Over the past couple of weeks, I've been wondering whether those Sound Soother / White Noise Generators would be a good thing to add to my life. Or whether even a CD playing alarm clock type thing (like the item linked) would be good to have next to the bed. I've been working on a harsh noise album for The ELW, which has involved a lot of late creative nights. It's also involved some interesting sleep sessions as I'd nod off on the hardwood floor during one of the tracks (most vary between 10-23 minutes) to intense dreams - usually to be jarred awake by the start of the third track (a jarring rhythmic beginning in comparison to the more usual long waves of large noise). I wonder how well that would really work to try to sleep to. A well programmed selection of The ELW or Merzbow could be an interesting experiment. Seeing one of those Sharper Image "sound soothers" in use on tonight's episode of Sex and the City got me thinking about it again. Particularly after I remembered a hilarious News Radio episode where the character Dave was given one of those boxes to calm down and became overly mellow and addicted to it.
On Merzbow, I've been starting to aggressively expand my collection, finally. Freshly arrived is Ikebukuro Dada (review). On the way are Batztoutai With Material Gadgets, a double CD from the excellent RRR catalog. I had this CD many years ago when I was first getting into the collage/concrete structure and had started The ELW project, but I think at the time I was unprepared for the intensity of Merzbow (even older works like Batztoutai), so as I slowly sold off my CD collection to live, this one was one of those early losses. I'm looking forward to having it again. Also on its way in that order is Frog+, another double CD (and one that might fit the sleeper-cd profile I described above).
Another order includes 1930, a Merzbow release on John Zorn's Tzadik label, which I hope to go back to for Keiji Haino, Ikue Mori, and Yuka Honda works. Which makes it seem that all that is good in my life right now seems to be coming from Japan, or from Japan by way of New York.
Speaking of Japan, in that order which includes Merzbow's 1930 is Petty Booka's US release, Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian. Petty Booka are my find of the week (during which I found plenty of other good new Japanese artists such as Ex-Girl and Hi Posi). They're two ukelele playing girls from Japan who play everything from polynesian music to country western and bluegrass. And they do it extremely well. I hope they release their country western work in the US soon - it shames (as usual) what usually passes for country these days, and can instead be played alongside Patsy Cline, Hank Williams (and Hank III's country works), Gillian Welch, etc.
As a result of all this, I've decided I need to get down to the liquor store soon and see if they have any Japanese Whisk(e)y. So much else good is coming from Japan into my life these days, and I do love the Whisk(e)y. How can I go wrong?