Likes and Turn-ons

[angelsmire]

Playing off of the other thread, what are some aspects to a release, label, or project that really do it for you? This can be packaging, aesthetics used or themes explored, specific sounds, overall attitude, etc.

For me personally I've always loved how "extra" some packaging can be for certain releases (labels Hospital and Fusty Cunt immediately come to mind). It's something you don't encounter much in other genres and, when done correctly for already strong material, it can really elevate it imo.

[adult human]

Great idea for a thread.

- Stuff that sounds like it is broken

- Boring, domestic or totally pleasant, normal things being used as the artwork to harsh noise CDs (see especially Hijokaidan)

- Stuff that doesn't try too much to sound entertaining. Noise as something genuinely non-musical and irritating/incorrect.

- Heavy use of text/voice

- Imagery that alludes to some kind of totally confusing and shrouded theme behind the music (see especially someone like Star doing this today)

- The Gerogerigegege

[htp_systems]

Tapes that are dubbed very loud. Especially if I have to turn down my regular listening volume.

[Capers]

- Stuff that doesn't try too much to sound entertaining. Noise as something genuinely non-musical and irritating/incorrect.

Same here, although I’m not sure which specific artists or releases you feel embody this philosohy. But yeah. I like noise that isn’t ashamed to drag a bit too long. Artists who come off almost as arrogant in how they just wallow in some sound or idea without really getting anywhere, simply because they’re fine where they are, and the only extra chair they have for you is kinda broken. It can be a single track, an album or a whole body of work. Semi-tooting my own horn here, but the first track on The Flea Circus CD we put out on Usagi is a good case. Another shining example of this (seemingly) totally introvert approach to recording noise is S•Core’s Missing Volume LP: just grey and rather thin grainy textures rolled out over two sides. Highly evocative to quite a few, sure, but it’s not exactly a Las Vegas show (though I’d love to see those worlds collide). Zone Nord perhaps, although the mystery around that project probably has people all hyped up anyway. Treriksröset’s Sexregler is another one, where the payoff/relief comes way too late and still leaves you rather parched and blue-balled, so to speak (if a payoff/relief is what your hoping for, that is). HNW? Nope. It ain’t that easy. And many in that field seem hurt when told their 4h .flac album is boring (and I truly love them for that, as it is another kind of admirable arrogance), so HNW doesn’t qualify.

And to add a quality of my own:
* Unstable/unbalanced structure and sound
It can be ugly jumps and drops in volume. Sudden halts where you’d expect things to keep going. Screws and bolts are loose, strange smells. A car beyond unfit for city traffic, but its the only one you have.

[Remi]

- Seconding the stuff that sounds broken.
- Ruined tape loops.
- Tape warmth, hiss and compression.
- Recorded mistakes and accidents.
- The sound of silence and empty space in noise. I'm not talking about ambient or field recordings, I'm talking about letting things breathe and not hiding behind tons of crappy distortion.
- Tapes that fit in my shelves (boxsets or weird release art mess with my OCD really bad.)
- Large inserts filled with lots of text and information.
- Digipack CDs.
- Tapes with stickered labels.
- The smell of ink on thicker J-cards.
- Visual identity, like when you can visually guess who the artist might be just by looking at the cover.

[angelsmire]

- Boring, domestic or totally pleasant, normal things being used as the artwork to harsh noise CDs (see especially Hijokaidan)

Definitely in agreement. Traum by Wince I'd say is a good example of this. If anything seeing anodyne artwork like that reaches out and grabs my attention more often.

[33033]

Simplicity! Not everything has to be complicated. Just keep it a simple noise album. Don't need too many frills or tons of info. Just hit me with the brutality/weirdness.
While I don't do a lot of hand crafted releases, I always like getting hand crafted releases because it feels really neat.

[adult human]

- Boring, domestic or totally pleasant, normal things being used as the artwork to harsh noise CDs (see especially Hijokaidan)

Definitely in agreement. Traum by Wince I'd say is a good example of this. If anything seeing anodyne artwork like that reaches out and grabs my attention more often.

Yes, that's a good example. Great cover.

I cited Hijokaidan specifically because I feel their run of classic Alchemy albums has a lot of this going on. Specifically Romance, Windom and Noise From Trading Cards. I've spoken about this many times elsewhere but I will never, ever shake how it felt to pick up Noise From Trading Cards when I was still quite new to noise. Listening through headphones and trying to square the insanity of the audio with the innocence of the album art created a feeling in me I've been chasing in my noise tastes ever since. It felt like that and so many of these things I was checking out in my early days (Emil Beaulieau, Gero, some Merzbow, Masonna etc) achieved this and it excites me every time I reminisce about it.

