Noise to enjoy?

October 29, 2007 12:56 AM

So I want to be battered with noise and I could use some recommendations. I have Metal Machine Music and like it, but would be all for something more...melodic? I'm pretty sure I need some John Zorn and Mike Patton in the collection, but which albums?

To clarify, though, I'm not looking for hardcore or metal bands, exactly, unless they're mainly instrumental. What I want is like the opposite of white noise, but serving the same purpose.

I'm looking for things that sound kind of like, say, this, but I also have OHM: Early Gurus of Electronic Music which is pretty great in its own way, so anything in that vein would be appreciated, too.

posted by StopMakingSense to media & arts (28 answers total)

Have you considered orchestral or 'classical' noise? If you liked the Stockhausen excerpt on OHM, then maybe check out the full-length version of Kontakte. And If you enjoyed the version of Steve Reich's Pendulum Music on OHM, then György Ligeti's Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes may be your cup of tea. Also, maybe try Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, etc.
posted by misteraitch at 1:15 AM on October 29, 2007

i somehow thing you will like lightning bolt
posted by christy at 1:34 AM on October 29, 2007

gah! *think*
posted by christy at 1:34 AM on October 29, 2007

Fuck, the first band I thought of was Lightning Bolt. Christy beat me to it!

My favorite Lightning Bolt song is St. Jacques, which I think is probably what it sounds like to be repeatedly struck by an actual Lightning Bolt.
posted by melorama at 1:46 AM on October 29, 2007

You might also want to give Glenn Branca a whirl. Endorsed by the likes of Sonic Youth, and noise artists worldwide.
posted by melorama at 2:03 AM on October 29, 2007

I think you would enjoy the African band Konono No 1's "Congotronics" album, in which they take marimbas and run them through crazy amps and effects and it's just a great ball of incredible noise. Instrumental too.

The Dead C have been away about 20 years and have many albums that fit what you describe.

I would also highly recommend This Heat's self-titled debut from the late 70's.

None of this is metal or hardcore and there's probably just enough "song" in all of it not to come off as pretentious. All of this stuff is primarily (but not always) instrumental.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 2:09 AM on October 29, 2007

John Zorn's Locus Solus is awful, truly awful. Grating and hideous.

Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica is not quite as bad, but still reaches inhumane levels of awfulness. It is loud and obnoxious and I'm pretty certain no-one in the band was listening to anyone else while playing. I certainly can't listen to it.

Lester Bangs the rock critic wrote "A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise" in Psychotic Reactions and Carburator Dung. He writes so convincingly about awful noise that he's tricked me on several occasions into buying unlistenable cacaphonous albums that I threw right in the trash. Anyway I lost the book so I can't tell you anymore what he recommends, but he's the guy to turn to for horrible noise.
posted by creasy boy at 3:40 AM on October 29, 2007

In addition to Lightning Bolt, I'd recommend Hella's Hold Your Horse Is and Dillinger Escape Plan's Irony Is A Dead Scene (which features Mike Patton on vocals).
posted by saladin at 5:01 AM on October 29, 2007

Hospital Productions is a record label and store that puts out a lot of what you're looking for. Their physical store is in NYC. See that website for details. (Full disclosure: It's run by a friend of mine.)
posted by Jaltcoh at 5:01 AM on October 29, 2007

You might enjoy the ambient drone of deathprod.
posted by brevator at 5:21 AM on October 29, 2007

This should get you started:

