industriv. · a personal archive of industrial, noise & avant-garde disturbances

Listening protocol

Subject of entry

Merzbow · Merzbox · 2000

Imprint · catalogue

Extreme Records · Australia · XCD-100

Held by

VAGO

duration

approx. 50 hours · 50 discs · one box

listening entry · position documented

Listening protocol

The Merzbox.

On listening to fifty discs as position

Released in 2000 by Extreme Records (Melbourne, Australia) as a celebration of the imprint's tenth anniversary position. Took four years to assemble through a core team of seven people. One thousand copies struck. Fifty discs. One book. One CD-ROM. One t-shirt. One medal. I keep this listening-protocol document as the record of attempting to engage with the object at the scale the object proposes.

The object

The object, in its acquired state:

Discs: Fifty (50). CD format. Approximately 50 hours of material. Reissued Merzbow positions from 1979 through 1998 plus previously-undocumented material assembled with Masami Akita.
Book: bound document. Critical essays, photographs, the position's documented history.
CD-ROM: Multimedia component. Digital position. Functional on the 2000-era desktop hardware (later deteriorated).
T-shirt: Cotton. One. Wearable. Black.
Merzdallion: Struck commemorative medal. Bronze surface. Bears the position's house mark and the year 2000. My artefact of the transaction.
Packaging: Bespoke enclosure. Heavy. Difficult to shelve. Sustained career required to engage with.

The fifty discs

My catalogue grid, in the working order in which the discs were issued from the box. Each tile represents one disc; the positions are documented through the Akita catalogue across 1979 to 1998. Hover indicates my notation on the disc's mode.

State grid · hover indicates notation per disc

The Merzdallion

The artefact struck for the Merzbox transaction. My record of the medal's position:

Merzbow

commemorative

2000

stylised house reconstruction · house visual palette · one of one thousand

The Merzdallion is the object's certificate-of-acquisition working artefact. The struck surface bears the position's house mark and the year of issue. I record the working medal as significant beyond its physical scale: the working artefact constitutes the Merzbox position's mark, the signature, the documentary record of the transaction. The working medal later extends through the acquisition history into the collector tradition (one thousand working medals across the collecting population).

Field report · the listening

My notes, in the working order of the listening. Reproduced verbatim from the log.

disc 01 · day 1 · 09:42

Beginning the position. The method is identifiable: extended electronic surfaces, high-frequency mode, sustained method. The early release is documented through the cassette tradition. The vein sustains.

disc 03 · day 1 · 14:18

Three discs logged. The method has sustained across approximately three hours. The idiom is documented: extended noise surfaces with no internal caesura. My position is sustained.

disc 07 · day 2 · 11:04

Seven discs logged. The method sustains. The manner has, I note, begun to develop a sustained career in the environment. The room has become procedure.

disc 12 · day 4 · 17:31

twelve discs logged. the method sustains. the palette sustains. I keep a note: the position has begun to listen back.

disc 18 · day 6 · 22:07

eighteen discs logged. the noise has become the room. the room has become the position. the position is sustained.

disc 22 · day 8 · 03:14

There is, I keep, a sustained order in the mode. The method has become procedure. My position is the position. The position is my position. There is no caesura. The caesura is the position.

disc 26 · day 9 · 16:42

Half the position holds. The position is the position. I have begun, I note, to keep the position in the vein. The position speaks for itself. The position is procedure.

disc 31 · day 11 · 04:55

working · position · sustained · the · working · position · sustains · the · filed · working · method · sustains · the · working · idiom · sustains · the · sustained · working · position · sustains

disc 35 · day 12 · 19:20

[notes illegible · the log's later pages contain only the word ‘sustained’ written approximately four hundred times in descending size]

disc 41 · day 14 · 08:11

The position has, I am now confident in keeping, achieved standing. The method is the method. The position is the position. There is, I keep, no remaining caesura between the manner and the position. The discs continue.

disc 48 · day 16 · 13:47

Forty-eight discs logged. Two remain. The position is approaching completion. I note a small procedural grief.

disc 50 · day 16 · 23:58

The fiftieth disc has been logged. The position is complete. The room is procedurally quiet. I keep the report and replace the discs in the box. The Merzdallion is, I keep for the record, on the desk. My position is documented. The position closes.

Note on continuation

I record, for the working entry's later continuation, that Masami Akita has continued to produce positions at approximately the sustained rate documented across the pre-Merzbox career. The position has, at the time of writing, produced approximately several hundred additional documents after the Merzbox's 2000 working release. The position is unfinished. The position is unending. I note the fact and proceed.

Listening protocol complete

I keep this listening-protocol document as the record of the Merzbox engagement. Fifty discs logged. The Merzdallion is in my archive. The Akita position is, at the time of keeping, sustained.

VAGO · 14 May 2026

This is hidden entry 06 of 23.

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