of the record are named after the two main shrines of the Ise Grand Shrine.

In an interview with Arthur Potter, Masami Akita explains how this LP and Batztoutai were inspired by his native culture:

[...] musical composition and behavior are always related to the structure of one's own language and way of thinking. I'd like to use Japanese-like images and words on purpose, as a way of randomly mixing significant cultural details. For example [...] On the Antimonument picture disc, I used the sign of the shrine of "Ise" (shrine of the Emperor's family) and ancient heterodoxine lettering. These were not presented directly, but as subliminal images. Of course, the Japanese did not respond to them in the context I placed them.

The reason those images were used was that I'd been researching misreadings of Japanese public history, and wrote about that in a book called Mannerism of Heterodoxa.

— Masami Akita[5]

Akita then explains how the sound of his music changed over time, saying that Batztoutai "uses lots of loops" and that on Antimonument he "expanded the loop sounds with harsh metal ones."

Track listing

Vinyl version

All music is composed by Masami Akita.

Side 内宮
No.TitleLength
1."Tatara" 
2."Bardo Song" 
3."1560 °C Saiseikan no Owari" 
Side 外宮
No.TitleLength
1."Pleasure Dome" 
2."Grid Module" 

CD version

All music is composed by Masami Akita.

No.TitleLength
1."Tatara" 
2."Bardo Song" 
3."1560°C" 
4."Saiseikan no Owari" 
5."Pleasure Dome—Grid Module" 
6."3 Types of Industrial Pollusion" (Bonus track) 
Total length:61:56

(Note: the CD lists six tracks, but has only five index points.)

Personnel
  • Masami Akita, Abtechtonics – paintings [LP]
  • Ad Suprex – art direction [LP]
  • Abtechtonics – artworks [CD]

Notes
  • Remastered on 1991 [CD]

Release history
Region Date Label Format Quantity Catalog
Japan 1986 ZSF Produkt Picture disc LP 225 SH 61-01
Sweden 1991 Art Directe CD unknown AD I
Italy October 13, 2014 menstrualrecordings 2×PD LP 254 LH57

References
  1. "Merzbow - Antimonument (Vinyl, LP)". Discogs. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  2. "Merzbow - Antimonument (CD)". Discogs. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  3. "Merzbow – Antimonument". menstrualrecordings.org. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  4. Woodward, Brett (1999). Merzbook: The Pleasuredome of Noise. Extreme. ISBN 0-646-38326-4.
  5. Potter, Arthur (1989). RRReport. RRRecords (1).CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
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