With the caveat out of the way�which means that I won't attempt to situate the work in the context of Merzbow's career- I have to say that I find the music on both of these albums both intriguing and enjoyable. Intriguing in part because the process of electronic music-making is a virtually complete mystery to me. What happens in actual practice is that I find myself pondering way the music is produced as much as the music itself. Of course, that doesn't lead me very far in terms of assessment, but it does add to the enjoyment in a vague way.

Take the live recording from the 2002 Victoriaville festival by Merzbow (Masami Akita) and Pan Sonic (Mika Vainio and Ilpo V�is�nen), a performance that I was fortunate enough to attend. The music is a kind of aural midway ride that reminds me for large stretches of an airplane revving up very gradually for takeoff. In fact, it is the allusiveness of the sounds- play the game What's That Sound Like?--that forms one part of the appeal. Structurally, Merzbow and Pan Sonic work in blocks that may last from four to ten minutes, during which a low end base is superimposed upon by various swirls and pulses. Best appreciated at high volume, the music is never jarring, however. Toward the end of the 68-minute performance, a dance beat is brought into the mix, underlining the fact that despite the serious demeanour of the musicians, this is essentially good time music.

Which is the approach that seems to have been taken by the various artists on the Ikebana remix album. Not familiar with Amlux itself, I presume that the musicians either used actual sound elements from Amlux, or more likely, in the majority of cases, used Merzbow as an inspiration and abstracted away from his music. What predominates on the album, a set of 13 pieces totaling 78 minutes by the likes of DJ Spooky, Plug, Alec Empire, Negativland, and Nobukazu Takemura, is dance beats. There's much more than that, including washes of sound, assorted snaps, crackles, and pops, and voice samples (especially on Negativland's "An Actual Attack").

Like I said, intriguing and enjoyable. Let's dance.