Released
1997
Label
Cold Spring
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Cold Spring
87 Gloucester Ave
Delapre, Northampton
NN4 9PT, England
MASONNA
c/o Maso Yamazaki
Acty Hanazono 2E
1-1-4 Bainan Nisinari-ku
Osaka 557 Japan
Fax: 81 6213 3905
Visit
Last Edit/Update
10 september, 1998
Masonna
SPECTRUM RIPPER
Track Listing
Part i
Part ii
Part iii
Part iv
Part v
Part vi
Part vii
Part viii
Part ix
Part x
Part xi
Part xii
Part xiii
Part xiv
Part xv
Part xvi
Part xvii
Part xviii
Part xix
Part xx
Part xxi
Part xxii
Part xxiii
Part xxiv
Part xxv
Reality ripped, torn and bleeding at the seams. Splintering noise.
Electro-metallic feed-back. The sensation as of freezing water hammering down on blistered
skin. Fragments of test tone signals. Pops and bleeps as of censored sounds. Decay. The
frantic, raving voice of a man emerging out of the sea of interference, only to be flooded
and washed away again. High-pitched and piercing. Tortured howls and exclamations. Utter
hysterical psychosis. Fingernails breaking apart, as cramped fingers are run screeching
down a tin surface. Oscillating, centrifugal, strobe acoustics. Thundering Static. An
overwhelming impression of mental breakdown. Fragile, pale skin whipped and beaten, lashed
and slashed. Needles inserted beneath fingernails. Fractured bones and plum-colored
patterns of bruises. A nuclear storm of fiery noise. No escape.
There is really no room to be
objective when confronting the music of Masonna (Maso Yamazaki).
The sound is too direct, and too painful in a sense. One experiences Spectrum Ripper
with the entire body, and one experiences it at a deafening volume, or one experiences it
not at all. This CD will either convince you that you love Japanoise, or that you never
wish to have anything to do with it again.
Short of Merzbow, Masonna
is probably the leading proponent of the noise scene in Japan. His body of work is
voluminous; his live performances are legendary, usually not much more than a minute long,
and having heard Spectrum Ripper one will understand why.
Cold Spring Records
is once more responsible for making the work of a truly original and iconoclastic artist
available. And, to make the experience complete, Spectrum Ripper has been presented
with cover art by Richard Cronin of a+d -- paintings that capture all the violence and strange beauty
of Masonna's music
