“The Merzbow noise is abstract, minimal, deprived of mimetic content. Its effect is immediate, an overload of the nervous system, not being able to sort out the information into categories of relevant and irrelevant – hence the normal reaction of fear and discomfort when confronted with Merzbow noise. ‘Noise is the unconsciousness of music’, Merzbow states, in the same way as his other main interest, pornography and bondage, is the unconsciousness of sex.”
The Aesthetics of Noise, Torben Sangild.