[raato]

While I don't do a lot of hand crafted releases, I always like getting hand crafted releases because it feels really neat.

yes, very much this. specially when it's obviously crafted carefully with passion for diy and attention to details. making those is of course pain in the ass but pitting in the effort is rewarded with the results. i'm currently thinking of screenprinting the covers for one of my bands' future release (that we haven't really even wrote any material yet, lol) but that may prove to be impossible due to lack of space and other resources... would look hella neat though.

musicwise the first thing that comes to mind is heavily distorted drums. the kind of distortion that compresses all other audio with the loudest peaks. like recording a band session with a shitty tape recorder intended for speech. gerogerigegege has a lot of good examples of this sound

[totalblack]

While I don't do a lot of hand crafted releases, I always like getting hand crafted releases because it feels really neat.

i'm currently thinking of screenprinting the covers for one of my bands' future release (that we haven't really even wrote any material yet, lol) but that may prove to be impossible due to lack of space and other resources... would look hella neat though.

Screenprinted covers are great, and I can only encourage this way of thinking. It's not easy to do if you are unfamiliar with the methodology, but it IS something that you can teach yourself, and to a certain extent do at home- LP covers? likely not, but cassette J-cards, even shirts, it's doable. When things work out properly it's immensely satisfying and just looks so nice. Resource wise it is less expensive than you likely think- startup materials are not huge depending on where you live, and you can buy pre-stretched professional screens from art supply shops for fairly cheap. The last cassette covers I screen-printed were done in my living room, with a frame that I built out of tape and cardboard. The next time that I want to do something like this, everything is on hand and it's basically only the paper cost.

One thing that I really like is screen printed covers. Look at the cover for Pedestrian Deposit - Vestige LP, the Self Abuse murder series, and most of the releases on Throne Heap! Beautiful stuff, something that used to be much more popular in the early 00s that ought to come back

[New Forces]

The Phage Tapes run of screen printed covers is so inspiring

[Scream & Writhe]

One thing that I really like is screen printed covers. Look at the cover for Pedestrian Deposit - Vestige LP, the Self Abuse murder series, and most of the releases on Throne Heap! Beautiful stuff, something that used to be much more popular in the early 00s that ought to come back

I especially like how the ink presents itself on that thicker card stock like with the PD LP, and The New Blockaders 12" on Hospital. And also just that thicker card stock in general is something I like.

[raato]

While I don't do a lot of hand crafted releases, I always like getting hand crafted releases because it feels really neat.

i'm currently thinking of screenprinting the covers for one of my bands' future release (that we haven't really even wrote any material yet, lol) but that may prove to be impossible due to lack of space and other resources... would look hella neat though.

Screenprinted covers are great, and I can only encourage this way of thinking. It's not easy to do if you are unfamiliar with the methodology, but it IS something that you can teach yourself, and to a certain extent do at home- LP covers? likely not, but cassette J-cards, even shirts, it's doable.

sure, i know, but the idea in question is a LP with full-colour covers so yeah, might hit a brick wall with that.
it would be nice to screenprint J-cards though. often printhouses (at least the affordable ones) don't have, or atleast don't mention having, any special paper options or anything like that. printing DIY would open a lot of possibilities with those, even if it's at the expense of full-colour (though doing that is of course possible, just requires waaay more time and effort than a simple one-or-two colour design)

[raato]

while still on the topic of packaging, i'm a sucker for black on black/white on white etc prints, but those don't really come around much. another reason to invest in screen printing equipment i guess...

[xIncorruptibleCorpse777x]

- hnw that's focused more on low-end rumbling than being crackly
- death industrial that's just absolutely punishing with the beats
- an artistic vision
- hard work (I hate laziness in music)
- meaningful themes and content
- collage art
- breaks new ground sonically or brings up new themes

[totalblack]

i'm currently thinking of screenprinting the covers for one of my bands' future release (that we haven't really even wrote any material yet, lol) but that may prove to be impossible due to lack of space and other resources... would look hella neat though.

Screenprinted covers are great, and I can only encourage this way of thinking. It's not easy to do if you are unfamiliar with the methodology, but it IS something that you can teach yourself, and to a certain extent do at home- LP covers? likely not, but cassette J-cards, even shirts, it's doable.

sure, i know, but the idea in question is a LP with full-colour covers so yeah, might hit a brick wall with that.
it would be nice to screenprint J-cards though. often printhouses (at least the affordable ones) don't have, or atleast don't mention having, any special paper options or anything like that. printing DIY would open a lot of possibilities with those, even if it's at the expense of full-colour (though doing that is of course possible, just requires waaay more time and effort than a simple one-or-two colour design)

In general it's a fools errand to try and screen print anything CMYK unless you have access to not only a pro-press, but a machine calibrated automatic one. You want to make multiple colour art prints? sure- that's doable. But to try and DIY something in full colour and match each separation with the accuracy required is basically impossible. Not to mention you need access to multiple racks to allow for dry-time between each screens pass, plus 4 screens. I guess I'm walking back on my earlier encouragement. The simpler the idea gets, the easier it is to do- and some really stunning results can be achieved on 1 or 2 colour prints.

