Reviews

[RUBBISH]

For the record I’ve rather liked some of No Rent’s output, though I appreciate your candidness.

I got some final thoughts on all this that I’ll post later, then I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

No Rent puts out some great stuff.
PT Barnum was great and showcased some amazing curiosities...I am in no way insulting or demeaning No Rent.
I'm happy he can sell out releases to goofballs.
Thats hilarious!

[RUBBISH]

hipster noise is code for not racist, isn't it?

What the actual fuck are you trying to say?

Man you dont normally piss me off with your not understanding things but this makes no damn sense at all.

NO THAT IS NOT WHAT HIPSTER NOISE IS CODE FOR!
Jesus fucking Christ man.
It means what it means.
Hipsters buying shit for fashion purposes. Fuck.

[Soloman Tump]

Anyway....

Yeah i've found a good variety of sounds released through NoRent.

The most recent Jason Crumer "Thin Ice" is really lush. Was tempted to order the tape until I realised how much it would fucking cost with the postage chucked in.
Prior to that I picked up the Zaimph album "Underlying Structures" which is not her most engaging work but pretty absorbing all the same.
Back a bit further there is a Lutkie album and a Scald Hymn tape that is stylised liked Twin Peaks. Scald Hymn is one of my fave noise / experimental artists right now, really solid stuff.

[FAP]

Alright, this is the last time I'll talk about what I think of TNB or The Haters, because frankly, I've got a million different things going on in my personal life that could all benefit form my time and attention, vastly more so than some clickity-clack noises a bunch of crusty old weirdos made forty years ago.

I was curious what the Noisextra podcast had to say about TNB and before I say anything else, I want to be clear this isn't a knock on them: I've enjoyed a great many number of their podcasts and the insight they (and their guests) bring to the table.

What I got out of their episode on TNB was this idea that the "point" or significance of TNB was their absolute rejection of everything: music, art, noise, even the act of rejecting itself (at least according to Mike).

Here's my problem with this: you can be anti-anti-anti-everything until the cows come home, but what does that leave you with? NOTHING.
Nothing substantive, nothing creative, nothing worth my time: no entertainment, no art, no point.
Changez Les Blockeurs is such a nothing album that its own inherent state of lacking extends to a meta level: the fact that people—adults, even—still defend this adolescent mindset as "well that's the point: pure nihilism for life, bro!" shows a lack of conviction in their own opinions and implies a lack of fidelity on the part of the artists ("yeah this was just some stupid dumb thing I made: you're not supposed to take it seriously, I mean come on man, how lame would that make me?!")

It reminds me of my own teenage years, trying to make the most br00tal anarcho-everything art possible because, you know, I was just so cool and so original that of course my shit would be killer. Anarchist cookbook? Fuck yeah, man: I'll make an anarchist soup, a soup with no broth! In fact, forget the soup! Forget the stove! I'll just bash my head into a ceramic bowl! Real punk shit!

I grew out of that because chasing the epitome of, well, NOTHING is such a fool's errand: you can make way better and vastly more compelling art when you're not trying to do a one-up on some tried and tired form of "extremeness."
And I can respect TNB for being one of the first entities to attempt something like this, but at the end of the day, the result is dull and even a little annoying; say what you will about [for example] Merzbow, at least the guy keeps things interesting.



I recently came across this little oddity that reminded me of TNB:


This is one of many Folkways records of field recordings from various environments. It's exactly what it says it is: the sounds of a junk yard. This record is so distorted it falls into a category I'd like to call "unintentional noise" i.e. non-noise recordings that could be reasonably misinterpreted or recontextualized as noise.

I was excited at the prospect of hearing another such record in this category (more on that later), but overall I thought the highlights on this record were outweighed by the more mundane moments. On one hand you get a totally brutal recording of an acetylene torch, but you also get the low-fidelity hum of the tape recorder churning a lot of other sounds into an indistinguishable sonic gruel.

For “noise” of this type, I recommend the 1983 LP Cable Car Soundscapes, another Folkways record (though technically they just reissued it from the earlier Valiant Productions pressing). That record is at least more consistent throughout.

What I find interesting about this record in regards to TNB is how similar they sound to each other. I'll say right now, while I wasn't the biggest fan of Sounds Of The Junk Yard, it had a hell of a lot more variety and entertainment value for me than Changez Les Blockeurs; possibly for any other TNB recording I've heard, for that matter. I bet TNB wouldn't even mind the comparison: Michael Siegel probably didn't set out to make art and of course TNB is all about that.

So how did TNB fail where Michael Siegel succeeded when both records are roughly comparable in their content (and especially in their composition)? Well, maybe it's because there's a distinct difference between having a "don't care" attitude and saying you have a "don't care" attitude. Guess which class TNB falls into?

[FAP]

Not to derail again, but I recently discovered White Centipede Noise has a YouTube podcast.
I’ve been listening to his interview with the guy behind Phage Tapes and they bring up some really revealing insight into running a noise label, which sort of touches upon the stuff Rubbish was posting about in relation to No Rent:

[banned]

Hipsters buying shit for fashion purposes. Fuck.

what does "fashion purposes" mean. these are tapes, not clothing.

everyone who doesn't like what you like is a conformist

[banned]

Not to derail again, but I recently discovered White Centipede Noise has a YouTube podcast.
I’ve been listening to his interview with the guy behind Phage Tapes and they bring up some really revealing insight into running a noise label, which sort of touches upon the stuff Rubbish was posting about in relation to No Rent:

I'm listening now. makes having a label sound like nothing but a pain.

specially what?

[NoiseWiki]

I'm listening now. makes having a label sound like nothing but a pain.

specially what?

It's a pain because really the only measure of success is moving copies and it's noise so you're already fighting an uphill battle not that selling any music is easy when there's a vast ocean of music available for free

It's the first I've heard of pressed records being stuck in warehouses do to shipping limits but I guess I understand how that has happened. Anyway so if people only take yiu seriously if you release vinyl because of the cost and it's a pain in the ass process anyway then you gotta move at least a 100 copies which is pretty much the minimum order. Selling a 100 noise records ain't easy.

Basically selling noise is a terrible business model

[banned]

I'm listening now. makes having a label sound like nothing but a pain.

specially what?

It's a pain because really the only measure of success is moving copies and it's noise so you're already fighting an uphill battle not that selling any music is easy when there's a vast ocean of music available for free

It's the first I've heard of pressed records being stuck in warehouses do to shipping limits but I guess I understand how that has happened. Anyway so if people only take yiu seriously if you release vinyl because of the cost and it's a pain in the ass process anyway then you gotta move at least a 100 copies which is pretty much the minimum order. Selling a 100 noise records ain't easy.

Basically selling noise is a terrible business model

I was referring more to the practicalities of it, having all these deadlines and stuff. ofc, you know I am pretty disabled... so it's not the "business model" it's the stress and failure ha

must be nice to feel like you have something tangible from doing noise, including the element of feedback (I sold records today)

[banned]

listening to this now



it's cool; I like the calm moments to it but it's dynamic (elements of both cut up and mics I think). I suppose what's interesting about it is the sense of equality between the label / presentation, and the recording artist. that's something that hasn't changed with Phage Tapes, even-though the label has developed, become more... overtly interesting.