Joseph Roemer's One Hundred Essential Noise Releases

Just to have it somewhere for people to link to, I've posted "One Hundred Noise Releases as recommended by Joseph Roemer." Thanks to Segerhuva for posting the list and Carlos of Angbase fame (and Pitchphase) for hosting a scan of the original 11x17 list that Joe sent to him.

Top Ten lists remind me of the late night comedy morons and seems stupid to me. After several attempts to group these titles in LP, 7", CD and Cassette categories I just said "Fuck It" and decided instead on: One Hundred Noise Releases as recommended by Joseph Roemer ... (In no particular order)

001. ENTRE VIFS-l'ordre par le bruit-CD-(artware)
002. MACRONYMPHA-pittsburgh-LP-(p.d.b.)
003. VIVENZA-metallurgie-CS-(freedom in a vacuum)
004. MONDE BRUITS-selected works-CD-(endorphine factory)
005. EMIL BEAULIEAU/MERZBOW-chicago-LP-(rrr)
006. THE NEW BLOCKADERS-symphonie x...-LP-(hypnagogue)
007. "WORLD RECORD"-comp-CD-(alchemy)
008. KAZUMOTO ENDO-evergreen-7"EP-(p.a.l.)
009. TAINT-indecent liberties-LP-(p.d.b.)
010. "NOISE WAR"-comp-CS-(mother savage)
011. K2-metal dysplasia-CD-(cheeses international)
012. LE SYNDICAT-cercle de soufre-LP-(bogart)
013. ERIC LUNDE-xchdx-LP-(w.n.s.)
014. SUDDEN INFANT-radio orgasm-LP-(shimpfluch)
015. "BRUITISTE"-comp-LP-(rrr)
016. THIRDORGAN-guardian angel-CS-(shimizu)
017. KILLER BUG-vaginal disco-CS-(mother savage)
018. "NOISE FOREST"-comp-CD-(les disques du soleil)
019. MACROONYMPHA-intensive care-CD-(self abuse)
020. INCAPACITANTS-fabrication-CD-(alchemy)
021. MLEHST-breathing in dead flies-LP-(bhp)
022. "EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC OF JAPAN"-comp-LP-(nhk/victor)
023. EXFOLIATION-legion-CS-(s.f.c.r.)
024. MSBR-destruktive locomotion-(pure)
025. ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO-madrid/tolosa-CS-(...)
026. "NEW CATASTROPHIC FORCES"-comp-CS-(united syndicate)
027. TAINT-blitz action trauma-CS-(s.h.f.)
028. ENTRE VIFS-heavy duty-CS-(chthulhu)
029. MLEHST-a cold fuck-...-(bhp)
030. "JAPANESE AMERICAN NOISE TREATY"-comp-2xCD-(release)
031. "EVEN ANTI-ART IS ART"-comp-CS-(rrr)
032. SKIN CRIME-audio pathology-CD-(armed and loaded)
033. K2-de novo-CS-(kinky music)
034. ZONE NORD-marche noir-LP-(sacem)
035. SOLMANIA-metaphor chorus-CD-(alchemy)
036. MASONNA-shinsen na clitoris-CD-(vanilla)
037. HIJOKAIDAN-modern-CD-(alchemy)
038. "JOURNEY INTO PAIN"-comp-CS-(rrr)
039. "AMERICANOISE"-comp-CS-(mother savage)
040. "MUSIC SHOULD HURT"-comp-CD-(self abuse)
041. MERZBOW-noiseembryo-CD-(releasing eskimo)
042. HANGED MAN'S ORGASM-rifkin-7"EP-(mother savage)
043. KNURL-nervescrap-CD-(pure)
044. INCAPACITANTS/MACRONYMPHA-split-7"EP-(mother savage)
045. S.ISABELLA-point de caption-CD-(xerxes)
046. DANIEL MENCHE-legions in the walls-CD-(trente oiseaux)
