Because it's not unpleasant. I didn't like noise until many years after I first heard it, but I always liked MAKING noise myself. That's seems to be pretty common with noise fans... I found hours of entertainment just making "collages" with a microcassette recorder when I was a kid, for instance.

Noise is something that I think just has to grow on you, but listening to noise is not a deeply complex, emotional experience (don't let some marketing wiz who runs a tape label try to suggest otherwise, either). It can be visceral, yes, but not complex. It's just pure, sonic ear candy for a lot of people. Purely textural sounds that make the listener go "Aw yeh! that's it, the stuff!".

Listening to cut-up music with dynamic sounds, multiple tones, textures and layers and crunches and blips and explosions panned around and spit out at hyper speed simply "sounds fucking awesome" to some people. Even if it's not hyper-distorted and fast, it can still provide a similar experience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roASIVIXGXY (try listening to it with headphones)

It just sounds... neat. And so I enjoy listening to it.

Conversely, some folks enjoy listening to water running and fans humming or birdsong because it relaxes them, and HNW [Harsh Noise Wall] could be easily compared to that, at least for me personally. Listening to and recording HNW puts me into a very calm, relaxed and meditative state. Noise in general can do this when I am zoning out in front of a bunch of pedals with my eyes closed... I've made noise to help me get tired and go to sleep, in fact.

As a noise fan, I hafta say, this all seems very inaccurate from my perspective. Not "pretentious", just not really accurate...

I think fans of Noise (like Merzbow), myself included, are pretty bugged by how loosely the word is applied to a lot of what is actually MUSIC, or at least highly musical/making use of traditional musical instruments to produce "noisy" but still fairly coherent and rhythmic, structured songs.

Still, it's not as bad as metal/electronic music fans and all the dozens of sub-sub-sub-classifications, it's just a general annoyance with the lack of "pure noise" being represented in "noise music" discussions. Like, to me, Sunn O))) and Melt-Banana... both fine in their own way, but nothing close to "Noise" in my mind.

Also, describing Merzbow's sound as "essentially electrical white noise" is a gross oversimplification to the extreme. That could pretty easily be used to describe some HNW, but Merzbow's catalog is gargantuan, and also quite varied, sonically speaking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aoe1Wz5g9Nc (Not my favorite song, or even album, just an example... and definitely NOT a "pure noise" record, either).

I also fail to see the connection between Crust and HN (or Metal and HN, for that matter). Industrial? Yes. Prog/Psychedelic? Sure...
The Gerogerigegege were also quite prolific and varied... yet in no way were they "Crust"... Their releases run the gamut from Punky Noisecore, Ambient, Industrial, Found sounds and even pure Noise, but they don't really have much of anything to do with Crust, or even "Harsh Noise", just the Noise/Noisecore scene in a very general sense.

I'm done being an elitist now.

Noise bands/groups I enjoy are C.C.C.C., Merzbow, Government Alpha, Masonna, GeroGeriGegege, Whitehouse, Man is the Bastard/Bastard Noise and Supression if they count. As far as crust/grindcore going into noise I can say that is wrong. Harsh noise is very different then being noisy. Also the true masters of noisy punk is Disclose.

Someone mentioned Gnaw Their Tongues and I second that band but they aren't very noisy on all their releases. For All Slaves... A Song of False Hope is a great ambient black metal album that is actually an hour long even though its an EP.

Also Fear of God's Pneumatic Slaughter is the pinnacle of noisegrind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj6xUzvlvNg

I rather like this "song" (are noise tracks called songs?), although no other noise I've heard has really done anything for me. Actually not even sure if would even go in the noise genre, might be an extreme form of industrial? Not well versed in this music at all...

I'd never heard of this ^. It's very good indeed.

I like some noise, here are some songs by noise artists that I enjoy:

Prurient - Memory Repeating
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZorWBMB1Tk

Guilty Connector - Tonight, At All The Akacho In Your Town
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqALIEWRCYg


Merzbow - Black Swan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xIv8hIa9UI

Yellow Swans - Foiled
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BYNx_JZf8

CCCC - Loud Sounds Dopa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD_rG9FTjy0

Most would classify BDN as "Death Industrial", yes.

