Return of weird noise?

[FreakAnimalFinland]

This is re-occurring in WCN podcast, and new episode with Dean Fazzino of ROBERT FUCHS (check: https://youtu.be/aFELTxpGOr0 ) is perhaps good to comment it, as R.F. is something that is repeatedly mentioned as examples.

They don't manage to really define what it is, that makes it weird. Some something is off the line. There is mentioned that nothing about libido or masculinity, not much of genre cliches or such.. I would assume that it is the small but existing distinction of lets say THE CHERRY POINT, SICKNESS, KOJSTAD, VANHALA vs. VIOLENT ONSEN GEISHA, HANATARASH, SMELL & QUIM, EVIL MOISTURE? This is not evaluation who is good and who is not. All good, but some are more in lines of technical excellency, brutality, pure sonic energy, and the others have the weirdness in them. Not always the fierce ear-candy, but more like step into unexpected world of bizarro-noise.

Unfortunately, I do not have Robert Fuchs releases, so I could not tell what it is that makes it weird. What strikes me, is that based on episodes early sample, and being lumped with WORTH, STAR and such... and I am not sure how it is a return of weird? It is possible it is in some countries, but for example Finland, where I happen to live, to me it seems as if weird noise was always at least half of the genre, if not more? Some artists would be on border of being occasionally weird, occasionally blasting pure noise harshness.

Concrete examples is what I like. Not just gut feeling that something may or may not be, but those who have time to follow genre, there is shitloads of example of weird, goofy, bizarre noise - or noise that is not sonically so flat out odd, but visual presentation and atmosphere is far from what we may safely assume to be the genre basics for last decade or so. Xerox collages, loud broken noise, walls of noise, etc etc.

But first thing first, I suppose it is well known fact, that it tends to be the rough stuff that enjoys the cult reputation. In any genre. If there is hardcore punk, the more noisy, aggro, and ripping it is, it tends to be THE stuff, if we are talking about collectible items people hunt all over the world. Sometimes it is simply matter of smaller pressings, but often the style and content explains more. In case of metal, regardless how great noise people make, there is probably reason, why people are ready to pay big bucks for TAINT or MACRONYMPHA tape, but not for Crank Sturgeon or Princess DragonMom? Right? The latter could be brilliant, but there is something there similar to going to local noise gig with some art school goofball with funny hat sitting on table, that most people go awww damn... Ain't buying that tape for 5 euro!  While you got order going for 20 euro post paid ballerina in bondage harsh noise.

What we the noisy raw bands of the 80's tape scene? I am sure we all can drop the names of collectible ones, who have usually something in common. The darker, the more vile, and there is crowd ready to throw money without even hearing it. A bit more warm goofy noise, and very few care.

While the funny hat noise and ballerina in bondage noise were both made up imaginary examples, we can easily dive into concrete examples. Excuse me for being very Finn oriented, but as mentioned, due my geographic location and other reasons that is something I am exposed to a lot, for decades.

Tyhjä Pää, project translates as "Empty Head". Tables full of electronic gear blasting and farting odd electronic noise signals. In theory, brilliant harsh noise, in reality, starting from name, graphics and the looks of live gigs and all that, its weird. Not brutal. Not dark.

Rotat. Project that first started with tape packaged like chocolate bar. norelco box painted brown, wrapped in tin foil etc. Strange noise who would cite influenced being Taint, Odal and Smell & Quim. Later works would be sometimes sheer harsh blast, sometimes odd samples, exploitative in ways of tabloid magazines, combinations of rotten foods, rats in mousetraps, weird bizarre things.

Umpio. Sometimes just uniform total blast, sometimes odd junk percussions, even more odd patterns of modular noises, thrown in jokes and all-out typographic and word plays. Having anything in graphics from trophies received from dentist visit, to cat hamburgers, street food, hand drawn squiggles. Live shows always gentleman entertaining audience with weird things.

Keränen, in away little physical output, but when doing "drone record", it would be like moomin troll references, or his Lazer-noise show masterpiece Bats in the attick, being yet one of those prankster wordplays or turning finnish sayings into english that make little sense. Or Tescticle Hazard, where name is a pun, joke to beging with, and then the smiling gentlemen may give you firm dosage of sheer noise, but pack it into cat photos or comical self portraits.

