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Sudden Infant – Radiorgasm: Reissue (Blossoming Noise/Harbinger Sound) 2006

Posted in Music, noise, Sudden Infant with tags , , on June 14, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

 

This was originally released in 1991. 15 years later those nice people at Blossoming Noise had the good sense to re-release it. The field of noise seems to be awash with reissues at the moment.  The almighty Merzbient, Necro Acoustic, the first two Kevin Drumm records, Nurse With Wound and Current 93 has all been released in the last couple of years. This as been a boon for me particular because I came to the genre of experimental/noise so late.  My first experience with Sudden Infant was the tragically overlooked Psychotic Einzelkind. The punk rock/noise on display there is a very different beast to  the sounds on display on Radiorgasm.

Radiorgasm is a very difficult record. It’s all experimental tape stuff and dada primal scream weirdness with added gibberish In fact it has much more to do with early Nurse With Wound that it does with many of his Noise contemporaries.  I’m not sure whether this is a good record. I’m not a huge fan of the more arty aspects of experimentalism and in some ways this record seems almost self conscious in its difficulty. On that basis I’m not recommending this but  I can’t stress how important it is to listen to his more recent offerings on Blossoming Noise. Those records are great. This has only mild interest.

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Haters – Further (Transperency) 2008

Posted in Haters, Music, noise with tags , , on June 1, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

Here is another review from reader Adam. Thanks Mate!

It is not easy to write about The Haters, one of the longest running noise acts around. It is basically the project of one man, GX Jupitter-Larsen, although he has played with many people both live and on recorded material too. Writing about his work is not easy because it’s very conceptual – in fact, music is only a part of it; his concerts are performances too (and for a long time there actually wasn’t any music during his performances). I have to say I’m not exactly sure what Jupitter-Larsen is trying to express with his art, but my guess is it’s absurdity: absurdity that perhaps he sees as permeating life in general. Or perhaps he just loves absurdity. Or maybe he wants to show that he finds life and/or a lot of everyday actions meaningless. At least these are some of the ideas that come to my mind when I consider his obsession with counting sand grains, strange mathematical and time-space concepts, entropy and decay, making a blank video tape and then sending it to film festivals and so on. And of course, he’s obsessed with noise too – pure noise, such as the sound of glass breaking, fire crackling and cars crashing.

I guess you could say he’s just a snob or an idiot who claims to be an artist. As for me, I really like his ideas (even if I can’t claim I understand them fully): how he often mixes the absurd with the mundane, like making noise with shovels and suitcases, or having a noise generator built in a wrestling belt (he likes wrestling too). Everything he does is in his own style which was already pretty much fully developed around 1980, when he started releasing records. In 1983 he released a 7” which had no music on it and the instructions said to complete the record by scratching it so it could be listened to. Some “serious” avant-garde composers might have released similar records by 1983 but probably no one in the sort of underground that GX became a participant of.

There were more conceptual releases to follow and more regular releases too. Based on the roughly 15 CDs/records I know, the style of The Haters is harsh noise with no “musical” elements whatsoever for the most part. Monotony is typical too. Sometimes he loops the sound of car crashes; sometimes he amplifies the sound of stapling records together with a stapling gun, and so on. However, his Further CD is a great mix of his pure noise approach with more sound elements that ultimately make the CD more musical. The funny thing is, at the end of the day it’s still not musical at all. There’s a basic flow of electronic feedback, but in the background there are various sounds and effects such as screeching tyres and even synths. Somehow it creates the effect of being musical due to the contrast between the foreground and the background, but at the same time it’s still very much anti-music.

Probably a lot more could be written about the work of Jupitter-Larsen – for those who care, there’s a book about The Haters that was published by John Wiese not long ago. There’s a very nice career-spanning article by GX in the magazine As Loud As Possible too. For those who like the music of The Haters, Further is highly recommended. And for those who want to get to know his music, this album is a great starting point – but if you like it and want to hear more, prepare yourself for serious anti-easy listening that may well leave you scratching your head.

