JUNK METAL ABUSE

[SS1535]

Everyone should know the masters of this style of noise-making - Mania, The New Blockaders, Hal Hutchinson, and so on. What do you think are the best examples of scrap metal (and other acoustic objects) being used in noise? Any new projects that particularly stand out?

And, as a subquestion, have you ever attempted any such recordings of your own? What worked out? What didn't?

[Capers]

The New Boyfriends’ album for WCN, The Fourth Season, floored me pretty good, and keeps doing so whenever I put it on. Very much in the early Blockader way, but with tricks and a spirit of their own, making it so much more than just an album in the metal noise tradition. With comor and charm, too. Fantastic refreshing stuff!

A group from way back (1970’s-’80s) who used steel sheets and objects of allsizes were US Steel Cello Ensemble. Hardly any abuse going on though, if that’s what you’re looking for. Just beautiful, haunting, dramatic and intense musique concrete, basically. But these nothing basic about them.

[Remi]

I love it. I like junk sounds better when you can hear the room they've been recorded in, by the way. I think it adds to the textures. Also, it's easy to make it all sound bad or not as good. when you're just contactmic'ing everything.

I've done it before but poorly, in retrospect. I just pretend to myself it's a style and try to improve my techniques in the meantime.

[SS1535]

I love it. I like junk sounds better when you can hear the room they've been recorded in, by the way. I think it adds to the textures.

Definitely. That reminds me of the two tracks by Desolate Flesh on the semi-recent Breathing Wounds compilation. They were really expansive and echoing site-specific recordings of pieces of metal being dragged, banged, and scraped. From the sounds of it, the recording was all natural acoustics too - no contact mics.

[Atrophist]

Almost all of the currently active Finnish noise projects, that I’m aware of, use this technique to some extent. Edge of Decay, Rotat, CoS, Kovana etc. A certain other Finnish project, whose name is an anagram for Arri Barre Puzo, do so masterfully imo.

[SS1535]

A certain other Finnish project, whose name is an anagram for Arri Barre Puzo, do so masterfully imo.

Is that still a big part of his work? I know that the early stuff is all scrap metal. I have not spent much time with his recent output, but, from what I did hear, it sounded more synth focused.

[Atrophist]

A certain other Finnish project, whose name is an anagram for Arri Barre Puzo, do so masterfully imo.

Is that still a big part of his work? ….

Yeah, I think so. Their 2019-2020 releases do have some electronics, but continue to rely heavily on junk metal.

[SS1535]

A certain other Finnish project, whose name is an anagram for Arri Barre Puzo, do so masterfully imo.

Is that still a big part of his work? ….

Yeah, I think so. Their 2019-2020 releases do have some electronics, but continue to rely heavily on junk metal.

I will have to revisit them, in that case. Never really progressed further than the mid-2010s of his catalog.

[Atrophist]

Check out Indoctrination of Fist & Cock or Melting Pot of Cultures. Both pretty recent.

[SS1535]

Check out Indoctrination of Fist & Cock or Melting Pot of Cultures. Both pretty recent.

I need to order a copy of Melting Pot of Cultures. The description from the label as one long track really got me interested, but I don't have the patience to sit through it on Youtube!

[D345]

Bashing metal stuff around is fun! And good exercise too, hah. I like the acoustic sound of metal things. For me it all comes from Einstrurzende Neubauten. l like to record these kinds of things in places where's good natural echo, if possible. Best kind of reverb. The New Boyfriends definitely are maybe the best new act on this field of art at the moment.
I haven't really thought about this too much but I think junk abuse just belongs to noise/industrial stuff that I'm into. For me it has been kinda obvious and comes naturally. Like guitars belong to rock'n'roll, hah. But on the other hand I listen to tons of noise/industrial stuff that don't use junk abuse, so I don't know.

[Namahs]

Junkyard Shaman/Electric Hobo has some cool stuff done with junk metal.

[Chris]

A certain other Finnish project, whose name is an anagram for Arri Barre Puzo, do so masterfully imo.

Is that still a big part of his work? ….

Yeah, I think so. Their 2019-2020 releases do have some electronics, but continue to rely heavily on junk metal.

One of my BU favorites is "Charnel Heap", the collaborative release with Mania. I hope that fans of either project have sought out the CD reissue that Antipatik put together.

