As my remark on the current lack of noise scene, or noise live action in Belgium on the live reports thread has sparked somewhat of a discussion with local legends and foreign observers alike, maybe it is not misplaced to start a seperate topic. Even if the those involved have nothing more to add, this topic can still serve as a summary of some of the main points and perhaps even as a platform to improve the situation. Plus there are a few things I would like to comment on myself :)
Firstly it was noted by veteran artist and experienced organizer Dries that it is, and always has been difficult to organize noise live shows in Belgium.
Quote from: Dries on May 28, 2026, 10:53:53 AMIt is certainly quiet in Belgium regarding noise shows. There are no more noise shows in Belgium, and it has always been difficult to organize them. Over the years, I tried to do something in Kortrijk, which I managed to do (booking a fest for some years, booking great acts such as The Rita-with Gordon & Charlie M, BLJ, Pedestrian Deposit and so on), but that is over now too. For example, I wanted to organize Dead Door Unit. I asked five months in advance, but the two venues here in town that I worked with had full schedules or weren't interested.
He also noted that Belgium does have a good 'academic' (subsidised) sound art scene, regrettably this scene is quite seperated from the more 'underground', raw, diy noise scene:
Quote from: Dries on May 28, 2026, 10:53:53 AMboth go hand in hand and share the same foundation. Music Concrete, minimal, harsh, drone and so on starts all from the love of sound and in a way, it is silly that it gets divided/separate from each other
Duncan posits that maybe 'hyper genrefication' is to blame here. Maybe the broader bracket of 'experimental music' should be more united, as organizing shows and so on is already difficult enough on its own. In Flanders we say 'samen sterk'.
But I guess the question here is, what divides the underground and the academic scenes in the first place? Dries points to the academic approach's insistence on 'seriousness', even 'beauty' as opposed to the more 'relativized' underground ethos, perhaps a bit more tongue in cheek, serious but 'in its own way'. In the end I think there will always be a seperation between the two, as it isn't just about the sound but also about a difference in attitude and image, not to mention this attitude also influences the sound. Nonetheless there will always be valuable artists or organizers with a foot in both worlds, so to speak.
The Broadcast festival by the well-kown venue Ancienne Belgique was also mentioned, this kind of festival and line up inhibits a special inbetween, between underground, mainstream and academic, what I like to call alternative. I don't think this is super relevant for the discussion, as I don't think the target audience of these festivals is very receptive of harsher kinds of experimental music. I did attend last year because I recieved a free ticket, maybe I would've even gone to the Neubauten show this year, if it wasn't so damn overprized! Literally more than a festival day ticket, just to see Neubauten.
Anyway something I would also like to bring up: I feel like the 'underground' scene in Belgium is mainly dominated by metal. A problem I have with metalheads is that a great deal of them are not very adventurous with their music taste so to speak. Now I know this is a grave generalization, as many people on this forum (including myself!) are also very much into metal and I have also met 'metalheads' with whom I could talk about any kind of genre. However some months ago I saw a live show with a band called Prayer Position from the US as a support, I had never heard of this band but it was an amazing mixture of metal, punk and noise. I was just thinking this kind of crossover could never happen in Belgium as those three 'scenes' are way too seperated from eachother. It seems the situation is different in the US for example. I think if metalheads would show more interest in noise/experimental/industrial music, it would very much help put the latter on the map. Therefore it is great to see Absolute Key on the line up of Pankraker festival!
Anyway I could be completely missing the mark here.
I guess I'd also just like to ask a broad, somewhat pointless question, why is noise not so popular in Belgium, whereas its direct neighbours, chiefly Germany, The UK and The Netherlands have active noise scenes? It is just contingency? The small size of the country? Something imbedded in our culture?
Lastly let me sum up some events and organizers that were mentioned and are currently keeping noise (and sound art) in Belgium afloat:
- Kraak: https://kraak.net/
- Rites of Noise (Antwerp)
- Q-O2: academic sound art, experimental music: https://www.q-o2.be/
- Knotwilg festival: https://knotwilgrecords.be/
- Experimental Belgian Shows Newsletter (https://experimentalbelgianshowscalendar.eo.page/1rwn1) (Thanks Urall)
There is obviously more, but I can't really come up with everything, not to mention the occasional noise/industrial show in the usual underground venues, so feel free to complete the list further. Also note how these organisations are all based in Flanders or Brussels (which is geographical also situated in Flanders), what goes on in the post-industrial wasteland that is Wallonia? I'm occasionally seeing interesting things happen in the Charleroi venue Rockerill, not noise but more punk, but is there potential here? I would certainly be inspired to make noise if I grew up in a junkyard...
Anyhow, I am not only curious to what other Belgians might add to the discussion, but also outsider perspectives are very welcome! We can definitely learn from eachother.
It's a good point about the metal scene, there is also a healthy punk-crust-oi whatever you call it scene in Belgium, but as you state the 'crossover' isn't there. The people I also know in this scene are not interested in anything outside of that scope. Re my point about the Broadcast festival - which I think was missed - what I was trying to say was more about 'set and setting'. i.e. I am not going to go to a concert where I can't watch it with a drink because I might 'harm the artworks' even if was Whitehouse with Sotos doing their greatest hits.
Thanks for making this thread and treating an outsider's curiosity with patience! Terms like academic and sound art can be used in quite broad ways when describing non-noise/non-underground works and it's sometimes a pejorative. However I do get the sense from this discussion you're probably talking about something fairly specific. Maybe to help figure out more about this separation in scenes (for lack of a better word), it's good to define what is meant by academic in this context. Are we talking about activities connected to a university? Or maybe music made more in line with a 'traditional' avant-garde, electronic and/or musique concrete sensibility?