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Kevin Drumm – Kevin Drumm (Perdition Plastics) 1997

Posted in Kevin Drumm, Music, noise with tags , , on May 31, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

When I listen to records like this I just want to give up writing this blog. Must find words to describe sounds. Very hard. I suppose if I think of Kevin Drumm in terms of his recent output he takes on either the guises of the drone genius of Imperial Distortion and Organ fame or the noise beast on records like Sheer Hellish Miasma and Land of Lurches. When I first forked out my cash for his self-titled debut and the followup, Second, I was expecting something that, while I concede may not have sounded like those more familiar Drumm records, wouldn’t sound quite like this. This almost verges on sound art. The seven untitled tracks almost explore the vastness of silence and the listeners reaction to its disruption. There are long stretches of near silent amp buzz which are assaulted in various ways by what sounds like a plugged in guitar falling down a flight of stairs, strings being violently ripped out, an electrified pice of felt and … well you get the idea. Strange, uncomfortable and challenging. What does it all mean at the end of the day? I have no idea. I simply do not have the patience to work it out. Is it a good record? Sure. It’s a great record. I’m just not sure if it is an enjoyable one. It’s a very different experience to the normal record that Kevin Drumm has given us in the last 10 years or so. This is noise on an almost micro scale and the more I stretch my comfort zone to take in records such as this, the idea that what artists such as Kevin Drumm do is a series of noise rather than as a block of noise  makes sense. Maybe this  is what any noise record would sound like if you took a three second snippet, shaved off the layers and played it all separately as a long strand of sound. Maybe this is an exercise in unwinding noise DNA.  I’m keen to hear other people’s experience with it. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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Jazkamer – Chestnut Thornback Tar (Pica Disk) 2010

Posted in Jazkamer, Music, noise with tags , , on May 30, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

Jazkamer’s 2010 monthly series was an absolute cracker. I say that even though I’ve only tracked  down five or six of the releases. The joy in any Jazkamer record besides the obvious quality of the noise, is the expectation of which style the record is going to take. I’m a big fan of Jazkamers grindcore records such as Metal Music Machine and I think they do minimalist noise very well. Chestnut Thornback Tar is a bit of everything. The 20 minute opener is as good a harsh drone track that you’ll hear. After that shit gets weird. There is rumbling free improv drums, electronic scree, rock n roll feedback, electronic malevolence, cut up field recordings and general noise weirdness. This is one of my favourite Jazkamer records probably because the sense of humour that first drew me towards them is in full effect here. The thing about Jazkamer is that I don’t think any casual listener let alone a nerd like myself can ever get a true handle on what they do. This afternoon I listened to this, the psychedelic something or other of Matthew 28:17, the perplexing almost Nurse with Woundish Spaghetti Western Rainbow (Marhaug solo record) and Peanuts. There is nothing to suggest that any of those records are from the same band except that they are all definitively non-music.  If noise is the pinnacle of rejecting musical conformity then Jazkamer add another layer of refusing to embrace a style or sound within that sound. They are one of the most transgressive noise bands right now. Take a dip.

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Government Alpha – Quaint Putrid Slag (Xerxes) 2008

Posted in Government Alpha, Merzbow, Music, noise with tags , , on May 22, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

Government Alpha is the name of the harsh noise Project of Yasutoshi Yoshida. In the past couple of months I’ve been trying to explore other Japanese noise artists besides Merzbow. The problem with this is that I keep wanting to reference Merzbow when I think about what I’m going to say about those records. On the face of it Government Alpha create a noise very much like Merzbow but I have listened to Quaint Putrid Slag  a bunch of times and I hadn’t been able to put my finger on why this is different to Merzbow until today.

I’m not sure how many of you are aware of William Burroughs “cut-up” technique. He spent a good deal of his career literally cutting up his written text and then rearranging it and fixing up the punctuation. I think the theory was that great art often comes about through accident and randomness. What it often did was made everything he subjected to the technique not make any sense but hey, what the fuck would I know. With Quaint Putrid Slag what it sounds like is Yoshida getting the basic building blocks of a Merzbow harsh, noise  record, deconstructing the layers and then having a chop at cutting it up and assembling it again. What it means for you as a listener is a slightly left field take on Merzbow-style noise. Still as brutal and harsh as hell but I think he adds something new to the genre. It is one of those records that gets better the more I listened. One of those great noise records that you can explore and always hear new things.  I’m going to track down a few more Government Alpha records and see where they take me – should be an interesting ride.

