The Best in Modern Noise
 

This is something I've been pondering. In Pop, Rock n Roll, Jazz, Funk, Hip Hop, and other popular genres, people are constantly trying to determine who is the best. I mean, like, many would consider Hendrix to be the best Rock n Roll guitarist, despite the fact if they actually dig his shit or not. But this is different for Noise. Obviously Noise is one of the few styles of music that still has an amazing amount of creativity and uniqueness, and admittedly is one of the few genres I still pay a lot of attention to. Noise is a music of feeling. It is easily the most physical music in the world, and the only way to really enjoy it is to shut your mind the fuck off and just let the music hit you. Because of this, does it actually leave you time to analyze where the music stands in the lineage of musical history? Even Noise music criticism often consists of nothing more than surrealistic, stream of conciousness, adjective heavy "nothing writing" ("nothing writing" is the term i've used to descrive my style of music writing, totally personal, makes no sense to anyone but me, etc..). The only way to really determine how good Noise is, is through repeated listening. It's only when you can desensitize yourself to the intensity of the volume and dissonance that you can judge the sound from an objective perspective.

So, if you could say that the best noise band/artist is _, what would you say?

For me, I think I would go with the Skaters. Why? Simple, out of the thousands of Noise bands out there the Skaters are the only one that sound like NOTHING else.

John cage is the best modern noise artist. Period.

popularity polls are for fucking idiots

Merzbow i guess, no?

merzbow is THE noise.
aidan baker is quite good too. more drone+ambient though.

Are there any modern noise artists have recorded a totally silent piece ? They'd get my vote for best ever.

Listen to all the noise bands first, then make up your mind.

I think LIghtning Bolt are the best thing in noise music nowadays. Their records are so insane and creative and keep getting better with each one. I dont have to tell you guys how amazing it is to see them live, they blow my mind away.

I enjoy the way noise, both analog and electronic, have found their way as fills for a lot of good music. I think that noise by itself has a limited range, however, blended well with more 'conventional' music is the prefect use for its musical capabilities.

This is true. One of the strangest things I've heard recently (not that weird, nevermind) is this track by The Gambler ft. Elaine Conrad called 'Death To Horses', which has come out on a white label in the NY club underground. It features Tony Conrad's niece playing, and it has been called 'disco-drone'. The thread-starter can indulge in the endless possibilities that music offers.

Here it is: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1eywgzmythi

Pity Lightning Bolt aren't a noise band, though.

the second half of MOTE

ha!

mersbow and wolves eyes :D

"Listen" to 4'33" by John Cage. Although he would techinically not define it as silence (Cage was firm on the idea that there is never complete silence, that even in the most noiseless of settings, you will still hear your heart beat), it's probably the only, or at least the most famous, silent piece.

As far as the debate over the King Of Noise, I would have to vote for Merzbow. I'm not always crazy about him, but to me, he defines the genre. So I choose that, not based on popularity or favoritism, but more on where my mind heads first when I think of noise, much as many people's mind may head toward Hendrix when they think of rock, even if he isn't their favorite.

EDIT:
To back up my statement about Cage:
In 1951, Cage visited the anechoic chamber at Harvard University. An anechoic chamber is a room designed in such a way that the walls, ceiling and floor absorb all sounds made in the room, rather than reflecting them as echoes. They are also externally sound-proofed. Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but he wrote later, "I heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."[9]

sarramkrop, what woudl you say Lightniong Bolt are? as a genre?

I ahve never heard a definitive answer.

Rock music that's weird, fast and enjoyable.

And yeah, noisy too.

that's what I likes!!! No wonder I dig the Lightning bolt albums.

Bernhard Gunter