DI is basically Power Electronics' "Emo" counterpart (yet somehow WAY better than most trite, lame, wannabe-misanthrope PE acts out there). It's more subdued, darker, and typically deals with themes like "inner turmoil", as opposed to thinly-veiled tirades of suburban white boys who think pussyfooting support of fascism, serial killers and misogyny are the pinnacle of edginess (i.e., most PE acts today who didn't get the memo that Whitehouse actually have a sense of humor, and most of their material should be considered extreme satire, if anything).

Long story short, I'd say that, yes, BDN is closer to traditional Industrial, but it's "noisy", fer sher...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSp4k1dwH50 I'm quite fond of this gorenoise group Vomitoma. No idea what it is about them that makes them stand out to me, but something does so whatever.

I've never been much of a fan of "cybergrind" or similar styles.

[EDIT: MY PLANS ARE COMING TOGETHER NICELY. ]

Let me throw something experimental in the discussion:

http://www.ubu.com/sound/liebermann.html

http://ubumexico.centro.org.mx/sound/liebermann_rolf/Liebermann-Rolf_01_Les-Echanges.mp3


Really cool stuff.

Hmmm.... if nothing else, this thread led me to finally check out Sigillum S, an old, Italian experimental act whose early work seems to be rather fucking good. Sort of an odd hybrid of organic, shadowy outfits such as Ain Soph and Maeror Tri. Awesome...will have to purchase some of their old releases on Bandcamp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBJ6DAMQ ... ure=relmfu

Re: Rolf Liebermann.
"The Four Bells of Signalisation" is the name for my new Noisecore band, strangely enough...

Speaking of odd uses of household items, DAT ALARM CLOCK: http://extremenapalmterror57sauce.bandcamp.com/
It keeps time.

I do not like the black metal vocals that appear all of a sudden. Aggressive noisecore.

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/La_Ra ... Orchestra/
This is much more harmonic and "childish".

that sounds awfully musical to me, sonny.
It wasn't bad, tho.


NEWAYZ, I found this unfortunately-brief old Guilty Connector doc I haven't seen in years yesterday. Thought any GC fans might be interested in it: http://www.veoh.com/watch/v1219274JeSjF ... irty+Crazy

Yes, I know. A bit too musically, but I am not too fond of electronic stuff. Such rather harmonic kind of music, which appears perverted or strangely arranged has a singular charm. Maybe it is not noise from the perspective of those, who happen to be active or well versed in the scene but others will disagree at this point.

You should look into Musique Concrete or EAI stuff. You might prefer that a lot more to Harsh Noise.
It's a little bit like Noise without all the Death Metal pedals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnUVpiFHhmM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4ea0sBrw6M

People believe that the Geros were a Crust-influenced band because they've made several, nasty-sounding cover version of Ramones songs and the "1, 2, 3, 4!" running gag.

I am more of a power electronics enthusiast - when it comes to actually investing financial resources into records, that is. I prefer power electronics' overall more structured, more conceptual nature (however, I am not one of those "Sexual violence, yeah, I dig that!" types, but I cherish the genre's stubborn will and determination to explore extremes, and the snarky humour, too), but I do greatly enjoy noise, too. Actually, I prefer noise over power electronics in a live-setting (although I enjoy a good power electronics performance, too), or in making it myself. Noise demands nothing and gives everything.

Shirt worthy.
Also, Reclusa's Doorway to the Perpetual Suffering, must have for fans of noisy industrialized funeral doom, Note it has the BEST use of pitch shifted vox ever.



[WARNING RAMPANT SELF PROMOTION]
I have a drone album out now.

Without listening to or knowing anything about this band, I'd like to recommend Vennt, too... Definitley not Noise, but really good stuff anyway. I supposed I could best describe their CD as droning Sludge crossed with Power Electronics: http://www.myspace.com/vennt

Sig'd

Somehow I managed to overlook this suggestion. Well, I could not disagree more.

Just based on some of the rather naive questions asking if there is somehow a connection between Crust and noise, and the mere fact that the genres listed in that thread you linked to have nothing to do with NOISE, I doubt there's any actual Noise discussion happening in there or any other thread excluding this one (drone and dark ambient =/= noise).

I fail to see the (sonic) connection between, say, 90's-era Merzbow and Sunn O))), or Slowdive, or even Lustmord. Different things entirely.

I admit, I haven't read the thread, but I find it very unlikely that people posting in a thread for stuff like My Bloody Valentine and Krallice and whatnot are interested in Masonna.

To me it's the ultimate test as an artist. To create something that literally has no standard or formula is hard. It's not something you jock for a few months.