One thing that I really like is screen printed covers. Look at the cover for Pedestrian Deposit - Vestige LP, the Self Abuse murder series, and most of the releases on Throne Heap! Beautiful stuff, something that used to be much more popular in the early 00s that ought to come back

I especially like how the ink presents itself on that thicker card stock like with the PD LP, and The New Blockaders 12" on Hospital. And also just that thicker card stock in general is something I like.

All of the covers in that series are amazing, the 600gsm covers are so beefy and stark. Another one that I remember that is particularly striking was the Prurient \ Mindflayer 7" on Important. That electric blue ink on black stock with the reverse of use of negative space between the two sides is really effective. Hard to tell looking back whether it was Dom or Brian who had their mitts on that one.

[raato]

In general it's a fools errand to try and screen print anything CMYK unless you have access to not only a pro-press, but a machine calibrated automatic one. You want to make multiple colour art prints? sure- that's doable. But to try and DIY something in full colour and match each separation with the accuracy required is basically impossible. Not to mention you need access to multiple racks to allow for dry-time between each screens pass, plus 4 screens. I guess I'm walking back on my earlier encouragement. The simpler the idea gets, the easier it is to do- and some really stunning results can be achieved on 1 or 2 colour prints.

not to derail topic any further, but yeah, i know all that. i've been to art school and focused on printmaking with various techniques. i've done CMYK screen prints there. i no longer have access to those facilities though, so doing that definitely looks like an unachievable feat.
of course you didn't know that; we're strangers connected by internet, and that all is probably valuable info for someone, i just hate getting obvious stuff explained to me so had to clarify!

[W.K.]

When I get a personal note a write-up with my order in stead of it being just another order.

Of course for distro's this is undo-able but still nice gesture if artists does it.

[totalblack]

In general it's a fools errand to try and screen print anything CMYK unless you have access to not only a pro-press, but a machine calibrated automatic one. You want to make multiple colour art prints? sure- that's doable. But to try and DIY something in full colour and match each separation with the accuracy required is basically impossible. Not to mention you need access to multiple racks to allow for dry-time between each screens pass, plus 4 screens. I guess I'm walking back on my earlier encouragement. The simpler the idea gets, the easier it is to do- and some really stunning results can be achieved on 1 or 2 colour prints.

not to derail topic any further, but yeah, i know all that. i've been to art school and focused on printmaking with various techniques. i've done CMYK screen prints there. i no longer have access to those facilities though, so doing that definitely looks like an unachievable feat.
of course you didn't know that; we're strangers connected by internet, and that all is probably valuable info for someone, i just hate getting obvious stuff explained to me so had to clarify!

Of course! I understand how the information I wrote here is pedestrian and borderline offensive in your case. I guess there's a huge amount of experience levels to factor in when someone says "I want to screen print my next release cover", and these can range from zero knowledge to highly advanced, so apologies for making an assumption.

[JuntaCadre]

Anything with really over the top screamed vocals. Especially if you can understand the lyrics. I’m tired of really buried rumbly vocals where you can barely make anything out. Weak ass vocals are the cardinal sin of power electronics for me.

[consumer]

- death industrial that's just absolutely punishing with the beats

Who do you recommend for this?

[holy ghost]

“Noise groups” (Hijokaidan in particular)

Collabs, particularly live collabs

Labels that don’t take pre-orders

I don’t even know how to describe “the perfect aesthetic” - Fleshlicker’s MONDO FLESH 2xCS (with gore drenched poster) is like the perfect aesthetic for me. I’m not even like “a cannibal guy” (I mean of course I’m not a cannibal!), you know what I mean….

It’s hard to describe it “I know what I like when I see it”

[raato]

Labels that don’t take pre-orders

this!!!! from a diy label-runner point of view, it's very annoying when someone tries to "preorder" a tape that we don't even have the blanks to dub yet; more so when contact is made via social media pm's. should probably stop mentioning any upcoming releases and just drop 'em out of nowhere when everything's ready.

[33033]

Labels that don’t take pre-orders

this!!!! from a diy label-runner point of view, it's very annoying when someone tries to "preorder" a tape that we don't even have the blanks to dub yet; more so when contact is made via social media pm's. should probably stop mentioning any upcoming releases and just drop 'em out of nowhere when everything's ready.

As I get 90% of my releases pro-dubbed, I do a pre-order when I get the UPS tracking confirmed, and have a specific date that the tapes are arriving. I didn't realize people did pre-orders before they paid for anything. That is really weird.

[xIncorruptibleCorpse777x]

- death industrial that's just absolutely punishing with the beats

Who do you recommend for this?

Mental Destruction (Sweden), who were on Cold Meat Industry in the 90's, is the first to come to mind.

There are others, but my stomach is going berserk right now, so you're going to have to wait, lol