Just found a couple copies of this long out of print double disc reissue from the Japanese noise master - we've got less than five of these, so move quick if you want to pick this up!

Merzbow's Age Of 369 / Chant 2 double-disc set has been a tough one to find since it's release in 1996, as Extreme (the Australian label that put this out) always had marginal distribution here in the U.S.; we've got this in stock now though along with Merzbow's classic black-drone album Music For

Bondage Performance, and the two CDs included here capture some of Masami Akita's earliest noise blasts originally released on long out-of-print

cassettes circa 1984. Packaged in a beautiful full-color case filled with sumptuous collages of Japanese erotic photography and high contrast drawings that

come from Merzbow's mail art of the period, this set begins to drill through yer skull from the 1st track with heavy patchworks of crushing machine drones,

complex loops constructed out of found sounds, howling tortured vocals, mutated bits of pop music, and feedback, and painted over backgrounds of grinding

white noise. These recordings show a more meditative Merzbow, with an emphasis on repetitious sound formed by the extensive tape loops that he manipulated by

hand and a collage style influenced by Masami Akita's contact with Italian inddustrialist Maurizio Bianchi, but it's all still pretty crushing. Especially

when you throw the Chant 2 disc on...these three tracks are brutal, rhythmic collage slabs of ring modulator whiplash and seething feedback, horror

movie organs and contact mic squelch and bonecrushing industrial dirges. Probably ranks as some of the heaviest electronic music that 1984 ever saw. The

Chant 2 disc also features "Itomakiei", a bonus track that originally appeared on the 1995 6x10=60 Vol. 1 compilation from Korm Plastics.