1/3 Octave Band: Fading Light From Distant Suns
Achim Wollscheid: Shifts
Aethenor: Deep In Ocean Sank The Lamp Of Light
Alan Lamb: Primal Image
American Heritage: Through The Age Of Quarrel...
Antenna Farm: Fog/Splinter Tracks
Aube: Cardiac Strain
Aufgehoben: Anno Fauve
Aufgehoben: Messidor
Aufgehoben No Process vs Gary Smith: Magnetic Mountain
Bernhard Gunter: Monochrome Rust/Differential
Birchville Cat Motel: Chi Vampires
Birchville Cat Motel: Long Vanished Spirals
Black Boned Angel: Heavens Blaze Forth The Death of Princes
Black Pus: Black Pus
The Blue Humans: Clear To Higher Time
Bologna Pony: (anything)
Carlos Giffoni: I Am Real
Caspar Brotzmann: (pretty much anything)
Chris Corsano: THe Young Cricketer
Cicadashrine: Crumpled Multiple Agonies
Dan Warburton & Reynols: I Am Not Sitting In A RoomWith Reynols
Daniel Menche: (anything at all)
Dead Machines: Afternoon Electronics
Double Leopards: Halve Maen
Earth: Earth 2
Eliane Radigue: Adnos I-III
Ferran Fages/Will Guthrie: Cinabri
Fennesz: Venice
Fennesz: +47 56' 37" - 16 51' 08"
The Flying Luttenbachers: Gods of Chaos
The Flying Luttenbachers: The Void
Francisco López: Untitled #104
Fushitsusha: I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense
Fushitsusha: Gold Blood
Fushitsusha: Pathetique
Fushitsusha: The Wisdom Prepared
Gert-Jan Prins: Risk
Glenn Branca: (anything)
The Goslings: Grandeur Of Hair
The Goslings: Between The Dead
Grey Daturas: Dead In The Woods
Heavy Winged: Hunting The Moon
Hovercraft: Experiment Below
Hovercraft: Akithisia
Jason Lescalleet: Mattresslessness
Jazkamer: Live at Instal 2006
Joe Colley: Desperate Attempts At Beauty
Keiji Haino: I Said, This Is The Son Of Nihilism
Keiji Haino: Next Let's Try Changing The Shape
Keiji Haino: Reveal'd To None As Yet
Keith Rowe: The Room
Kevin Drumm: Comedy
Kevin Drumm: Sheer Hellish Miasma
Kevin Drumm: Land Of Lurches
Mainliner: Mellow Out
Matthew Bower/Richard Youngs: Site/Realm
Merzbow: 1930
Merzbow: Dharma
Merzbow: Merzbuddha
Merzbow: Sphere
Merzbow & Pan Sonic: V
Mika Vainio: Ydin
Mika Vainio/Christian Fennesz: Invisible Architecture #2
Mukai Chie & Gary Smith: 8+
Noxagt: Noxagt
Orthrelm: Ov
Pan Sonic: Vakio
Phill Niblock: G2, 44+/x2
The Psychic Paramount: Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural
Reynols: Blank Tapes
Sabers: Specter
Shearing Pinx: Poison Hands
Sightings: Arrived In Gold
Sissy Spacek: Devils Cone and Palm
The Skull Defekts: Skkull
Steven Flato: 48v
Tetsuo Furudate: (x).x Is Not Man Or X Is Mortal
Ultralyd: Chromosome Gun
Weasel Walter/Kevin Drumm/Fred Lonberg-Holm: Eruption
Will Guthrie: Spear
Will Guthrie: Body And Limbs Still Look To Light
posted by nylon at 5:59 AM on October 29, 2007 [3 favorites]

Brace yourself for Whitehouse
posted by davebush at 6:28 AM on October 29, 2007

Maybe Neil Young's Arc?
posted by DarkForest at 6:32 AM on October 29, 2007

Fennesz
My Bloody Valentine
posted by afx237vi at 6:32 AM on October 29, 2007

Oh, crap, how could I possibly forget:
16-17: Gyatso

Lester Bangs...he's the guy to turn to for horrible noise.

