Noise Music

After seeing that Russell Haswell is supporting Autechre on this little tour they're doing in a couple of months time, I'm wondering if it's actually worth bothering standing through the support or just going really late for Autechre. It all depends on the entry cutoff I guess but I doubt it'll be that early...

Anyway can anyone tell me what the really extreme noise music is about? Especially the Hecker and Haswell stuff. I can see how some noise music is musically viable (for example some of Merzbow's output, especially Merzbeat, is quite cool), and I'm into quite a lot of avant-garde stuff (Stockhausen, Mimaroglu, Cage, Berio, Subotnick), but some stuff I just don't see how it can be classed as music. Listening to clips of Haswell's Live Salvage albums, I don't see how this is classed as music - it's literally just noise, totally unstructured, undeveloped noise. Nothing happens. Stuff like KTPA by Aphex I find interesting because it's constantly moving, but how is Haswell's work interesting? Same applies to some of Hecker's work, and some Merzbow too, how can this "music" hold anybody when it's just a constant blast?

But is that the point? Should I see Haswell live because at that volume, it's going to be so intense? The noise turns into a real physical thing?

Something like Live Tracks would be REALLY cool live, especially if Haswell took a "surround" system on tour, but I can't see him playing tracks off a laptop or even CD happening. He'll want to be tweaking away at something, even if the output result doesn't seem to change at all...

Any answers, comments or thoughts would be greatly appreciated, especially if you've seen someone like Haswell live. I want to know whether those couple of hours waiting through that stuff is worth it or not.

if you don't like something, don't worry about it. i don't like country & western, but i don't cry about it.

i like good country and western

i like hecker & haswell. i think that live salvage is a great album but if you want to miss the opening act, sure, you've have my blessing. i saw haswell opening for ae once & it was fucking great. lots of details/agression/massive sound fx. anyway, there is no rule mentionning you HAVE to enjoy noisey tracks. one advice : dont listen to it at home on crappy pc speakers because

MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS

i heard willie nelson is playing between haswell and autechre

one mans noise is anothers beautiful music blahblah

I prefer the term "unstructured sound"

Albums like Pulse Demon by Merzbow.

I'm also curious about what people enjoy about it. I'm not here to criticize, just wondering what about this stuff intrigues people.

Because at least 1930 has a little bit of range to it.

Pulse Demon is amazing, 1930 is cool but i like the non stop barrage wall of noise effect, very satisfying.

it always seems like it means more to those that make it than anyone else could bring from it

  On 1/9/2010 at 7:10 PM, futureimage said:

Should I see Haswell live because at that volume, it's going to be so intense? The noise turns into a real physical thing?

yes!

there's really a whole different level to this kind of music live, it's like being inside a sculpture. even more structured noise groups like black dice, it's totally different live because you don't just get the riffs, you get the way it chops up the space.

you can say they're all full of themselves for making music that works better like that, but you could say the same thing about people who want everything to work on ipod earbuds.

merzbow's repetitive stuff seems more imaginative to me because of the non repetitive stuff that comes before it. like that track on dharma that starts with guitars and then goes into this ascending noise thing for half an hour, the way he contrasts stuff makes it seem less clinical, more like falling into space instead of turning a knob, I dunno.

The Hecker & Haswell stuff on youtube makes me feel like I'm in a movie.

i appreciate stuff by Haswell and Hecker but i feel like some of is more about the process rather than the product which does have it's own place in experimental art. for instance the most recent Haswell thing i picked up was called Wild Tracks, a neatly packaged compilation of supposedly unusual field recordings. He writes a few pages in the linear notes about how he did no processing whatsoever to keep them in their pure realistic state .Unfortunately most of the recordings are not very entertaining. In theory the album seemed really interesting, but listening to it was a challenge and not because it was other worldy or jarring, but because it was so mundane.

but on another note i experience aural pleasure when listening to harsh noise or power electronics noise music. Artists like Pain Jerk, C.C.C.C. and Merzbow's mid period stuff all create a sort of ganzfeld effect on my ears. By basically encompassing every frequency on the audible spectrum at once it has the same effect on me as listening to ambient background music, sometimes more effective.

edit: in fact if you look up ganzfeld effect on the internet most people will recommend you also play white or pink noise in the background while whiting out your vision.

