Antimonument (album)

Untitled

Antimonument is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. It was originally released as a picture disc LP and reissued on CD by Art Directe in 1991. The CD is now considered a bootleg since the label did not pay the artists.

The CD has a bonus track, taken from the cassette compilation Infidel Psalm Vol. 1 (1986 Mental Decay).

On October 13, 2014, it was reissued by menstrualrecordings as double picture disc LP with the bonus track included.

Background

The album is "[...] a homage to the strange architecture of Étienne-Louis Boullée, Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Goetheanum of Rudolf Steiner, Nishōtei, etc. – they all made their own pleasure domes."

The sides of the record are named after the two main shrines of the Ise Grand Shrine.

In an interview with Arthur Potter, Masami Akita explains how this LP and Batztoutai were inspired by his native culture:

[...] musical composition and behavior are always related to the structure of one's own language and way of thinking. I'd like to use Japanese-like images and words on purpose, as a way of randomly mixing significant cultural details. For example [...] On the Antimonument picture disc, I used the sign of the shrine of "Ise" (shrine of the Emperor's family) and ancient heterodoxine lettering. These were not presented directly, but as subliminal images. Of course, the Japanese did not respond to them in the context I placed them.

The reason those images were used was that I'd been researching misreadings of Japanese public history, and wrote about that in a book called Mannerism of Heterodoxa.

— Masami Akita

Akita then explains how the sound of his music changed over time, saying that Batztoutai "uses lots of loops" and that on Antimonument he "expanded the loop sounds with harsh metal ones."

Track Listing

Vinyl version

All music is composed by Masami Akita

Side 内宮

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Tatara"
2.	"Bardo Song"
3.	"1560 °C Saiseikan no Owari"

Side 外宮

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Pleasure Dome"
2.	"Grid Module"

CD version

All music is composed by Masami Akita

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Tatara"
2.	"Bardo Song"
3.	"1560°C"
4.	"Saiseikan no Owari"
5.	"Pleasure Dome—Grid Module"
6.	"3 Types of Industrial Pollusion" (Bonus track)
Total length:		61:56

(Note: the CD lists six tracks, but has only five index points.)

Personnel

• Masami Akita, Abtechtonics – paintings [LP]
• Ad Suprex – art direction [LP]
• Abtechtonics – artwerks [CD]

Notes

• Remastered on 1991 [CD]

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Quantity	Catalog	Sold Out
Japan	1986	ZSF Produkt	Picture disc LP	225	SH 61-01	Yes
Sweden	1991	Art Directe	CD	unknown	AD I	Yes
Italy	October 13, 2014	menstrualrecordings	2×PD LP	254	LH57	No