Let's discuss noise music.

[SoulDischarge]

Always a contentious genre, I'd say it's a topic ripe for discussion. Is noise music? What value does it have? What goals are trying to be achieved with noise? What separates a good noise artist from a poor one? How far does your appreciation and tolerance for noise extend? How has noise shaped the popular music landscape over time? Is there a strong emotional base in noise music, or is it purely aesthetic and visceral? Are certain types of noise music more effective than others? How should live noise performances be approached?

[bug on your lip]

do i have to answer every one?

[miscorrections]

Cats don't like it very much.

[SoulDischarge]

I forgot to mention that in order to make this thread more obscure and intimidating to neophytes, all responses should be typed in iambic pentameter using Esperanto. Thanks.

[nationocean]

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells...

also, your noisy bewbs haunt me

[RotationSlimWang]

Let's fucking not.

[TomAz]

En multaj lokoj de Ĉinio estis temploj de drako-reĝo. Dum trosekeco oni preĝis en la temploj, ke la drako-reĝo donu pluvon al la homa mondo. Tiam drako estis simbolo de la supernatura estaĵo. Kaj pli poste, ĝi fariĝis prapatro de la plej altaj regantoj kaj simbolis la absolutan aŭtoritaton de feŭda imperiestro. La imperiestro pretendis, ke li estas filo de la drako. Ĉiuj liaj vivbezonaĵoj portis la nomon drako kaj estis ornamitaj per diversaj drakofiguroj. Nun ĉie en Ĉinio videblas drako-ornamentaĵoj, kaj cirkulas legendoj pri drakoj.

[Aurgasm]

go fuck yourself soul discharge

[SoulDischarge]

OK?

[whynotsmile99]

Let's fucking not.

yea, really

i already have a fucking headache

[Still-ill]

I like it.

[TomAz]

[mountmccabe]

It's pretty crazy that there are works of art natively in Esperanto. That's my kind of subversion.

[amyzzz]

this thread is a lot better than i thought it'd be.

[pancakespancakes]

Is there a strong emotional base in noise music, or is it purely aesthetic and visceral?

Yes. My attraction to noise music is, pretty much, not musical... it is based on sound design. And wonderfully designed sound can have a great emotional effect on me. But then, bands that are considered "noise rock," like say The Locust, do they really fall into the noise music cagtegory? I don't think so, I'm not sure... but my attraction to them is definitely a musical one. And yet my attraction to their music is purely visceral.

Listening to the Emeralds' new album right now, I'm not sure this is considered noise music, but this has to be one of the prettiest albums of 2009 for sure.

[pancakespancakes]

Oh wait we're not talking about noise music here? Oh okay

[SoulDischarge]

That's another thing that's worth discussing. What qualifies as noise? There's a lot of bands who incorporate noise elements but aren't straight up noise bands. Then there's lots of straight up noise bands that incorporate elements from more traditional forms of music. I find a lot of stuff I gravitate towards works on the tensions between noise and song structure, like no wave, for example. I'm in the mood for pure Merzbow style noise far less. It does seem that there's been a trend for noise bands to become "prettier" lately with stuff like Fuck Buttons and Emeralds. It's a direction I'm enjoying.

[pancakespancakes]

I'm not sure what makes Emeralds/Fuck Buttons/Growing noise music, but it's true that they are very pretty. I just can't think of what it is that makes them noise bands, and yet I'll be the first to call them that.

With bands like The Locust or Melt Banana or Lightning Bolt though, it's the songs themselves that are so noisy... pretty much a disregard for melody, putting the emphasis on abrasiveness.

I love both kinds but I think they are two very distinct genres that do not cross over one another.

[Jman4321]

The interesting album for me right now is Get Color by HEALTH. It, for the most part, has straightforward song structures and to an extent follows fairly predictable progressions and contains discernible repeating parts. However beyond the two singles the rest of the album is made up of shards of noise and over-clocked delay pedal sounds. The framework of a rock album is there but the building materials are made of really ugly pieces of sound. With the vocals on top of it all it turns into a highly digestible noise-rock record.