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Daniel Menche – Feral (Sub Rosa) 2011

Posted in Daniel Menche, Drone, Music, noise with tags , , , on May 11, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

Since Menche reactivated as a recording artist last year he has produced some of the strongest and strangest work in his catalogue. There are four tracks on offer here. Two being some of the nastiest recordings I’ve heard Menche make and the other two much more mellow – if you’re idea of mellow is the creeping realisation that the world will end.  What I think Menche does on the second track is explore a much more dark place than he has in the past. This isn’t so much about the blood and energy  flowing through nature but more an exploration of the blacker, hidden side both in its dark recesses and its ultimate destruction. The word “desolate’ gnaws at me when I listen to Feral. Devastated, forsaken, hopeless, ravaged.  The thing to listen to on Feral is the  lower registers. This is where I think Menche excels. Feral One is all noise nastiness with emphasis on giants swarms of static and enveloping clouds of blackness but underneath all of that  is a bass level. There is life underneath the noise but it requires some deep listening. The spooky, chalky, bone  fossicking which made an appearance on his Coultis collaboration is on display  in Feral Three but only lasts momentarily before what sounds like the digestive process of Cthulu takes over  before changing into what sounds like a field recording of a wind, sleet and hail event in Menche’s beloved forests.   Feral Four sees him bringing a lighter touch once again but somehow the creep factor delves into dark ambient territory and is one of my favourite Menche tracks period. Feral is one of the most diverse records of his catalogue. Worth tracking down.

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Daniel Menche & Anla Courtis – Yagua Ovy (MIE Music) 2011

Posted in Daniel Menche, Drone, Music with tags , , , , on April 27, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

Yet another helping of Menche-y goodness – this time on vinyl and scheduled to be released in June. I am a huge fan of Menche’s collaborative work and this time he gets together with Anla Courtis, the Argentinian  experimental guitarist. I’m a tad embarrassed that this is the first time I’ve heard a record featuring Courtis. After hearing this, it certainly won’t be my last.

Yagua Ovy is based on an Argentinian Werewolf myth  of the “blue dog”. The two tracks are an amalgam of Menche’s processed field recordings and Courtis’s instrumental experimentation. The two work very well together. Menche’s treated nature recordings are always disorienting. Actually strike that – most of what Menche does full stop is disorienting. To hear and then try to process the sounds of nature after Menche has finished often leaves me with the feeling that something sinister had been created. Nowhere have I had that effect more than on the first track, Runa-Uturunco,  where walls of static and squall wash over and often intimidate the creepy ambience created by Courtis. What Courtis does has to be heard to be fully appreciated. It is almost like someone is walking through fields of discarded bones – a chalky, hollow, percussive effect which lasts for the first seven minutes before yielding to  cacophony. I almost felt that I was being stalked.

The second track El Relincho has Courtis’s guitar experimentation overlaying what initially sounded like static but once the track progressed, revealed itself to be akin to someone struggling through banks of snow. If I felt like being stalked on the first track, the second is all about fear and flight. It’s both ominous and terrifying.

Menche says that the sound he creates is very controlled and is designed to provoke the listeners imagination. I think this is one of the best representations of that intent. Excellent. If you are lucky enough to have kept your record player then Yagua Ovy can be pre-ordered from www.miemusic.co.uk

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Dove Yellow Swans – Live During War Crimes 3 (Release the Bats) 2009

Posted in Drone, Music, noise, yellow swans with tags , , , on April 17, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

After the Yellow Swans broke up they released the final chapter in the excellent Live During War Crimes series. Like the first two records, Live During War Crimes 3 captures the band in full frontal assault, harsh drone territory. The four untitled tracks on display here are almost overwhelming. They each churn away as if the shimmering transcendencies of their later work got taken over by the forces of evil. The first track in particular is something so brutally oppressive listening through the full 25 minutes seems foolish in retrospect.

It is only on the fourth track that light and oxygen are allowed to filter through the noise and its 25 minutes strikes a fantastic balance between noise, experimentalism and drone. In many ways it is closer to the tracks on Burning Star Core’s Papercuts Theater – a record that is undoubtably heavy going but ultimately  rewarding …. once my ears were able to tease out the subtlety.

Live During War Crimes 3 is not a place to start if you’ve never heard the band before but for Yellow Swans tragics, this tricky to track down, final hurrah is worthwhile getting. Track 4 especially made me miss them all over again.

