Frequency LSD by Masonna
LABEL: Alien8 Recordings (Originally released February 1, 1998)

There’s avant-garde, and then there’s abstract nightmare put to tape. Somewhere in those two realms rests the work of Maso Yamazaki, also known by his performance moniker, Masonna. His work is primal, visceral beyond any genre-fied expectations, and pure through its relentless focus. Alien8 Recordings recently stumbled across a box of his out of print monolith of noise Frequency LSD, and are offering new exposure to this bizarre aural assault. These are the distorted acid hallucinations of Andy Warhol during a particularly violent BDSM excursion in East Berlin.

“While being a tremendous and uncompromising foray into the bizarre and destructive, there’s something remarkably satisfying about Frequency LSD.”

Frequency LSD is a 40 minute attack of Masonna’s vicious screaming through a semi-circle of stompboxes, augmented with soaring washes of manipulated feedback, emergency beacon echoes and distortion hiss. Unlike many contemporary noise artists who extend their pieces past the ten or fifteen minute mark, the album rests more into a punk aesthetic by offering fourteen short bursts to the spleen, making this relentless album portioned evenly. Just when your ear-drums feel about ready to bleed, it offers a couple seconds of silence (and a word to the wise”¦turn your volume knob down to its lowest setting while still being audible before hitting play, then turn it up to taste).

While being a tremendous and uncompromising foray into the bizarre and destructive, there’s something remarkably satisfying about Frequency LSD. It isn’t for everybody, but those who can enter into this new language won’t be disappointed, and will find something infectious and unique, in the truest sense of the word. This is not something you have been prepared for, and thanks to the reissue from Alien8, it shouldn’t be overlooked, either.


REVIEWED BY NEIL LEVENS



Stream & purchase album here