[SS1535]

Is that still a big part of his work? ….

Yeah, I think so. Their 2019-2020 releases do have some electronics, but continue to rely heavily on junk metal.

One of my BU favorites is "Charnel Heap", the collaborative release with Mania. I hope that fans of either project have sought out the CD reissue that Antipatik put together.

Missed that one, but BU + Mania sounds great.

[chryptusrecords]

Jaakko Vanhala "Feral Earth" !!

[SS1535]

I thought I would share this here: https://soundcloud.com/der-b-nker/hal-h ... 7-full-set

Not quite "abuse" here, but Hal Hutchinson certainly can create an atmosphere.

[Joie de la Blumpy]

Got turned on to XAH via the WCN Paranoid Time episode. Excellent stuff. Right up there with the greats and kudos to Cruel Symphonies for bringing the project to more earholes. I was in touch with le chap a little while back and it was not then clear whether more would be forthcoming any time soon, never mind under the current state of affairs.

You can follow a few links through the various projects, certainly prolific across a range of auricular adventures.

Speaking of Aprapat and The New Boyfriends, was pretty impressed with the debut(?) of Corral Shut. Not quite the all-out scrap orgy a la XAH, more studied and introspective, of the tier one has come to expect from a label working tirelessly to bring the earholes all this awesome. Mastered by the inimitable JV, 'natch.

[Scream & Writhe]

Got turned on to XAH via the WCN Paranoid Time episode.

On the go now. Pure!

[MaldororEstMort]

Got turned on to XAH via the WCN Paranoid Time episode. Excellent stuff.

Oh wow! That's fucking nice!

[thedemonfeedback666]

Bizarre Uproar, Taint, Richard Ramirez, Paranoid Time, The New Boyfriends, Body Carve, The Haters, Grunt, some MSBR, Knurl, Grain Belt, Macro, Ascites, some Sick Seed.

[Tinnitustimulus]

A group from way back (1970’s-’80s) who used steel sheets and objects of allsizes were US Steel Cello Ensemble. Hardly any abuse going on though, if that’s what you’re looking for. Just beautiful, haunting, dramatic and intense musique concrete, basically. But these nothing basic about them.

Robert Rutman started that. He's a German immigrant that lived in New England area for a while. I remember the Mutant Sounds post about them. According to the bandcamp he started playing shows again 2019 at age 88.



La Monte Young - Two Sounds 1960
This piece is probably his most fucked sounding, always wondered if Rupenus somehow heard this somehow before he did new blockaders. He and Terry Riley got a big gong and rubbed ash trays on it. Early Young had a lot of interest in scraping metal, apparently his thesis for music college was rubbing a trash can on a wall that made his parents disown him. The other piece also New Blockaders like is Poem for Tables, Chairs, Etc where audience members drag their chairs through the space, always wanted to participate that.

[theworldisawarfilm]

La Monte Young - Two Sounds 1960

Exquisite piece.

[T.D.]

La Monte Young - Two Sounds 1960
This piece is probably his most fucked sounding, always wondered if Rupenus somehow heard this somehow before he did new blockaders. He and Terry Riley got a big gong and rubbed ash trays on it. Early Young had a lot of interest in scraping metal, apparently his thesis for music college was rubbing a trash can on a wall that made his parents disown him. The other piece also New Blockaders like is Poem for Tables, Chairs, Etc where audience members drag their chairs through the space, always wanted to participate that.

This one really is incredible. There are some well known proto-noise recordings (Ashley, Marchetti, Tudor etc.) but this (and maybe even more so "Poem For Tables...") are so single-mindedly abrasive it got me wondering if it wasn't a hoax when I picked up that LP a few year's back. It was originally a bootleg tape taken from a radio broadcast, not sure if that would have made it over to the UK prior to Changez Les Blockeurs, although there are definitely similarities. Scratch Orchestra did similar performances (some of which future TNB collaborator David Jackman participated in), though nothing near this harsh that I've heard.

[[MBD]]

I don't know if there's any video of this but Orgasmic Response Unit once did an acoustic set at The Mockbee in Cincinnati with nothing but heaps of junk and sledgehammers. One of the best sets I've seen.

[Lead Lozenges]

Since ORU was mentioned, I am going to toss in Diaphragmatic.