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Zbigniew Karkowski and Daniel Menche – Unleash (Alien 8) 2008

Posted in Daniel Menche, Music, noise with tags , , , on April 12, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

This is my favourite noise record. Period. I’m not saying it’s the best noise record, merely my favourite.

Much of Menche’s best work (like Kevin Drumm and Merzbow) occurs in collaboration. Here the combined force of Menche’s processed, percussive, drone and the electronic squall and decay of Karkowski make for a heady mix. The six tracks on display here are in fact one long real time improvisation split up as it glides seamlessly into different movements. I’m much more familiar with Menche’s work so the striking aspect for me is his percussion which both stabilise and propel the collaboration. By the time I reached the half way point in the second track that percussion had been essentially buried. The promise of the title bore fruit. It is a torrent … a hurricane of noise – this time anchored by a tense, tonal undercurrent. As track 3 starts the sounds morph again and what is essentially released is very ugly indeed – like tar being flooded with electricity.

The two disparate elements that Menche and Karkwoski bring to the collaboration is what creates this very fine record. I think Unleash is a pretty essential record but seems to have been ignored in noise circles. Neither artist is particularly trendy in a noise sense but ignore this record to your detriment. Brutal and compelling.

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Kevin Drumm – Land Of Lurches (Hanson) 2003

Posted in Drone, Kevin Drumm, Music, noise with tags , , on March 24, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

I like Kevin Drumm. I like the fact that he never puts out the same record twice. His explorations of processed guitar  are never less than fascinating. Land of Lurches is now out of print but is pretty  easy to track down and if you like your noise with a dose of heaviness then, friends, this is the record for you.

The first track, Samson’s Cold Minotaurs might start as a heavy duty drone track, but the tsunami of blackness that builds in the distance and crushes everything in its path, might just be of the thrilling noise moments I’ve ever had … and it only gets better from there.

I might be howled down for this but I think that Land of Lurches is a direct challenge to the Sheer Hellish Miasma tragics. Is Land of Lurches actually a better record?

A fair bit of Drumm’s back catalogue has been rereleased in the past couple of years. This one may not have the reputation of Sheer Hellish Miasma or even his self titled debut but it would be great to see Land of Lurches get the same reissue treatment. Noise nerd heaven in less than 40 minutes.

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Kevin Drumm – Imperial Distortion (Hospital) 2008

Posted in Drone, Kevin Drumm, Music, noise with tags , , , on March 9, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

The problem with discovering a new artist is that it might be entirely possible that the first record that you hear might not exactly be representative of the work that the artist is known for. Take for example Kevin Drumm. I had listened to his great split with Daniel Menche some time earlier but Imperial Distortion was my first experience of solo Drumm. Most sensible people would have started with Sheer Hellish Miasma which is considered by many (including me) to be one of the finest noise records ever made. On SHM, Drumm produces a harsh electronic guitar masterpiece. Imperial Distortion is a much more muted ride.

In a recent interview, Drumm said that he created the sounds of Imperial Distortion from discarded work that he rediscovered. Pieces that had a less dense quality about them. So in effect this record is made from work produced between 1995 and 2008 which has been processed, tampered and played with to create one of the finest meditative drone records I own. Hardcore Drumm fans might tend to be a bit dismissive of Imperial Distortion due to an absence of noise per se, but if you pick you way through his back catalogue the drone has always been there; usually sheathed in layers of blistering distortion or fuzzed out walls of extreme volume but they were there. Drumm called these “go nowhere tracks” but you know, sometimes the fun is is staying in the same place.

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Merzbow – Tentacle (Alchemy) 1999

Posted in Merzbow, Music, noise with tags , , on March 8, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

Has anyone else noticed how the absolute arse has fallen out of the CD market? Stuff that I thought I’d never get the chance to own has become infinitely affordable. I won’t brag about the $14.00 copy of Green Wheels I tracked down last week (yet) but Merzbow’s back catalogue, which had been shockingly expensive has now come within reach.

Last year a reader tipped me off to a guy on Discogs who was offloading his Merzbow collection pretty cheaply. I really wanted Sha Mo 3000 and Vibractance (Adam – do you want to review that one?) but I also picked up Tentacle for shits and giggles. Tentacle is one of Merzbow’s laptop recordings and in many ways it has a lot in common with the uncompromising harshness of the mid-1990′s output like Oersted and Pulse Demon. Some  of the tracks are pretty short by Merzbow standards and for what is essentially a harsh noise record, pretty varied.

