Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on August 05, 2026, 10:21:15 AMYes indeed, I think this could be even topic of its own. Like... would PULSE DEMON be such a classic album, if it was just that album, and it would not be part of the larger body of work? I feel that this album as stand alone album if nice, but it is not phenomenal by any means. When you think it as sort of purified synth noise album within discography of Merzbow, is suddenly has different meaning.
Pulse Demon certainly has taken on a life of its own over the years due to more than just what's on the album itself: the packaging, the mastering, its wide availability, the fact that it was for many their main intro into noise, etc.
But I think it still justifies itself, for the most part, if you look at the original release up to and including "Tokyo Times Ten." For me, the whole thing is basically a buildup to that track, getting progressively more and more massive until it hits that crescendo in TTT's explosion of massive waves of noise. I've sometimes thought that you could justify Akita's reputation just by that one track alone. The timbres and depth on it are incredible. By the end of it, you're cleaned out and have everything you could ever want in a noise release.
Which might be where the problem comes in. Because the album isn't over.
By no means is "Worms Plastic Earthbound" a bad track. On any other Merzbow release, it would probably sit comfortably. Its just not TTT. In fairness, nothing could be. Anything would probably be a bit of a letdown. But its also hampered somewhat by the fact that its a lot more (comparatively) restrained than anything on the album up to that point. Maybe that was intentional, the idea being to give the listener a nice breather after what came before. But it can't help but feel like its meandering a bit and losing the power that was achieved. "Yellow Hyper Balls" is a perfectly fine closer, but again, nowhere near the heights achieved before it.
I've always felt that
Pulse Demon maybe should've ended at TTT. Or at the least, if all the original tracks are preserved, the final two should have instead placed somewhere before TTT as more stepping stones on the road to it, with "Worms..." cut by 10 minutes or so to make it more compact. Interestingly, the vinyl reissues seemed to sense this somewhat, since the arrangement there does move "Yellow Hyper Balls" up before TTT.
Anyway, I feel there are definitely other Merzbow releases that hold the listener's attention more consistently throughout the whole of the release than PD, sure. But there is something special about the buildup to and culmination in TTT that is seldom equaled elsewhere. For that in itself, PD deserves its reputation.