047. OVMN-visions of autoerotic excess-CD-(armed and loaded)
048. 666VBN-blunt objects-CS-(mother savage)
049. LE SYNDICAT-...-3xLP BOX-(rrr)
050. ONE DARK EYE-chronicle of a death foretold-2xLP-(non mi piace)
051. TAINT-whoredom-CD-(p.d.b.)
052. MERZBOW-pulse demon-CD-(release)
053. INCAPACITANTS-as loud as possible-CD-(zabriskie point)
054. GRUNT/MACRONYMPHA-split-LP-(freak animal)
055. AUBE-quadrotation-4x7"EP-(self abuse)
056. KILLER BUG-cunt explosion-7"EP-(releasing eskimo)
057. SKIN CRIME-whorebutcher-CS-(mother savage)
058. HIJOKAIDAN-romance-CD-(alchemy)
059. MLEHST-dancing pricks-CS-(muzamuza)
060. MASONNA-madamoiselle anne sanglante...-CD-(alchemy)
061. MONDE BRUITS-man'o'war-CS-(vanilla)
062. "ARTIFICIAL NERVE 1 and 2"-comp-CS-(xerxes)
063. INCAPACITANTS-no progress-CD-alchemy
064. LE SYNDICAT-rectitude-CS-(la procedure)
065. GOVERNMENT ALPHA-maternity-CS-(mother savage)
066. MSBR/MERZBOW-split-7"EP-mother savage)
067. PAIN JERK-trashware-CD-(pure)
068. AMB/HYWARE/KAPOTTE MUZIEK-split-LP-(p.d.b.)
069. MACRONYMPHA-amplified humans-CS-(se)
070. TAINT-victimology-CS-(taint)
071. INCAPACITANTS-new movements-CD-(alchemy)
072. AUBE-wired trap-CD-(self abuse)
073. MSBR-collapseland-CD-(heelstone)
074. MACRONYMPHA-crack-CS-(b/b)
075. KILLER BUG-your wife is mine-7"EP-(self abuse)
076. ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO-utrecht-LP-(e.g.p.)
077. MLEHST-ignorance against...-LP-(bhp)
078. MACRONYMPHA/GOVERNMENT ALPHA-split-CD-(mother savage/xerxes)
079. "DEDICATION 1 AND 2"-comp-LP/CD-(artware)
080. ILLUSION OF SAFETY-historical-CD-(staalplaat)
081. LUSTMORD-heresy-CD-(soleilmoon)
082. MLEHST-group milk-CS-(bhp)
083. "MAXIMUM NOISE"-comp-CS-(h.l.a.s.)
084. MSBR/GOVERNMENT ALPHA-split-CS-(xerxes)
085. THE NEW BLOCKADERS-...-2xCD BOX-(tesco)
086. "EXTREME AMERICA VOL.2"-comp-7"EP-(knot music)
087. CRAWL UNIT-zodiac-7"EP-(self abuse)
088. MACRONYMPHA-art shawcross-7"EP-(self abuse)
089. ATRAX MORGUE-james huberty-7"EP-(self abuse)
090. UNDERGROUND USA AND CANADA-comp-CS-(mother savage)
091. CONTROLLED BLEEDING-bladder bags-CD-(vanilla)
092. MO-TE-peaceful world-CS-(h.l.a.s.)
093. JOHN WATERMANN-calcutta-CD-(nd)
094. THIRDORGAN-jinzoningen-
095. "...VULTURES MISS NOTHING"-comp-2xLP-(harbinger)
096. RRREPORT 1 AND 2-comp-ZINE/CD-(rrr)
097. MLEHST-never understand her-LP-(bhp)
098. STIMBOX/MO-TE-split-CS-(uncut)
099. INCAPACITANTS-quietus-CD-(alchemy)
100. MACRONYMPHA-melting softly into time-LP-(rrr)

Noise Bibliography

I decided to start a noise bibliography. As I was adding links to the sidebar I realized that that could get pretty long. Rather than doing that, I'll be updating this list (which I will link to the side bar) instead. This list is by no means exhaustive, and many of the articles are academic.

Enjoy.