The two tracks that worked best for me are Stormy Tuesday and Stormy Monday. Stormy Tuesday is a style of noise that I can hear reflected in the work of Russell Haswell and is a track that reveals the level of control required to make great noise. The second Stormy track is the pick of the record. What starts out like the Kakadu field recordings of KK Null’s Fertile morphs into  pop Merzbow, speed metal Merzbow and all points in-between. It’s like the entirety of 1930 and Space Metalizer crammed into 26 minutes. If you find this in your travels pick it up. Another great Merzbow record. About a 7.5 on the harshness scale I reckon.

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Keith Fullerton Whitman – Disingenuity b/w Disingenuousness (Pan) 2010

Posted in Music, noise with tags , , on February 27, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

If you want to set yourself a challenge as a music reviewer, try finding words to describe a Keith Fullerton Whitman record. Over the years I have managed to create a way of writing about Merzbow but noise/experimental artists like Keith Fullerton Whitman are really tough. One of the things I promised myself I wouldn’t do when I started this blog was to reference the obscure with the more obscure. If I wanted to go down that path then I could tell you that this record sounds like John Wiese and Russell Haswell recording each other in the hull of a disused oil tanker but that would be cheating.

If you are familiar with noise then in the words of Dylan Nyoukis  will make sense – this is a record of noises, not noise. There is no layered wall of sound. The layers have been stripped back, the noise compartmentalised, and then strung together to create an, at times, hyper-kinetic library of experimental sound that bounces around in a an expansive, echoing acoustic space. There are compelling reasons why this record turned up on so many people’s Best of 2010 lists. Challenging, fun and mesmerizing. An excellent record.

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Birchville Cat Motel – With Maples Ablaze (Scarcelight Recordings) 2004

Posted in Birchville Cat Motel, Drone, Music, New Zealand Bands, noise with tags , , , , on February 26, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

Two of the first “out there” experimental/noise bands that I heard were the almight Yellow Swans and New Zealand’s Birchville Cat Motel, basically the alias of Campbell Kneale. Sadly both “bands” are now gone. They’re all still making records under different names and both bands left a legacy of fantastic records.

It’s worthwhile tracking down some of Birchville Cat Motel’s work because I think he is one of the few artists that managed to combine field recordings and drone so well that a menacing pastoral ambience is created.  BCM also straddled other genres. I’m a huge fan of his black metal/psych records like Bird Sister Blasphemy  and Astro Catastrophes but I think he did his finest work when he embraced the drone. Maybe With Maples Ablaze is my favourite record of his entire catalogue. I found this heavily discounted at my local record store a fortnight ago and I nearly wept when I found it.

Over its 10 untitled tracks Kneale creates extraordinary palettes of field recordings and drone.  With Maples Ablaze often sounds somewhere between KTL, Menche and ambient Kevin Drumm. It is superb and like just about everything BCM released now out of print. This record has inspired me to reconnect with the ten or so records of his that I own. There are some great records you need to track down but if the only thing you can find easily is Seventh Ruined Hex put your hand in your pocket. When I reviewed it a few years ago I was dismissive of it. I was wrong. As an aside – I don’t advocate this often but if you find a sneaky download of With Maples Ablaze start clicking. An important work from a band that shouldn’t be forgotten.

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Black Mountain Transmitter – Black Goat of the Woods (Aurora Borealis) 2010

Posted in Music, noise with tags , , on February 11, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

I’ve always liked the idea of a record that gives me a fright. The problem is that the genres of music designed to do this don’t work for me.  Take Black Metal. Lord knows that I’ve tried to find a great Black Metal record but they always give me the chuckles. Wolves in the Throne Room was the last Black Metal record I dabbled with and it crystalized the problem that I have with the genre. It all sounds horribly forced. Even Khanate’s last one was a bit of a doddle.

The only records that do a good job of unsettling me are those in eth noise realm. Think Wolf Eyes, Prurient, Hair Police and Cherry Point but I’ve done those bands to death and I’m looking for something new.

Luckily along came The Wire’s 2010 wrap up and an intriguing essay from Mr Savage Pencil himself, Edwin Pouncey. Lord knows that magazine lives to create a new genre of music and according to Pouncey bands like Black Music Transmitter fall under the banner of Hauntology.  It’s a stupid genre because the bands listed in that piece are all totally different but the thing that unites them all is the idea of using horror soundtracks and related spookiness as source material.

