Pulse Demon is clearly one of the best known releases by Merzbow and also, while it might not rank amongst his best material, it is clearly one of the most important ones as well, as it was one of the very first releases by Masami Akita that hit the US shores back in 1996. While he already had overseas tours before and had material out on several smaller international labels, the point when Merzbow and Japanoise in general really became the in thing for fans of weird and experimental music in the US and around the world was when Relapse’s sub-label Release dropped Venereology and then Pulse Demon. It is pure, brutal harsh noise, a very typical example of Merzbow’s output around that time and its cover art, that’s right out of the favorite optical illusions book of your childhood is a legend in its own right. And curiously, even though both the Merzbow reissue and the vinyl craze has been raging on for long years now, Pulse Demon never had a vinyl reissue… until yesterday.

US label Bludhoney Records finally grabbed the rights for Pulse Demon and did an amazing job to give it the kind of reissue it deserves. A holographic gatefold jacket based on the original cover art, a Japanese style obi strip, two types of colored vinyl, one of which is metallic silver and the other is a truly beautiful “spiral blast” version, plus an ultra deluxe bundle, that includes a poster and an equally neat looking cassette version as well. However all these were strictly limited (250 silver, 150 spiral, 100 bundle) and just as expected, they were all sold out immediately. Of course copies are already popping up on Discogs for totally ridiculous prices, but let’s hope that this historical release will eventually get another, wider vinyl releases as well, not just this beautiful, but clearly way too strictly limited edition.