Noise in the Mainstream

[Brian O'Blivion]

Apologies if this topic already exists in another forum post, but after a cursory glance, I didn't see one which discusses noise receiving mention in mainstream (or at least non-noise) circles. Even though noise has a larger profile than before, and it's less strange to find it referenced here and there, it is still interesting to see where it receives recognition outside of our community.

As an example, Knurl was included in Bandcamp's blog entry entitled The Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp: September 2023 (link below). Perhaps not the most unexpected of places to see noise mentioned, given the author is Marc Masters, but I did not anticipate seeing a harsh noise artist praised on a fairly "mainstream" website.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-experim ... ember-2023

[JuntaCadre]

Without totally meaning to shamelessly plug myself here, I was shocked to see my most recent album Commuter - No Longer Penitent make it into Spin's "The Best Albums of 2023 So Far" list.

https://www.spin.com/2023/06/the-best-a ... 23-so-far/

[Ineffable Slime]

Wolf Eyes scoring a Balenciaga runway show
Wolf Eyes on The Office (audio from The Driller)
Kim Gordon's paintings of uh... noise artist names
Raven Chacon won The Pulitzer and a MacArthur fellowship back to back 2022/2023 and used to/still does shred harsh
Merzbow's general existence kind grazes against the mainstream

[Happiness, forever]

Graeme Revell: SPK / mainstream Hollywood film composer
JG Thirwell: Foetus / Venture Bros & Archer composer

Sonic Youth too edges on the mainstream

[Bubble-Congeries]

Masonna on 120 Minutes. Happened years before I even heard of him. Pretty much cemented the idea for me that noise has no obligation to justify itself as anything but another democratized form of music/craft. Noise had arrived to the masses well before I found it. I like it much better that way. Tired of being told noise is or should be something "revolutionary" or "challenging" to have some validity. Like, these people don't actually enjoy the craft or the sounds, merely the shock factor.
---
Also, all the weird alternative idol collabs with Hijokaidan and Incapacitants.

[Happiness, forever]

Hijokaidan on that Italian TV show… hooyah!


Thurston Moore hosting 120minutes and talking about Pussy Galore…

[Natalia]

Graeme Revell: SPK / mainstream Hollywood film composer
JG Thirwell: Foetus / Venture Bros & Archer composer

Sonic Youth too edges on the mainstream

A ton of the old industrial people could qualify here. The extent to which Throbbing Gristle or Neubauten exist in pop culture is huge. I'd say a lot of these artists were able to transcend the underground in a big way. Even looking at the way Coil would have connections to pop culture, with Marc Almond being a frequent collaborator, and Sleazy directing a lot of music videos for the music industry. Even if they never fully penetrated the mainstream like a popstar, they're always there lurking beneath the very shallow surface.

[Cementimental]

Character wearing a Tulsa Noise Fest t-shirt in Reservation Dogs

Filthy Turd in The NME (or Melody Maker? I forget which and can't find right now)

Blixa Bargeld as the voice of The Mummy (1999) (I was at a Q&A where the interviewer asked about that and he was NOT impressed by having it brought up ha)

[Ineffable Slime]

One of the directors on reservation dogs is a big noise head and a homie, i wish the show could go another season so cheese could get into HNW.

Any literary noise references? I feel like if Pynchon can name drop Sarcafago someone out there has to have been like "the dulcet tones of Atrax Morgue swept over me..." but i am drawing a blank.

[Happiness, forever]

Character wearing a Tulsa Noise Fest t-shirt in Reservation Dogs

Me, literally when that scene first hit my teevee!

IMG_0477.jpeg (26.1 KiB) Viewed 2667 times

[SS1535]

Any literary noise references? I feel like if Pynchon can name drop Sarcafago someone out there has to have been like "the dulcet tones of Atrax Morgue swept over me..." but i am drawing a blank.

Outside of people who were/are operating already in a noise-adjacent context, I'm blanking too. Then again, I think there may be something in Dennis Cooper---if only in his pop culture writings.

Now that I think of it, and it's not strictly "literary" per se, there is an interview with a musician called "Police Scanner" or something in the Schizo-Culture journal by Semiotext(e) from the 70s.

[Ineffable Slime]

ZZ Top sampling Autechre on Dreadmonboogaloo which vaguely could pass for texas PE

[Ineffable Slime]

Trogotronic instrument being used on the new Off! record + collabo synth
https://trogotronic.com/product/antidote/

[Cementimental]

Any literary noise references?

One William Gibson novel has a machine art collective very strongly based on Survival Research Laboratories

[adult human]

Blixa Bargeld as the voice of The Mummy (1999)

Didn't know about this but I love it. Surely must have been his highest paying work ever?

[Cementimental]

Blixa Bargeld as the voice of The Mummy (1999)

Didn't know about this but I love it. Surely must have been his highest paying work ever?

Yeah. that was the implication of his answer to the question I think, the gist of it was 'they flew me over there first class and I made growling noises in a studio for a couple of hours and they paid me a load of money, can we talk about something else please >__<;; ?