Do Lightning Bolt count? Digging their new album.

If you guys like noisy shit check out my music under the name Severed End

http://soundcloud.com/severed-end

Welcome to Hell

Recorded a noisegrind demo some time ago, recently got it on bandcamp.

http://commanderdickfungus.bandcamp.com

It's A.C. worship, but eh.

Not at all. Disregard whatever Pitchfork-reading teenagers from 2005 tell you to the contrary.

Anyone else into Fire in the Head? Confessions of a Narcissist is my favourite recent noise/p.e. record, they're great live too.

Here is a short film made accompanying a live performance I did last week. Its Death Industrial fairly heavily influenced by BDN etc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StDL2QBn ... e=youtu.be

Tell me what you think

Strange, scant blog I stumbled upon a few years ago -- there are only six entries:
http://noiseboard.wordpress.com/

Apparently the person used to make noise comp tapes and distribute them randomly about town. While I can't say I remember a lot about whether or how much this blog helped me in discovering the genre, I appreciate the notion of "planting" unusual music in accessible places, as he/she says, "parking lots, grocery stores, paper boxes, tossed in open car windows, handed to people on the street, nearly anywhere people will likely pick it up." There aren't any tidy links to these compilations in a digitized format, however. The links tend to go to artists' pages (including bandcamp). No youtubes, either. Thus, really the blog will require an extra step of work, and that assumes a decent percentage of these links remain active. I just thought it was interesting.

Well, I have already released some shit through Ana Mawt, a noise project of mine. One album (Blitzkrieg, through Depressive Illusions and Shit Noise), one split with Hari Maia (the war has just begun, through Depressive Illusions as well), both physical, and taken part in three net compilations.

I've actually put Blitzkrieg on bandcamp very recently:

http://anamawt.bandcamp.com

There are still some copies left in their stocks, not the right place for this but well, if there's anyone interested, just send me a PM

from this point of view, free improvisation is even better: it's like having a conversation with friends, but instead of talking you use instruments



back to OP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U31vHTnXEcU

I only own one FITH CD, and I either never got around to it, or only played it once and forgot it, but this gives me some motivation to give it a whirl, assuming I stop being too lazy to hook up my CD player.

I can rarely listen to "pure"/real Noise (lots of Noise influenced stuff though), but I fucking love making it- when I make Noise I don't have to worry about composing the way I do when I'm making Black Metal or whatever else- it's nice to be able to improvise something and still have it turn out sounding cool. I like the way it pushes the boundaries of what is/isn't music too, and, when it's done right, it just sounds so monolithic and terrifying, and not like anything else.

Severed End hellgrind madness from the brain of the enlightened

https://soundcloud.com/#severed-end

http://severedend.bandcamp.com/

Bithin', I'm gonna be on an 8 way split with
Deche Charge ( cult noisecore quebec )
Faekal Omsorg ( mixture of noisecore and black metal / holland )
Adolf Shitter ( den shreken uber noisecore, france )
Mental Hygiene Terrorism Orchestra ( anti-jazz noisecore )
Garfields Meat ( old school bulgarian noisecore )
Fuck Me Fuck My Noise ( old school noisecore from thailand )
Noizabbest ( old school italiant noisecore )

I played guitars for Coming From My Penis, its coming out soon via ZOMBI ATTACK RECORDS, so yeah get a copy and tell me how shitty I am.

Fækal Omsorg are great.
I <3 Eli's vocals.

Its NS, but check out Blackmoon Warrior 88.

Check out Mons Veneris, Black Cilice, Vetala.
The Legion Blotan Records releases some very noisy black/punk stuff. Very interesting.

Hey guys, let's talk about noise some more!

Anyone familiar with Diagram: A? He's from Western Mass, so all of the good record stores around here are pretty saturated with his stuff. Which is fine by me, as he's quickly becoming one of my favorite harsh noise artists. Apparently he has a huge homemade setup, consisting of all kinds of out-dated, malfunctioning technology (phones, computer parts, etc). I gotta try to catch him live one of these days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF87dYOvnWA I'm not even gonna pretend to know what he's doing there, but it looks cool as hell. His best songs strike a great balance between being incredibly harsh and alienating while also having a semblance of structure, which gives the music a sense of tension that I find lacking in some more overtly freeform artists.

Also, does anyone here live in a place with a prominent noise scene? If so, what's it like?