Merzbow – Animal Liberation – Until Every Cage Is Empty – CD/Download – Cild Spring Records - CSR314CD – 2022.
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/animal-liberation-until-every-cage-is-empty-csr314cd
1.
No Cages Part 1.
2.
No Cages Part 2.
3.
No Cages Part 3.
4.
No Cages Part 4.
5.
Baby Bird.
"There is a theory that
Covid-19 broke out from the poor conditioned wet markets where live animals are
sold. If there were no poultry farms, there would be no mass destruction of
chickens due to the spread of bird flu. Human beings' cruelty to animals,
animal abuse and species discrimination are all adding up to a disaster for
mankind and the whole planet. The pandemic is an opportunity to reflect on the
relationship between animals and humans. Veganism is the future for
humanity" (Masami Akita, 2021).
The theme of this album,
coupled with the Anarcho Punk style artwork takes be back to my days of discovering
bands like Conflict, Doom, Cress, Napalm Death, A.P.P.L.E. and Crass and exposure
to their take on the world, particularly the issue of animal rights. I remember
around that time of discovery regularly going to the Coventry Airport Veal
export protests in the 1990s, Jill Phipps died there, it had a massive impact
and I remember becoming a Vegan not long after that.
The intensity of No Cages Part
1 is immediate, starting with a pulsating distortion, it throbs at speed before
high pitched, screaming noise asserts itself over this. The high-pitched
wailing is like a horrified screaming in protest. Frequent rapid shifts jolt
the overall sound in other directions until it returns to something resembling
what it once was once the screaming noise returns. There is a constant struggle
of claustrophobic tension and anger as if imagining what it is like to be stuck
in a cage where you cannot really move, cannot see the sun, cannot escape your
own filth, cannot really live. The power of the backstory has a massive impact
on the work.
Savage pulsating forms the
base of No Cages Part 2, rapid, repetitive and relentless. That’s nothing
compared to the wailing frequencies that overlay it. I am sure I can hear field
recordings of caged birds in there as if in a battery farm for chickens. So
far, the delivery on this album is particularly savage, or is it how I am receiving
it? The shifts are more subtle here, things do not move too far from the
initial group of noises that started off after the pulsations of deep noise. Constant
screaming noise is prominent throughout this album. Metal abuse, repeated
battering kicks into the proceedings to overlap the pulsating. The busyness of
the noise drops off to allow rumbling bass to dominate the sound and create a
bigger sonic landscape that allows a deeper depth of sound to engage the
listener – this is a simple, yet effective shift to the work. This chapter of
the album goes into hyperdrive as it accelerates towards its’ own death.
Industrial, repetitive grinding
sounds coupled with sharper noise (metal sheeting, hit repetitively) forms No
Cages Part 3. Digital pulsations do kick into the sound occasionally to allow a
higher build up of noise to occur. This is the shortest No Cages and the most sonically
violent, it feels like an act of slaughter.
The looped metallic clanging
and throb of No Cages Part 4 is imposing and serves as a base for the noise to
go off. Noise levels and busyness drop off quickly to allow the high-pitched
screaming noises to interact and converse with more clarity, offering a bold
contrast to the massacre that was No Cages Part 3. In parts the sound seems to
malfunction and gasp for air as the base sounds take prominence for the noise
to then go off around it.
Baby Bird begins with the base
noise and its’ repetitive rhythm, but manic, conversing noise then takes the centre
stage. Parts of it seem to mimic the noises a young bird makes, coupled with
Industrial machine-like noise, it doesn’t look good for the bird. The noise becomes
particularly violent on this track, seeming to emphasise the shitness of life
applied to all ages of animal and bird in the food industry. The sounds break
down and seem to splutter and become very unstable as everything melts down to
an end.
Animal Liberation is a
powerful album, which makes a powerful statement. All proceeds will benefit
animal rights charities.
Nothing and Nobody 2022.
Relevant sites.
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