• Aesthetics of Noise, The


• Cuts Like a Knife: Zen, Ginsus, and Japanese Rock 'n Roll in America


• Darker in Osaka...Calmer in Yokohama


• Deconstruction, Music, and Noise Aesthetics


• Eastern Storm: Random Bursts of Japanoise


• From Noise to Sound to Music and Back


• Full With Noise: Theory and Japanese Noise Music


• General Ecology of Sound: Japanese Noise Music as Low Form


• Nippon Aural Dynamite: An Introduction To Japanese Noise


• Noise


• Noise - Three Musical Gestures


• Noise threshold: Merzbow and the end of natural sound


• Prehistory of Industrial Music, A


• Presentation -The Scene of "JAPANOISE"


• Some Sadomasochistic Aspects of Musical Pleasure


• Splinter in your ear: Noise as the semblance of critique, The


• Why Hardcore Goes Soft: Adorno, Japanese Noise, and the Extirpation of Dissonance

International Noise Wiki

Come help us build up the International Noise Wiki database. If nothing else, you can add an entry for your own noise project. Special thanks to Ichorous Jared (aka BagelNoise) for setting up this wikispace site but it is going to take a collaborative effort to get it up to par.

What's this "wiki" stuff, you ask? Well, according to the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikis are:

dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.

What makes wikispaces different is that:

We make wikis accessible to everyone, not just technical users. We provide a clean interface, a visual page editor, and a focus on community collaboration.

So even if you're not tech savy, please feel free to add any noise-related content to the site--it can always be edited later by someone else. Right now the space could just use content period, so even if just one noisehead, or fan of noise were to add one entry, that would be a help in getting the ball rolling.

So I'm asking each and every noise/PE artist to at least update an entry (or create an entry) for their own projects. Don't worry so much about the format as I'm sure once content gets added there will be communal decisions made as to what the overall format of the entries (and site itself) will be.

Help support the noise scene in a different way today--add an entry at the International Noise Wiki space so that others can begin finding information about all their favorite noise artists, releases and labels.

It`s All Noise ()

it`s all noise. noise music then: the literal, even logical extension of the quintessential absurdist metaphor, not strictly necessary, save perhaps as a conscious recognition, a formal acknowledgement of this intolerable, excremental state of affairs. this abomination. life.

every action, gesture, idea, down to the minutest atomic agitation, amplifies the cosmic filth, the cosmic absurdity. it`s all so much stuff. accumulation. debris. sewage flows. septic heaven.

what`s the point? it`s hardly worth contemplating. the only communicable ideas are the most trite, most simplistic, most excrable. "trite". this in itself a definition of "communicable idea". reduce your world. get it down. on paper. on record. manageable, digestible chunks. soundbytes. relish the pornographic moment. satiate. the needs of the body. this is only the most "natural" response. what else are we supposed to do? pretend. keep the pretence alive. yes! life is worth living! shout it. scream it. noise it. wilfull, idealistic gestures. communicable diseases. overflowing with LOVE. disease. life.

RIP Koji Tano (1961-2005)

*edited (10-03-2005, 01:43 pm): thanks to Chris Goudreau (aka SICKNESS) for reminding me that there are alot more noise artists than just those on the west coast that knew Koji Tano. Don't ask me why I only referenced the Japan and West Coast artists as I'll only claim senility.



I had posted this at my other blog a while back, but think that it's appropriate that I repost it here. A brief eulogy to Koji Tano.



I had been out of the experimental/noise music scene for nearly a year (I needed the break) but was saddened to get this letter a few weeks back:

Dear everyone

i'm terribly sorry to inform you this sad news though,
Koji Tano (MSBR) passed away on July 31, at age 44,
because of carcinoma of the colon and rectum.

the funeral ceremony took place at a temple in Tokyo today (August 2).

i'm really speechless with sudden shock and sorrow.