YANA and duos solo works Amek-Maj and Kitu. What the hell is going on? Sometimes it is indeed harsh noise or noise, but then suddenly it may be trowing unexpected hip hop loop or totally random out-there noisy surprise sound. Completely strange combinations which are noise, but far far from uniform grey-scale solid pedal noise offerings.

Talking of pedal noise, MOOZZHEAD. Man delivers vivid and juicy harsh noise where he is not afraid to use colorful and vivid efx pedals. Not just brutal, but just sprinkling all over the place in his best releases. Covers include boobies, bigger boobies, cosmic boobies, amusing track titles, word play, weird nods to movies, music culture and such. You got guy blasting noise under title "Obituary in comic sans" or such, and it ain't dark and typical, although libido is oozing over limits.

All new Kobeuk tapes have been great, but also the kind... "hmm.. so what's next" type tapes, that you can't know exactly what is about to come. Tape covers have nothing that would prepare you for what is there.

Junta, is like... what the hell is this? It is noise. It ain't cut up. It aint HWN. It ain't your standard harsh pedal noise. It is noise, but.. what? I don't know. It doesn't look anything very specific either.

If Junta was weird, don't get me started on JAZZHAND. Take a tape of his, and you have no clue whatsoever will you be listened some decent noise blasting, or this nutcase doing recordings of yelling around the city, or just having bunch of field recordings of uncool places.

Hazarda Bruo Sonsistemo, the older gentleman who seems to be on missing of "no style, whatever", but besides strange name, odd visuals, and kind of inconsistent style, he is actually often good! Even has full CD's out, but I would guess all what I just said, means the fanatic collectors aren't there lined up finger ready on paypal button, eh eh..

Even KOVANA. It is pretty weird. In a ways you could think.. is it like.. power electronics? Nah. It is not. It is sometimes. It might be rugged turntablism next. It may be colorful digital noise scapes and strange beats, it may be tributes to manga or twin peaks and next something erotic and juicy. I file it under weird noise, in all honesty.

Fricsvel, and these guys anyways. It may not be intended to be weird, but it is? Psychedelia, earsplitting live noise, strange collages. Space Beyond Space tape for example. Well, you can also perhaps say MOGAO. It ain't dark. It is monochrome always, but might be suddenly odd collages, hand drawn things, and baseball cap wearing skater dude putting out self illustrated noise blast. It is more weird, than dark for sure. And I mean it as positive remark, obviously, being the guy who put out his first CD.

I could keep going. Just with the finns. And I am wondering am I missing something? Does weird noise have some new meaning I am not familiar with? But, if you ask me, weird noise is not recently returned, at least not here. It seems like it was always making part of the genre. I didn't even get to mention the costume noise & funny hat scene, stayed exclusively in the artists who belong firmly into Finnish noise scene where.

I'd be recommending these artists for sure, but also welcoming to hear people listing their local weirdo noise that may be largely unnoticed if it lacks the... ehm... selling points for cult audience, haha..

[Balor/SS1535]

This makes me think of the reactivated version of Suppurated Fetus, which was a side project of one of the members of Goatpenis.  https://www.discogs.com/artist/3955237-Suppurated-Fetus  https://suppurated.bandcamp.com/

In some ways, I suppose that the thematic content and much of the imagery is pretty common in noise, but his wierd blend of noise/metal/beats sounds unique/weird to me.  Despite the commonality of the overt inspirations, however, his themeing of releases around a recognition of source material sort of puts the project on a different level than more direct appropriations of the same source materials.  Another thing of note is his many attempts at covers of various rock/pop songs.  Rhythymic use of samples too.

