Fri, 30 Jan 2009
Noise music and other stuff
Noise music? This stuff can empty a room quicker
than you can say caveat emptor. One reason is that the
people who do it mostly prefer to be deafeningly loud.
Ambient noise music has yet to be invented. I predict
a rich future for it when it is.
There is more than one strand to it of course. At
the art end of the street there are many meaningless
meanderings that are likely to put you to sleep if you
were clever enough to bring your ear plugs with you.
People go along thinking - nobody likes this stuff -
it must be cool. But it isn't: mostly because it was
never meant to be. It's an intensely personal thing
that positively revels in its musical unfriendliness.
Another strand could just be called Assault and there's
nothing much more to be said about it.
But Noise music also lives on a line extending from
Hardcore and No core (and genre references do get
nonsensical but they serve as some kind of guide).
Yes, it's loud as hell, and it's sure not meant to be
dinner music but it can have some hooks.
Recently in Berlin I saw an eight-piece (yup, 8!)
with a live drummer, a live bassist, two keyboard
players, two knob twiddlers, a bash anything I can find
guy, and a female front person who made vocal noises
and did some strange dancing. They are called The
Rottt.
The combination of all the activity - something to
look at - with pulses of various sorts and varying
ferocity actually held the small crowd and even
inspired some proto punks towards casual violence.
BANG BANG ZWIZZZZZZZEEEZZZZZZ BANG ZWEEEECH BOOM.
It's music for the alienated for sure but it also
has elements of primal excitement - a sort of upside
down love and sandpaper sensuality. It's also an
affirmation - an affirmation of the ability to freak
out within certain bounds, to get beyond the cookie
cutter. And there's discipline as well in that the
shape of the thing is understandable.
(thunderfinger)
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here
