Merzbow - Flare Gun was quite nice. I realise how accurately he names his albums and tracks, this does feel like a flare gun. High-pitched wails and fiery bursts abound, with some cool additions in key places such as deep distorted warbling at the beginning of track 3, and some dense screams in the climax. The grating of the rough, high frequency that plays throughout is definitely effectual, though not so much that it would become boring when spread across the 30-minute completed album. Flare Gun is another success at making a compact and thoughtful noise release, but still not as soaring as he has been on other ones. He can have a banana for this one.