Aside from some collaborations with Reek of the Unzen Gas Fumes, I don't think much/any of the project's output was ever distributed or given any wide notice.  According to Discogs, most are limited CDr releases.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

I think "weird" is not a great descriptor and what Oskar often means is, not easily classifiable or "conventional". To me it seems these artists are taking risks and trying to create their own sounds where it's often difficult to say what influences they found formative, to use Oskar's own words. The artist's often mentioned like Worth, Star, or Robert Fuchs are exploring ideas outside of crunchy guitar pedal noise while remaining "harsh noise". I think it's a move away from some of the tropes and commonalities in noise of the "classic sounds" and not being afraid if the sounds always "conventionally work" or not.

I remember a discussion about 90s noise on the board, and to paraphrase, not everything was overly-polished then, but the sound was more exploratory and personal between artists. It feels like a return to that adventurous spirit of earlier noise eras with a little more risk-taking. One of the defining factors for some of these projects is the "broken electronics" element. Pushing gear beyond their limits and creating unintended or less controlled sounds.

The Spring of Life "Brown Bed" tape on WCN is another great example of the style being referenced. The spectrum of sound is more stripped down, bare-bones, and "imperfect" noise.  Intentionally embracing and molding the flaws of equipment and recording methods into new sounds and not worried about a super polished and overly produced result.

I do think it might be becoming a kind of blanket statement for some newer acts, but to me, it does help paint a picture of what to expect.

[Vitrufen]

I agree with Fistfuck Masonanie's post and think a lot of what could be called "weird" noise is also due to the themes and visual content. If you were to take similar sounds and place them in a different context, what would it be? Straight-forward power electronics? Experimental music? Changes to song structure are most likely standing out too, so many projects are really interesting based on how they approach this, but still it is all connected to how it presents itself.  While noise that strays from it's own "boundaries" is everywhere, the presentation might be what pushes it into a certain box, or into its own obscurity. Maybe it is a sense of personality in the music that is unexpected or prominent. Mikko gave a good list of artists and bands that almost instantly bring strange images and content to mind, but I think "weird" noise is ultimately subjective, thematically/conceptually releases just are broadening on top of themselves.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

In that sense, yes, weird being just the... kind of overall impression of noise in the 90's. As that's where I am coming from, perspective of noise being that has always been kind of obvious. I remember when more contemporary 2005 era noise was being talked by some 90's people like why suddenly imagination was lost? Why just militant walls and pedal distortion. I do not agree on that sentiment myself, and think a lot of 2005 (and later noise) rules. But certainly one can say that the weird aspect didn't get so much attention, while it was always going on.

Also packaging wise, many of the Finns mentioned here, when they did the self releasing, was perhaps more weird. Umpio packaging items on found cardboard and broken fragments of circuit board, YANA having minigrip bag of cannabis seeds inside odd hand made cover package. KSNK hammering strange metal plate cover and torn photographs, Kovana private tapes dubbed on recycled tapes, each cover hand written texts on it, and so on..   Or Jazzhand with releases where you hardly know what is the title, is there title, what is this stuff.  It might be true that when finally getting the slimlined neat digipak CD out on label, where intention is to make the best thing, a bit of the weirdness of tapes is lost? You kind of "have to" identify release. Not just have disc wrapped in used tissue and moldy piece of bread and think distributors will take it. It's not like you're going to send out couple hundred bags of cannabis seeds around the world, haha.. or public hair and teeth and whatever. I think the weirdness of older noise is also consequence of personal contacts, items that were not mass produced for sale and so on.

You can listen Mlehst interview at noisextra where he talks about all those crazy special packaging, which was mostly consequence of stuff that was around at the moment. Girlfriend with job with access to free rubber gloves.. what to do with these? Weirdness came also from genre being like mail communication of artists. This is perhaps the thing that especially distributors who decide that they'll stick in distributing other labels, known artists and difficulty of arranging small trades with someone who put out hand made home dubbed tape makes sure none of that stuff is on catalogue... I guess these two sides of scene are more distant? I kind of have foot in both sides, and like to trade with whoever makes good stuff and distro is also full of obscure weird noise along genre classics and high profile veterans.

[DrRichard]

Is this "weird noise" or how would you define that genre ? https://iswp.bandcamp.com/album/choke-desert

[Zeno Marx]

And I am wondering am I missing something? Does weird noise have some new meaning I am not familiar with?