but he's been dead for 25 years.
posted by nylon at 6:32 AM on October 29, 2007

In the spirit of answering the question of which albums, with regard to Mike Patton, I can only say that the closest I know of to Mike Patton is Secret Chiefs 3, a project from a Mr. Bungle guitarist, specifically the record Second Grand Constitution and Bylaws. I heard it played at a club and watched all lawful characters save at -2 to will versus insanity. Hearing the crowd shriek, "What the hell is this?" was a new experience. I can only describe the first part of the album as the soundtrack to a mostly frenetic cartoon that might have, as its central plot, a squirrel with a jetpack who wolfs down some shrooms, then is pursued by manifestations of his own inner demons as he jets across the globe (into assorted multicultural locales) and various fictional landscapes, occasionally stopping off to chat with the Caterpillar and get a few hits off of that hookah.
posted by adipocere at 6:46 AM on October 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

You will like Estradasphere, I think. I don't typically like their vocals, but their latest is all instrumental! Which was a nice surprise. See them live if you can because it is a trip like none other.

I'm sort of astonished to read the characterization of Trout Mask Replica as grating noise. Maybe I've just listened to it hundreds of times over the last 8ish years or something, but I think it's very melodic and very beautiful.

On the other hand, I've learned not to put it on mixes because it seems other people don't hear it that way. Sorry, to all my high school friends who had to fast forward through Moonlight on Vermont.
posted by crinklebat at 8:21 AM on October 29, 2007

I was going to say Lightning Bolt but got beaten bad...

I recommend Pelican, Isis, Neurosis, and Red Sparowes. They're heavy but instrumental (well, Isis has vocals but not a lot and they're unobtrusive) and make good background working 'noise' without getting into the grating-on-nerves territory that a lot of 'noise' bands do (for me at least). That is what I usually listen to when I'm getting work done on the computer.
posted by bradbane at 8:25 AM on October 29, 2007

yellow swans

lots of noise here:

http://deletedscenesforgottendreams.blogspot.com/
posted by geos at 9:10 AM on October 29, 2007

some favorites:

AMM - their debut record AMMMusic 1966 is a fine place to start.

Musica Elettronica Viva - "Spacecraft" is their magnum opus, approx. 40 minutes.

Skullflower - Xaman

Lambsbread - Water Damage and Stereo Mars

Starving Weirdos - everything

Lamborghini Crystal - Dial 747-Creepozoid and 1992 Cool Runnings .
posted by porn in the woods at 9:33 AM on October 29, 2007

Mogwai - Come On Die Young
Einsturzende Neubauten Halber Mensch
early Sonic Youth (I like Bad Moon Rising)

http://www.furious.com/perfect/weapon.html
MUSIC AS A DEADLY WEAPON
posted by citron at 10:04 AM on October 29, 2007

I'm a big fan of Sonic Youth's Silver Session EP.

Also, I've recently been enjoying a collaboration between Keiji Haino and KK Null called Mamono.

Both somewhat hard to find, but worth the search: definitely hard noise, but also very meditative, almost soothing.
posted by myrrh at 10:33 AM on October 29, 2007

The Boredoms?
posted by matildaben at 11:00 AM on October 29, 2007

Sunn O)))
Wolf Eyes
Oxbow

For Zorn i'd say anything from Naked City (except Absinthe, not "melodic" at all) and Painkiller.
For Patton, the first Fantomas album is really good.
posted by SageLeVoid at 11:21 AM on October 29, 2007

Hafler Trio.
posted by Area Control at 11:45 AM on October 29, 2007

Black Dice - Beaches & Canyons (2002) I can only give a firsthand recommend for that specific album, but I bet the others are good, too. It tends to alternate between grating high-pitched melodic lines and white noise.
posted by clockwork at 12:48 PM on October 29, 2007

Since you suggested Mike Patton:

The opposite of white noise.

Something a little more melodic.
posted by slenderloris at 2:15 PM on October 29, 2007

Mike Patton on Irony is Dead Scecne Ep with the much more mellow Dilinger Escape Plan!

Even DEPs last two, Miss Machine and Ire Works may be exactly what you want...
posted by TeachTheDead at 8:43 AM on August 22, 2008