Black Mountain Transmitted are a duo from Chicago, Black Goat of the Woods was originally released on a limited release CD-R before getting the re-release treatment from aurora borealis last October.

The single 40 minute track that makes up this record is a tribute to the incidental, atmospheric music of long lost horror soundtracks. This is less about demon screams and the cries of people getting eviscerated and more about swirling mists of tense strings and ominous vibes. This is the music that plays when you see the dark figure walking through the woods. It is not the sounds of violence but dread. This album works for me because the band could have been terribly obvious about their intent, but on Black Goat of the Woods they hold back and it is all the most creepy for that restraint.

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Yellow Swans – Bring The Neon War Home (Narnuck) 2005

Posted in Drone, Music, noise, yellow swans with tags , , , on February 10, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

I miss Yellow Swans. Their last two albums were some of the finest noise/experimental/drone/whatever records you’ll ever hope to hear. They were particularly stunning in their ability to move from their more noisier incarnation to some truly beautiful sound moments. They were my favourite “noise” band. I suppose part of that bias is that the Yellow Swans were one of the first noise bands that I’d heard and when I began  my explorations of tuneless music, those Live During War Crimes records on Sweden’s Release the Bats were my soundtrack.

For those of us who are into the band the releases of Yellow Swans fall into two broad categories: The proper albums like At All Ends and Going PLaces and the albums where they became D.Yellow Swans (Dreamer, Drowned, Dove, Drift, Descension). Yet, stylistically, whether I listen to the “D” records or their proper releases, the progression of the Yellow Swans sound is quite linear.

Take their proper release from 2005, Bring The Neon War Home. I’ve been meaning to get this for the past four years and it was only last week that I saw it sitting in my local indie rip-off store. On this record the band sound like they are having a crap load of fun. In some ways it reminds me of a classier, noisier, more fully realised version of Hospital’s Hairdryer Peace. That comaprison comes not only from the scope of the ideas that each record contains but also the heavy use of dub underneath all the squall. The use of electronica and are I say it, minimalist techno beats under the soaring and quite majestic noise rock, makes me think of Black Dice but that said Bring The Neon War Home is a much more “together” affair. In the final track the beats are abandoned and instead we get a sign post of the calm, yet noisy beauty which would mark their later work.

It is an excellent record. It gives me  the same buzz I got from heating Burning Star Core’s Challenger for the first time.

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Astro – Astral Orange Sunshine (Blossoming Noise) 2007

Posted in Astro, C.C.C.C., Music, noise with tags , , , on February 9, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

In the past couple of months I’ve decided to expand my knowledge of Japanese noise and general musical weirdness past Merzbow, Boredoms and Boris. Much of this exploration has been facilitated by my local rip-off indie record shop which has decided to downsize its avant garde section by more than half. This has meant that they have heavily discounted some absolutely fantastic records and I’ve been picking a stack of these records up. I suppose to those of you in foreign lands, the prices I’m now paying is basically what you can get these records for online. There is a reason why record shops are dying. I don’t mind paying a  bit extra but the mark up on some of these pre-discount was disgraceful.

Astro is the name of the solo work of Hiroshi Hasegawa of C.C.C.C. This was recorded over four years and uses an EMS Synth as its main source of noise. Astro shows a different side to Japanese noise, The three tracks found on this record are lengthy explorations of “space” music. I’m sorry for using that word – I’m always turn off a record when I read it in a review but I struggle to think of a better term. This sits somewhere between Japanese noise as defined by Merzbow and 1960′s US Sci Fi TV musical interludes. Think Lost in Space meeting the avant garde. If I take the “Space” theme to its stupid conclusion, sometimes this sounds like floating towards a distant nebula and sometimes it sounds like the soundtrack for getting stuck in a rather nasty asteroid field. Most of all though, it seems to be the noise equivalent of a bad psychedelic LSD trip. Space is scary people. No one can hear you scream. A record that combines bliss and fear. Love it.

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Masonna – Inner Mind Mystique (Release) 1996

Posted in Masonna, Merzbow, Music, noise with tags , , , on January 29, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

Masonna is the name used by Japanese noise artist Yamakazi Maso – he seems to have been a bit dormant this decade but readers tell me that his releases from the mid-1990′s are some of the best noise you’ll hear. I’ve stayed away from Masonna until now because I assumed he was a fair bit like Merzbow. I was wrong.

