toxic-bananas

[toxic-bananas]

Aphex Twin by Matt Bright, c. early 90s.

[toxic-bananas]

First track.

Just an experimental noise rework :D lmk what y’all think.

[toxic-bananas]

Side note:

Alternative music is so good and Mom Jeans just gets IT. Highly recommend if you’re a fan of Pop-punk, Midwest emo, Alt/Indie music!

[toxic-bananas]

A look into the world of Noise Music Pt 2

Second Installment 1/8/23

I find people like this tiktok user to be lacking the understanding of the music. Or maybe they get it and I don’t. Because in the comment sections everyone says it’s amazing, sounds just like Merzbow (which is accurate) the difference is I feel (don’t know what his sets are like or how his creation process is) Merzbow tries and puts thought into what their creating and most of the people that are gaining interest in noise music, especially HNW, are just putting sounds together, cranking up the distortion and calling it good vs making sure their sounds flow, there’s layers, lyrics, etc. 

   I think harsh noise by itself is intriguing, but overall not something I’d listen to on the regular. But layering & mixing it with other genres, vocals, or sounds is a good way to create a song that has a glitchy and aggressive vibe to them. Highly recommend using Harsh Noise to amplify aggressive industrial and breakcore tracks. I definitely want to try my hand at a HNW performance which means I'm going to invest some time into making a track that I feel is good enough to present. I find a lot of this music to feel what it's like inside of my head, especially during a breakdown. I want to be able to have these breakdowns and this self pain in an artistic way and I think this is the route. Stay tuned

[toxic-bananas]

peepee poopoo

oopoop eepeep

[toxic-bananas]

Aphex Twin/Richard D. James at work

[toxic-bananas]

Merzbow / Boiler Room Tokyo Live Set

[toxic-bananas]

A look into the world of Noise Music Pt 1

I’ve always been an Alternative and Pop loving girl the most but I do find myself enjoying all genres of music. EDM/Techno have been in my life for over a decade now but as of lately my interest and fixation of the genre has sharply increased. I’ve been exploring the world of techno and all the subgenres since the start of the new year and thanks to the world we live in I’ve stumbled across Noise music, Harsh Noise Wall more specifically, Japanoise, and Breakcore, which i’m somewhat familiar with thanks to my scene kid days in middle school / early high school. I wanted to create this blog space to simply document my journey through music as I dive deeper into it all more than I ever have before. I’ll be looking up the history and back stories of artists and their genres and the subgenres and all the discographies and discussions. I’ll be starting with Techno, Breakcore, Industrial, HNW, etc first as it’s my hyper focus right now. But i’ll be mixing pop, cyberpop, hyperpop, etc as I feel like these genres are the main ones taking influence from Noise music and the breakcore world

The Feeling / General Thoughts.

I quickly noticed the dark ambience and sense of unspoken pain within HNW. From the show performances down to the sound bites that get used. Which range from eerie sounds, that make me feel like i'm in a long abandoned dark hallway, to indescribable screeches. That in itself makes this genre and performances intriguing to me. Are all these people this morbid and dark or is it a stage show and literally just an act? 

A reddit user under r/LordBobenheimer also said: “there is a lot of inherent, perceptible pain in this genre of music that makes you focus on your own pain and anger rather than running from it.” 

Many Others also think Noise Music, HNW especially, to just be awful. That it offers “No Ideas, change, development, entertainment, or remorse.” 

Which I kinda disagree with. HNW and if it has meaning / thought honestly depends on the person creating it. I’ve noticed that this extreme sub genre is filled with amateurs and “joke” artists. But there can also be a sense of thought based on what sounds are being put in, what level of distortion and flow you are giving them. You can give people a feeling with just your sound and that in itself is music correct? Sounds created and layered to invoke emotions and/or thoughts. At least that’s how I feel and see it. 

I also wonder what music would be without noise. This genre of music is thought provoking as it questions what can and can’t be music. You can often strip songs from artists in the hyper pop, cyberpop, and breakcore genres and find their songs have a bit of noise. Arca and Charli XCX come to mind as examples. The outro to Charli’s song Visions begins to have sirens and a steady ringing mixing into the industrial sound as the track fades out. Most of the beats and progressions? (correct me if i'm wrong im still learning music terms) Arcas songs have a dark trance noise feeling to them. Especially tracks off of Mutant.)  I don’t think their beats are nearly as aggressive as HNW which is on an entirely different level of aggression and discomfort. I’ve found Noise artists that I do enjoy such as; Sonic Dragolgo, Prurient, Sewerslvt, etc. 

Prurient is on the harsher side, with more melancholy, horror, dark trance, and sometimes aggressive noise. Often feels like there is a sense of thought and emotion he wants to invoke except for the tracks off his album Masonna which does just often feel like a bunch of distorted nonsense. The parts of the songs I like off this album are with the uncomfortable and eerie screaming/screeching scattered in some of the tracks. But some songs like Mannequin In Bulletproof Car and Coffin Painted In Nail Polish you can hear more of where sounds are enhanced, lowered, distorted, and switched. There’s layer to these over the stuff i’ve heard on Masonna 

Dragolgo creates more breakcore/techno but I’ve noticed some of his stuff is a lot of noise at times like his songs Punk, Ponk, and Bambi! I would categorize Dragolgo as an artist who puts thought into his noise. I find myself enjoying their music. I can describe most of their music to be what it sounds like in my head, especially during a breakdown. My thoughts are often rapid and loud, I guess that’s part of the reason this music, and artist, resonates with me. 

Sewerslvt is a breakcore electronic music producer from Australia. They no longer make music, stopping after her partner Angel committed suicide. They’re extremely problematic with a handful of scandals (A trend I’ve noticed in the breakcore scene). Sewerslvt has a handful of songs I do enjoy. 

The online breakcore fanbase also tends to be problematic as well, comment sections are usually always aggressive and full of slurs. It feels like a bunch of whiny kids behind keyboards tbh. As the HNW community is just dark and morbid. Very depressing. But both communities have aggression which resonates in both genres highly with the clashing and fast beats and sharp sounds.

The Performances:

I’ve only watched a few videos so far, but I haven’t found much on youtube. But what I have seen can range from chill sets watching someone turn their dials on their synthesizers up to people banging their head into an object with the mic right next to them, sometimes even destroying the object with the mice to create scratching and blaring. These shows are more on the Danger Show end of the spectrum and the ones I myself find interesting. I'm intrigued and want to set up my own stuff to create a noise performance to capture sound. These shows seem like an extreme way of expression and in a sense a performative way of self-inflicted pain, a common coping mechanism in kids and young adults. I think as adults instead of hurting oneself many in this community have learned to harness their emotions and pain into a way to create art and expression. Be it socially categorized as music or not. 

I find that anything can truly be music, it depends on the listener and how they want to take the sounds. If you listen to cars rolling by and the sounds of the city as an ambience and music instead of just background sounds, who's to say that's not music for you?

Artist Mentioned: 

Merzbow (Japanoise/HNW), Prurient (HNW), Pharmakon (HNW/Dark Trance, Sonic Dragolgo (Breakcore/techno/Noise),  Sewerslvt (Breakcore), Charli XCX (Hyperpop), Arca (Electronic/Industrial), 1-800-Pain (Glitchcore/Hardcore Grunge Trap)

Sources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsTalkMusic/comments/a8u3r4/lets_talk_harsh_noise_wall/

https://noise.thehardtimes.net/2019/07/03/a-beginners-guide-to-noise-music/

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/techno-music-guide