Sincerely yours

Kazuyuki Kishino (KK.NULL)

I didn't know Koji Tano personally, but all of my friends in Japan and a number of the west coast noise artists [*worldwide] did. As anyone into noise knows, he was the "frontman" for the noise group, MSBR, and owner of one of the outstanding experimental music record stores and the MSBR Records label. His was the first store/label to sell copies of my noise releases in Japan.

What many didn't know is that Koji Tano was also an underground manga creator. A couple of his stories appeared in issues of Mason Jones' magazine of Japanese independant bands and culture, Ongaku Otaku. I wouldn't bother trying to order any of those directly from Mason right now as he's in Japan touring, though you might check Aquarius Records to see if they have any in stock.

Some of Koji's manga may also be found in the Wormhole mangazine published by Time Stereo (run by Detroit based noise/performance art troupe, and frequent collaborator with MSBR, Princess Dragon Mom). The art from the mangazine also made a tour of some Michigan based art-galleries.

If I can find my copies I might scan some of his work and do a sort of retrospective review of Koji's manga.

I found a short and uninformative review of the "The Fool Who Fell to Hell" from the second Ongaku Otaku issues:

The best thing in this issue, though, is the stunning manga story by Koji Tano of MSBR. "The Fool Who Fell to Hell" starts out as a reasonably typical paranoid-fantasy story (a sweaty homeless guy watches kids playing in the park and flashes back to hellish school days) before the bottom falls out (literally -- he falls in a hole down to hell) and the whole thing becomes surreal, grotesque, and not a little bit scary. The pix of the minotaur demon squashing damned souls with a huge cement block and then stuffing them all in his mouth is completely amazing. Hopefully there will be more to come in this vein from Tano, for this is unspeakably cool....

from:
monotremata.com review archives

If any of you are interested in hearing some of his noise, then please go to this link where I've been posting selective links related to Koji and his work.

Joseph Roemer's Noise Manifesto

I figured that since this has gotten posted, emailed, cut-n-pasted everywhere else, then why not here at the Harshnoise Blog? I present to you, Joe Roemer's (aka Macronympha) Noise Manifesto.


So many people have asked me lately , "Why noise?" What do I like about it and why do I choose to perform/record it? Obviously, some snobbish elitist will comment, "You all are talented musicians ... So why not do pieces more accessible, more traditional and more 'musical'." I piss on all of your heads and ask you, "Why not just jump out the goddamn window right now? You're going to die anyway." Fools. Here is one person's reason for being a noisehead. It is nothing more than my own vision and perhaps has little to do with how other noise artists define their purposes. We are indeed a varied and multi-dimensional group of people.

Joe's Manifesto of Noise. Not all of Macronympha. First, I'll admit it up front, Yes...making noise is a f&*king blast! To be able to crush a whole array of traditional guitar-player power chords on the demolition scale of merely using electronics is certainly a pleasant exercise in using sheer force to set a rhythm and an abrasive and crunching lead pattern.

Using noises, electronics, regular instruments and found metal to sculpt our sound is an endless challenge to explore and utilize. Until the advent of all this digital circuitry - one was somewhat limited (and very easily bored) just being able to experiment within so called "band" or "musical" formats. As players we all play all instruments - so I for one like the improvisation aspect of creating noise. We can do gorgeous piano, searing guitar grunge, industrial dance beat, etc. - all of the poplar crap, but it bores the living sh*t out of me - just like playing jazz or classical chords on my acoustic guitar. If you're good - why rehearse?

Performing noise is a constant roller-coaster ride of thrills. So much you can do. My techniques change regularly and once new pieces of sound or tech hardware are mastered - I can file them in my noise repertoire and bring them out or f*ck with them at any time in any way. Makes for a comprehensive tool-kit of so-called "instruments" at my disposal. I see them as sound generators. Noise is fulfilling on two levels. It is confrontational and emotional. If your crowd hates you, you can hate them back and make their guts churn and their ears bleed. Noise lets you perform how you feel exactly at the time. No having to repeat your songs the same night after night - no venting your anger inwardly or merely by thumping on a drum kit or chopping down on your guitar or bass a lot harder with your hands. Noise is power. It is an artist's dream when it comes to composing/creating an alien environment. Noise is its own dimension and when you are immersed in it you must (and do) go wherever it takes you. As an audience you are our prisoner or our collaborative partner.