I read an interview with Whitehouse’s William Bennet in which he was saying that in the early days of his labels such as Come Organisation, the majority of their product was sent to Japan where there was a huge market for it. Late last year I decided to increase my exposure to Japanese noise and weirdness past Merzbow and Boredoms and onto Government Alpha, Incapacitants, Masonna, Solar Anus and Guilty Connector. My earlier exposure to Japanese noise was limited to Merzbow and there isn’t great deal of relevance to the transgressive power electronics of Whitehouse and Ramleh etc In Mr Akita’s work. On Inner Mind Mystique the  seven tracks drip with the fetid ugliness of Mr Bennet and Mr Best. I am partial to a bit of Whitehouse. The lyrics (when I can understand them ) are usually disgusting   but the sound is one I really enjoy. Masonna works for me on the same level and the real joy is that I can’t understand a single thing he is yelping so I have guilt free power electronics pleasure for the first time in my life. This record is  my first experience with Masonna, I think  I need to hear more.

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Merzbow – Sha Mo 3000 (Essence) 2003

Posted in Merzbow, Music, noise with tags , , on January 26, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

The beauty about writing about music and noise in particular is that my readers let me know of records I need to hear. This 2003 offering from Merzbow is one of those ones that often comes up in conversation and when I have read the Merzbow forums it became apparent that Sha Mo 300 is considered with some affection by Merzbow fans. After listening to this repeatedly over the past week I can understand why.

Sha Mo 3000 is one of two records that Merzbow has released through the Brazilian Essence music label (the other being Camouflage) and to be honest you won’t find two more diverse offerings by the same artists. If Camouflage is a trip back to the harsh, uncompromising days of the mid- 1990′s then Sha Mo 3000 is a continuation of his wickedly playful side.  Sha Mo 3000 is one of those great, fun Merzbow records where harsh noise meets beats and rhythm, where guitar psychedelia meets doom laden distortion and  mutated field recording death-disco makes an appearance. To give you an idea of just how diverse this sounds on the fourth track, the 22 minute Dreaming K-Dog, a cuckoo sings, an alarm clock starts ringing, chicken noises are looped, guitars that sound like they have been recorded backwards play  and electrical menace overlays the whole thing – and that is the first two minutes.

Sha Mo 3000 is a thoroughly accessible noise record. It all sounds so completely effortless but it is one of those terrific Merzbow records that you can play again and again and hear new things. If you like you Merzbow in an ear bleeding kind of way then you’ll need to track down something like Pulse Demon - Sha Mo 3000 is not the record you’re looking for. It is a record that explores all sides of Merzbow’s sound interests – psychedelia, harsh noise, percussive beats, drumming, field recordings and animal noise.  It is one of the easiest hopping on points for anyone thinking of exploring the world of Merzbow. On a harshness scale this is  somewhere down near 2 out of 10. Don’t listen to the Merzbow tragics who dismiss everything he’s released after 2000. This is one of his best.

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Merzbow – SCSI Duck (Fourth Dimension) 2003

Posted in Merzbow, Music, noise with tags , , on January 8, 2011 by noisenoisenoise

When I first started listening to Merzbow I wondered whether there would be  a point where  I could differentiate between good Merzbow records and ones that were less than essential. I think I am probably beyond that point now and my ears are tuned in to an extent where a Merzbow either excites me, has some moments of greatness or is simply dull.  I wasn’t a fan of his drumming records and I think that sentiment goes for a lot of noise nerds out there.  The trick when writing about Merzbow is to try and figure out why a record like SCSI Duck is an exciting record even though many of the sound forms are instantly recognisable.  I gotta tell you I think I got nothing sensible. But for what it’s worth there is some great noise textures in this record, the rate of change in the scree, blast and hiss are all good, there is even some quasi-industrial goodness at times but to borrow from some outdated slang I think on this record Merzbow “got his shit tight”. This is a record you rarely see being written about and I think that is a shame. It’s not in my top five Merzbow records but it is definitely in my Top 15. It also proves that those Merzbow purists who reckon everything he did post 2000 is crap are wrong – very, very wrong. There seems to be a massive amount of these being sold at the moment cheap on ebay and discogs. I advise you to pick on up.

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