[Happiness, forever]

Of course who cld ever forget…..

IMG_6361.jpeg (65.63 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

[xIncorruptibleCorpse777x]

Of course who cld ever forget…..

IMG_6361.jpeg

The plot deepens...

[Whiteboard Maverick]

Anyone seen Peter Strickland's Flux Gourmet from 2022? Debatable whether this is mainstream I guess, but it does star Gwendoline Christie and Asa Butterfield and is available through fucking Amazon Prime and Apple TV - that marks it as overground in my book. The sound art tools featured throughout are all familiar territory here - contact mics, stomp boxes, patch cables. There's a recurring argument over the presence of a flanger pedal in the chain for a performance piece. Seems to be a pretty divisive film, but I loved it and thought the depiction and satire of sound/performance art and the surrounding culture was informed and pointed.

[PetiteSoles]

Anyone seen Peter Strickland's Flux Gourmet from 2022? Debatable whether this is mainstream I guess, but it does star Gwendoline Christie and Asa Butterfield and is available through fucking Amazon Prime and Apple TV - that marks it as overground in my book. The sound art tools featured throughout are all familiar territory here - contact mics, stomp boxes, patch cables. There's a recurring argument over the presence of a flanger pedal in the chain for a performance piece. Seems to be a pretty divisive film, but I loved it and thought the depiction and satire of sound/performance art and the surrounding culture was informed and pointed.

We all went and saw that together here in Pittsburgh. All of us in Black Leather Jesus are pretty big Strickland fans and it was definitely Sean’s and my favorite film of the year. Definitely had the feel of a noise performance piece. I’ve heard other fans of his say it wasn’t as good as his other films but I feel it may be one of my favorites of his. Hard to surpass “In Fabric” but it might just, to me, at least.

[PetiteSoles]

And by “us in Black Leather Jesus” I mean the members here in Pennsylvania. I’m unsure as to the rest in Texas.

[adult human]

Anyone seen Peter Strickland's Flux Gourmet from 2022? Debatable whether this is mainstream I guess, but it does star Gwendoline Christie and Asa Butterfield and is available through fucking Amazon Prime and Apple TV - that marks it as overground in my book. The sound art tools featured throughout are all familiar territory here - contact mics, stomp boxes, patch cables. There's a recurring argument over the presence of a flanger pedal in the chain for a performance piece. Seems to be a pretty divisive film, but I loved it and thought the depiction and satire of sound/performance art and the surrounding culture was informed and pointed.

We all went and saw that together here in Pittsburgh. All of us in Black Leather Jesus are pretty big Strickland fans and it was definitely Sean’s and my favorite film of the year. Definitely had the feel of a noise performance piece. I’ve heard other fans of his say it wasn’t as good as his other films but I feel it may be one of my favorites of his. Hard to surpass “In Fabric” but it might just, to me, at least.

Berberian Sound Studio features a number of improv and sound art guys on and off camera. Main character is partially based on Adam Bohman and the Bohman Bros themselves even make a brief cameo.

[Cementimental]

https://youtu.be/KKZka_GSzCE

[Capers]

Berberian Sound Studio features a number of improv and sound art guys on and off camera. Main character is partially based on Adam Bohman and the Bohman Bros themselves even make a brief cameo.

No shit?? I saw the film when it came out, and loved it, but had no idea what Bohman looked like back then. When you DO know his face, he's obviously hard to miss. Need to rewatch it asap. Also need to revisit Bohman's tape for Vitrine. Hilarious and brilliant man.

[adult human]

Berberian Sound Studio features a number of improv and sound art guys on and off camera. Main character is partially based on Adam Bohman and the Bohman Bros themselves even make a brief cameo.

No shit?? I saw the film when it came out, and loved it, but had no idea what Bohman looked like back then. When you DO know his face, he's obviously hard to miss. Need to rewatch it asap. Also need to revisit Bohman's tape for Vitrine. Hilarious and brilliant man.

Yessir. They can be briefly spotted gazing across the English countryside during the sequence where things all go a bit strange, dreamlike and almost like an old advert about British natural landscapes.

Adam Bohman is a national treasure. A one of a kind auteur. Jonathan is lesser spotted but equally possessed of his own completely one off personality and vision. They get better and better as the years tick on. I think getting to see them play so often by virtue of living in the UK is probably one of the most taken for granted bits of good fortune most people in this country's underground have.

That Vitrine tape is indeed excellent. Some trivia - on the talking side of the release he's discussing a gig in he and his brother invited myself and Dylan Nyoukis to play in a newly discovered venue in extremely central London. We got in trouble for bringing our own alcohol to the venue and I don't think more events happened there - sorry everyone. That night Adam and Richard Crow resurrected their project Diastolic Murmurs which I don't think had done anything since the 80s. Adam can't remember my name on the tape and only refers to me as 'another Brighton musician' :D :D