I perform much how I feel that day. I have my noise arsenal fully loaded but one day I might use mostly effects and amps - another day drums and vocals - or that same week play keyboards. Sometimes I'll fly around like a maniac and do twenty different things or half a dozen all at once. Trying to harness the raw voltage, wattage, and power juicing over the stage is intoxicating with just enough elements of unpredictable surprises.

Imagine, full power up...5-6 amps all up to (10) ten - looping, crashing, feeding back creating layer upon layer of texture. I control the dynamics, the range of pitch; the rhythm and speed of the attack. It's like trying to harness electricity in a jar or trying to put a lasso around a lightning bolt. Noise is the mood setting king of all soundstages. Just look at how much great noise grabs you by the throat and beats your senses around when you're up close to the speakers at a movie theater. It disorients and it is not the kind of stuff an audience can expect to hear or sing along to. I love noise because it is obscure and hard to listen to.

Studio work is the more creative side of noise and it is within this environment that actual composed pieces are most often realized. I can exert far greater control over my piercing electronics and use all of the multi-track dubbing tricks at my disposal to distort even further the sound sources and the basic rhythm foundations. Not all noise pieces however need recognizable structures within textures. Sometimes no rhythm exists or simply a static wash of white noise is constant. The out of control stuff usually turns out to be incredible when recorded properly and I like the fact that much of the noise I make is more aggressive in the Japanese or English terrorist style; than in the academic or more minimalist styles of the collage artists, the concretists, or the sound poets. Power electronics are the minimum standards I need to personally get excited about creating an artistic explosion of sound. I guess to some extent I am a cultural terrorist and I like to cause discomfort. So many things piss me off about greed, politics and government. The fat and stupid mediocrity of Middle America. I could easily become a violent gun-toting mad man vigilante . . . and start a mass murder rampage targeted at corporate CEO's whose factories dump toxic waste in rural neighborhoods and against red-neck fundamentalist conservatives who preach jesus, pedophile children and who support republicans. I could choke the bankers who foreclose on small businesses in rough economic times and who likewise toss families out in the street to get their homes.

Instead, however, I make brutal noise. To me it is beautiful. It is soul-filling, peace-giving, and my muse. I can bludgeon you to death with it - or create haunting, eerie pieces of skin-crawling mayhem. It is the soundtrack to my life.

I can bang my metal senseless and take out frustrations and anxieties. I am noise . . . and noise is me. It is chaos but it is also comfort. It is all purpose, and then again it is random and continuous. It is everything all at once . . . and it is really nothing at all. To be the master of the overviolence is all the respite an artist can hope to achieve. While listening to Macronympha at loud volumes I guarantee you won't fall asleep or be bored or ambivalent. Come into my world - but don't stay too long. I could care less if anyone out there actually likes our stuff. We do this for our own selves, and I personally like distance between myself and much outside socializing. If I wasn't a noisician and if I didn't get high regularly, I'd be far too morbid and relentless - and wouldn't be someone anyone would enjoy being around for too long.

Someday I'd like to ultimately merge some of this soundscape-vision into a dual reality by composing noise backgrounds for film projects. If anyone out there has a feature or anything longer than ten (10) minutes to score or do a soundtrack for, please e-mail this account. Not just CMU students either. I want other driven and deranged people to send me ideas for what they want done with noise as music for their movies, plays, or performance/installation pieces.

Much of what is truly excellent in the realm of recorded noise today are in fact collaboration projects with many contributors. Still though most noiseheads are solo individuals who see their own vacant sound canvas with unique and exclusive eyes that ultimately make some kind of a mental picture. When I listen to Merzbow, I close my eyes and see images intended, and images never imagined. The appreciation (or hatred) of noise is purely an individual relationship, based on one's own taste.

Joseph Roemer of Macronympha