There's stuff like Fuck Button's music mentioned above that have periods of melody and really warm sounds that move along like a song (newer Black Dice comes to mind) and there's stuff like Prurient who just makes screeching treble with a microphone. The point I'm making is that even at these two polar opposites both of these bands work just on aesthetic for me but do so very well, using somewhat (to completely) formless blasts of sound that draw me into a game of trying to pick out every detail and get entranced by the pulse (if present). This HEALTH album bridges that gap and is really exciting to me because it squeezes what should be stereotypically formless (subtracting many newer bands of course) and squeezing it into an, admittedly a bit tight-fitting at times, frame of reference.

[wmgaretjax]

Always a contentious genre, I'd say it's a topic ripe for discussion. Is noise music? What value does it have? What goals are trying to be achieved with noise? What separates a good noise artist from a poor one? How far does your appreciation and tolerance for noise extend? How has noise shaped the popular music landscape over time? Is there a strong emotional base in noise music, or is it purely aesthetic and visceral? Are certain types of noise music more effective than others? How should live noise performances be approached?

There are lots of questions here. I'd like to attack the one about it being purely aesthetic...

There's lots of explicit emotion in a lot of noise music... Someone like Prurient is the perfect example. Whether it's his performance or the lyrical content, it's hard to deny a strong emotional foundation. Beyond this though, noise certainly has it's roots in sheer aesthetic force (pancakes mentioned listening to it for sound design, which is certainly relevant), but it also can't be denied that some noise music is attempting to build on traditions of musicality. It's impossible to deny this with artists like Yellow Swans who are clearly working with notions of music that even people only acclimated with simple pop can understand. The fact that it's not typically tonal isn't counter to this. Someone like Jason Crumer is another example of a noise artist with serious musical clout.

There is another whole thread in noise that is more about extreme performance than music... descended from hanatarash and the like.

As for what is noise... artists like health, fuck buttons, emeralds etc. certainly are influenced heavily by noise... and i might talk about their music with the term noise in mind, but I would never call them noise in the same way I would the other artists i just mentioned (or merzbow, as patrick said). I also think there are more shades of gray in between things like health and merzbow (bands like Hair Police etc).

[xxxxxxxxxx]

Amazing

[amyzzz]

Amazing

This is what I was expecting Can to sound like.

[wmgaretjax]

I've never really thought of Einsturzende Neubauten as noise, but I guess they do have some stuff that could be considered as such. I guess the theatricality of it has always stood out to me above anything else. I'd love for someone to do a young'uns, i have all their stuff, but little context for it...

[SoulDischarge]

There are lots of questions here.

Yeah, I guess it was kind of a shitty first post, I just wanted to lay out some grounds for discussion. I meant something more like this:

Noise is a controversial genre of music that a lot of people, including many on this board, have a hard time relating to. So this thread should serve as a place to further the discussion on noise, why it's worthwhile and why it's intimidating, what kind of context it has, and what it's goals and limitations are. It can also be a place where people who do enjoy noise can discuss different styles and bands and etc.


A lot of early industrial (Einsturzende, Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV/Coil, Nurse With Wound, SPK, Cabaret Voltaire, Chrome, Current 93, etc) has a huge overlap with noise, although with varying degrees of songcraft incorporated. While a lot of it isn't straight up power noise, it definitely opened up the path towards it a little more.

I'd like to do a young'uns guide for Einsturzende Neubauten sometime, but I'm not quite familiar with all of their material yet. They've been one of the most consistent bands over the past nearly 30 years; many of their more recent albums are just as good as their early material, although usually a lot less confrontational and a lot more textured. Some of my favorite albums are Kollaps (1981), their debut, Halber Mensch, (1985), Tabula Rasa (1993), especially the last 2 tracks, "Headcleaner I & II", and Silence Is Sexy (2000). Although I haven't heard a weak album from them yet. I think I'm going to have to dedicate some time listening over their discography now.

[wmgaretjax]

I think industrial is a natural entry point into noise, like you've said... As is metal (which was my way in)... So many noise artists came from metal in the first place. The great thing nowadays is that there are plenty of bands that straddle the line at times as well. Bands like Sunn and Boris have great collaborations and one-offs that push their music into the realm of noise.

[Muzikulo]

It's pretty crazy that there are works of art natively in Esperanto. That's my kind of subversion.

Noise music in Esperanto!

• Pichismo @ archive.org (free mp3s)

• www.pichismo.narod.ru/English.htm
• Pichismo @ Last.fm

[wmgaretjax]

hahahaha

[miscorrections]

This first post makes me ridiculously happy.

[wmgaretjax]

best first post ever.

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

Why is this thread ignored?