I share your confusion.  Is this nothing more than ignorance, as in not being familiar with music history and older groups?  Or is this as simple as updating the label?  Isn't this just experimental music?

I remember reading a conversation elsewhere, where they were talking about HNW, where someone posted about it in a way that made me think they'd never heard of minimalism, nor heard minimalist music outside of HNW.  I've wondered this about noise being the new punk rock, but with punk being as highly referential as it is, new noise being the opposite and without reference.  Not to judge that as good or bad, but wondering if that is where it's at, because it seems like it is.  And if that is an accurate perception, it's really interesting...and again, confusing.

[Eigen Bast]

I think this is US centric and 99% an aesthetic decision. It's compelling in that it fires up the turn of the millenium neurons but I don't think there's an actual way to be like "this is weird noise" vs "'[whatever] noise" beyond the artist having a website that looks like a geocities page (weird noise)

egg and chain a valuable metaphor

[Bloated Slutbag]

Having now submitted, and deleted, a series of smartass remarks over the past day or so, here's an actual attempt at sincerity. It starts here: harsh noise. Not noise. Harsh noise. What's weird about it, really? Perhaps that it is consistently harsh. But, then there are those who will work within, rather than without, those very, and vividly, harsh confines. Those who will, consistently, deliver noise of the harsh persuasion. But noise of the harsh persuasion that will, consistently, be, if not...OFF... then perhaps at some degree removed from the other deliveries of the harsh. Such projects exist, such self-aware consistently harsh projects that are, on some level, at some remove. Is this experimental music? Of course it is. But what more, it is experimental harsh noise. That is a path worth exploring.

[Warfare Noise]

 Is this nothing more than ignorance, as in not being familiar with music history and older groups?

From a distance it appears as if some people are astounded other people are doing their own thing.
Doing your own thing used to be more common and might seem really novel to a younger person.

Not slagging the examples given. Star and Fuchs stuff sounds good from what I heard. Never heard Worth.

[WCN]

Having now submitted, and deleted, a series of smartass remarks over the past day or so, here's an actual attempt at sincerity. It starts here: harsh noise. Not noise. Harsh noise. What's weird about it, really? Perhaps that it is consistently harsh. But, then there are those who will work within, rather than without, those very, and vividly, harsh confines. Those who will, consistently, deliver noise of the harsh persuasion. But noise of the harsh persuasion that will, consistently, be, if not...OFF... then perhaps at some degree removed from the other deliveries of the harsh. Such projects exist, such self-aware consistently harsh projects that are, on some level, at some remove. Is this experimental music? Of course it is. But what more, it is experimental harsh noise. That is a path worth exploring.

I think Soddy gets it - I think the somewhat unique current isn't weird noise, it's weird HARSH noise. True pure harsh sound with elements or approach that come across as particularly bizarre or surreal, sonically and/or visually. As I have said though, I am actually quite against artists like Star, Robert Fuchs, or Worth being classified as "weird." It just seems like they are trying to convey different feelings than harsh noise "typically" does. I think assessing this as simply "weirdness" misses each of their points.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Perhaps the weird is indeed to wrong term. Like mentioned Keränen bats.. CD. It is harsh noise CD, but for me, it sounds quite unique especially in finnish context of the time. In a way, methods or tools are not anything THAT strange. It is synth noise, if you look at what it really is. Just, not the synth noise in ways I generally think of it. Not made in situation most noise is made at etc.

Same with Umpio. It is often as harsh as harsh noise gets, but... it ain't like rest of harsh noise over here. Or noise I usually hear.

Weird, bizarre, strange noise feel is the default, but if we talk of absolutely of harsh noise that is less used harsh noises and odd tempo, unexpected texture, unexpected "composition", not sure what it should be called when it tends to sound just interesting harsh noise, as opposed to generic energetic blast.
Nevertheless, usually it still sound less weird, than the really weird noise does, hah..
Like thinking of Worth, it usually sounds as kick ass interesting harsh noise. Not that weird. To step in direction of weird, one could perhaps check Stabat Mors, which is immediately one step more odd noise, and what I read, influential to Worth approach.