Anyone who hates Pulse Demon just isn't listening to it loud enough. Perhaps they need to take a ride in the Merzcar...

futureimage i'm with you i also don't like pure ambient

whenever someone is playing who i'm not fond of, i just hang out at the smoking section outside... although i don't smoke!

  On 1/10/2010 at 3:31 AM, asymmetrical head said:

whenever someone is playing who i'm not fond of, i just hang out at the smoking section outside... although i don't smoke!

that is a good place to get hooked up with acid

Not to sound like someone's parents, but from what I can make out to 'appreciate' this kind of music you need to listen to it really loud - Am I right 'bout that ? But surely if you're listening to brick wall style noise at a real loud volume then you're very quickly going to fuck up your hearing, surely ?

I've never really got noise, but I do appreciate what I suppose is the complete polar opposite of noise in what I guess could be called (though probably isn't !) micro-noise - i.e. stuff like Richard Chartier where it's just so darn quiet and off most of the audible spectrum that you feel little shimmers of sound drifting over you and occasionally nice ambient drones floating by and off to infinity. Now that I like !

  On 1/11/2010 at 12:03 AM, mcbpete said:

 

I've never really got noise, but I do appreciate what I suppose is the complete polar opposite of noise in what I guess could be called (though probably isn't !) micro-noise - i.e. stuff like Richard Chartier where it's just so darn quiet and off most of the audible spectrum that you feel little shimmers of sound drifting over you and occasionally nice ambient drones floating by and off to infinity. Now that I like !

sounds awesome, i should check this out

  On 1/11/2010 at 4:11 AM, Awepittance said:

  On 1/11/2010 at 12:03 AM, mcbpete said:

 

I've never really got noise, but I do appreciate what I suppose is the complete polar opposite of noise in what I guess could be called (though probably isn't !) micro-noise - i.e. stuff like Richard Chartier where it's just so darn quiet and off most of the audible spectrum that you feel little shimmers of sound drifting over you and occasionally nice ambient drones floating by and off to infinity. Now that I like !

 

sounds awesome, i should check this out

yeah, sounds fine & i've heard about richard chartier before. on noise, hecker had done a bit of that micro noise before with that album :

also, some of merzbow recent collab are beautfully executed, the Rock Dream live album with Boris, and the masterpiece collab with richard pinhas.

i know its not popular here but, for my ears, the latest one sounds like robert fripp (to make it short) stuck in a elevator with merzbow & a bunch of forbidden products. i like this one a lot (nice review/notes on discogs btw)

+ vidéo :

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7e3kn_merzbow-pinhas-ic3_music

I have seen whitehouse and satanstornade live ages ago and it was really great

some people started to lay on the floor and you really got into some kind of psychedelic mood from the noise and the flashy light all the time

Sunn O))) was also intense while its drone not noise

these sounds really alter your perception in way

  On 1/11/2010 at 4:11 AM, Awepittance said:

  On 1/11/2010 at 12:03 AM, mcbpete said:

 

I've never really got noise, but I do appreciate what I suppose is the complete polar opposite of noise in what I guess could be called (though probably isn't !) micro-noise - i.e. stuff like Richard Chartier where it's just so darn quiet and off most of the audible spectrum that you feel little shimmers of sound drifting over you and occasionally nice ambient drones floating by and off to infinity. Now that I like !

 

sounds awesome, i should check this out

Of his real minimalist of minimal minimal I'd recommend:

Current - http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=76381

Set or Performance - http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=28169

i think there are a lot of noise albums out there that would probably appeal to ambient and especially drone fans

like these....

C.C.C.C. & Nocturnal Emissions - The Beauty Of Pollution

C.C.C.C. - Love & Noise

Merzbow - Music For Bondage Performance

Aube - Feed the Fishes

Aube - Cardiac Strain

Merzbow - Electric Salad

  On 1/11/2010 at 11:00 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

yeah i always found ambient music and noise music strangely similar in approach - it's all very texture based. it's ironic in a way because they are almost polar opposite in sound.

noise like satanstornade really makes me chilled even so it sounds quite aggressive

  On 1/11/2010 at 11:00 AM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

yeah i always found ambient music and noise music strangely similar in approach - it's all very texture based. it's ironic in a way because they are almost polar opposite in sound.

brian eno mentions something about it, comparing metal music machine & music for airports, both released the same day i think.