Kiyoshi Mizutani

Started by FreakAnimalFinland, February 14, 2023, 08:45:16 AM

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FreakAnimalFinland

Kiyoshi Mizutani is name just about everybody has seen as he  was a member of Merzbow in the '80s. Regardless, his solo work that has been done since 1989 is vastly less noticed. Or perhaps it is not often HARSH enough to be talked on pure noise people, but it was curious to notice that searching on SI forum, no topic about him and very little discussed.

Ferns just put out 2xLP reissue of Inferior's Betrayal, that is one of tapes that came on his own label between "The Same Thing Makes Always Her Laugh" ‎LP (1990) on Merzbow's ZSF Produkt label and "Millstone" CD (Pure/RRR 1995)

"The Same Thing Makes Always Her Laugh" ‎LP sound partially as it was still source material for Merzbow. First song with birds and electronics nice, 2nd track that is the 80's Merz vibe with that crap-impro drum nonsense and guitar noise ain't too good. B-side of LP is kind of noisy sound collage of all sorts of things. Sometimes good, sometimes not that good.

Millstone is somewhat challenging piece. Sparse, almost entirely acoustic, man scratching sounds with stone, some metal. Little quite feedback experiments at the end of long disc, but it is very much like "sound study"... "object study" of some sort.

But between these two, is "Cemetary 1-3" tape, that is 1991 recordings and again quite like the lowerst forms of music Merz. Good in a way, but perhaps not absolute masterpieces. And then  "Inferior's Betrayal" (1994) is easily the best - and I am not surprised it is exactly this tape what was reissued! 70 minute long tape divided to 4 sides of vinyl, sounding better than the rip at youtube. It has the same kind of minimal, almost efx free approach of fairly simple sound sources, but very unique touch. As example, this one. Skipping and finding the sweet spots seems wrong way to give it a try, when material clearly benefits from conscious listening and may reveal itself when actually listened.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGts_ZWknBo

People into later works of Mizutani? It seems he is not very active since 2010 or so.
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
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PuddysJacket


FreakAnimalFinland

Also news is that Ferns will be reissuing more of his old tapes! So in future some of these impossible to find items will be out there to grab..
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
LABEL / DISTRIBUTION: FREAK ANIMAL http://www.nhfastore.net

Commander15

Just checked some bits and pieces of Inferior's Betrayal from Bandcamp. Sounds really good, has this certain  minimal, spacious feel to it that i cherish in noise. Certainly not harsh, but i count that as an good thing.

FreakAnimalFinland

Kiyoshi Mizutani – Cemetery LP came out, ltd 150. Waiting for the copies to show up. Hard to say if 150 copies is just the right number for Mizutani, or will it be sold out too quickly?
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
LABEL / DISTRIBUTION: FREAK ANIMAL http://www.nhfastore.net

burdizzo1

Now, there's a name. Went through a phase of collecting John Watermann material, one of which was a split tape w/ Mizutani from 1994. Remember liking it at the time and, sure enough, I can see why, even if I don't really go for this stuff so much nowadays. The Muzutani side is quite spacious and falls into the (electro)acoustic/ experimental category with the sounds getting plenty of room to 'breathe'. Not ambient, by any means, but raw and concrète , and sometimes quite abrasive. Makes a nice change, but I suppose there was plenty of similar-ish stuff at the time?