MERZBOW & OREN AMBARCHI

'Cat's Squirrel' presents a live recording of Masami Akita and Oren Ambarchi's performance in Campbelltown, Australia in May 2012. Although Akita and Ambarchi have known one another since 1993 and performed together as part of larger ensembles, this was their first performance as a duo. Together they create a massive wall of sound that moves from the cavernous to the blisteringly psychedelic, laying down shifting low-end structures over which pointillist details ricochet across the stereo field. Akita and Ambarchi's voices blend together into a sonic morass, Ambarchi's set-up expanded to include extra electronics and a spring reverb unit in addition to his signature guitar textures, and Akita utilizing both analogue and digital sound sources. Moving through a number of episodes, from deluges of reverberated metal screeches to rapid-fire iterations of visceral electronic tones, the record reaches a high point mid way through the second side, where Akita's electronics gradually thin out into a stream of skipping chirps and screeches while around him Ambarchi builds up a dense mass of phasing low end guitar tones, the duo patiently developing an impenetrable wall of ecstatic, psychedelic noise. Francis Plagne, Jan 2013 Deluxe, limited edition vinyl with artwork by Shunichiro Okada and design by Stephen O'Malley. (label info)