Subrosa and Metaphon Records both documented the early academic electronic composers from Belgium. I'm not an expert but it seems there's a strong tradition of avant-garde and electronic music.
Quote from: NedOik on May 30, 2026, 09:28:22 AMIt's a good point about the metal scene, there is also a healthy punk-crust-oi whatever you call it scene in Belgium, but as you state the 'crossover' isn't there. The people I also know in this scene are not interested in anything outside of that scope. Re my point about the Broadcast festival - which I think was missed - what I was trying to say was more about 'set and setting'. i.e. I am not going to go to a concert where I can't watch it with a drink because I might 'harm the artworks' even if was Whitehouse with Sotos doing their greatest hits.
So I am not alone in this observation that even the underground scene unfortunately is divided. Right I think your point about the Broadcast festival again ties in with what Dries calls this 'seriousness' in the art world. I personally don't see this as a bad thing necessarily, however I feel like there also always have to be (as a way to keep things in balance) spaces where these rules are more relaxed, where things are taken less 'seriously' and one can enjoy a drink while watching a performance or artwork! haha.
Quote from: Duncan on May 30, 2026, 11:52:22 AMThanks for making this thread and treating an outsider's curiosity with patience! Terms like academic and sound art can be used in quite broad ways when describing non-noise/non-underground works and it's sometimes a pejorative. However I do get the sense from this discussion you're probably talking about something fairly specific. Maybe to help figure out more about this separation in scenes (for lack of a better word), it's good to define what is meant by academic in this context. Are we talking about activities connected to a university? Or maybe music made more in line with a 'traditional' avant-garde, electronic and/or musique concrete sensibility?
Great question and probably very important that we indeed get a clearer idea of what is meant with terms like academic and sound art. I did not mean to sound condescending towards the artsy scene, I try to visit the Brussels Oscillation festival (https://oscillation-festival.be/2026) each year, organized by Q-O2 and I think very representative of the sound art scene. Although there are interesting concerts each year, I must admit I never really feel quite at home at these kind of events.
As a starting point to characterize the difference between the art scene and the underground scene I think very crucial here is the economic factor: one is subsidised and the other is more DIY, volonteer run. To sound very academic myself here, I would like to bring up Marx' distinction between the 'base' and 'superstructure', and their hierarchical relationship, namely that the base determines the superstructure, in other words the economic reality shapes the ideas, the attitudes, the ethos. To apply this to the music scenes, the art scene relies on government money to fund their activities, the key thing here is that they have to 'justify' their claim to this money. Art has to be 'valuable', 'interesting' and maybe even useful to society, all of this is of course political. To put it bluntly, you cannot justify the use of tax payer money to screw around with some pedals.
Another thing, and I think this is where the term 'academic' comes from, is that many artists featured on the line up of for example Oscillation festival have also studied at art school or the conservatory. This education is not neutral and defintely shapes the artists' direction in a certain way and imposes certain frameworks for making music. In contrast many underground artists simply started doing music as a hobby and enjoy the freedom that comes with this approach (but perhaps are also limited by their amateurship?).
I am not sure if we can say the contemporary sound art scene necessarily builds upon the tradition of the historical avant garde, but unfortunately my knowledge here is actually quite limited. Impulse Manslaughter's references are interesting though, as a rich experimental music tradition contradicts the current lack of interest in noise.
Quote from: Nadir on May 30, 2026, 03:09:06 AMBut I guess the question here is, what divides the underground and the academic scenes in the first place? Dries points to the academic approach's insistence on 'seriousness', even 'beauty' as opposed to the more 'relativized' underground ethos, perhaps a bit more tongue in cheek, serious but 'in its own way'. In the end I think there will always be a seperation between the two, as it isn't just about the sound but also about a difference in attitude and image, not to mention this attitude also influences the sound. Nonetheless there will always be valuable artists or organizers with a foot in both worlds, so to speak.
I have spent almost a decade here in Helsinki crashing into this wall again and again. Art venues sponsored by the public purse or the third sector are great, but ultimately they are for folks who are educated, privileged, live within the Hki public transportation network's travel zone A, have all the right opinions and none of the wrong ones.
Nothing against this type of folks, ofc, but I don't organize shows
only for them. Yet, they are the only ones who will ever say that anone who isn't like us, should not be welcome here. In my experience this is not an obstacle that can be overcome. You either have to figure out a way to live with it, or give this whole scene the finger and go on your way.
The answer is actually very very simple: if you want more noise shows in your area, then organize more noise shows in your area. Try to unlearn the mindset you may have of what a noise show is, or what is "has to" be, or how things have to happen, when, where and it what order.
Quote from: Atrophist on May 30, 2026, 07:50:52 PMNothing against this type of folks, ofc, but I don't organize shows only for them. Yet, they are the only ones who will ever say that anone who isn't like us, should not be welcome here. In my experience this is not an obstacle that can be overcome. You either have to figure out a way to live with it, or give this whole scene the finger and go on your way.
Regrettably, I have to agree with you here. As I outlined above the the different economic conditions and educational background keep the artists within the subsidised circuit in check and contrain them to conform to a dominant politcal agenda, this isn't explicit like say propagandistic art, but in the end it is government officials who issue subsidies. Not saying this is inherently bad, but it does limit freedom.
Quote from: Atrophist on May 30, 2026, 07:50:52 PMThe answer is actually very very simple: if you want more noise shows in your area, then organize more noise shows in your area. Try to unlearn the mindset you may have of what a noise show is, or what is "has to" be, or how things have to happen, when, where and it what order.
Of course, this is obviously where it boils down to. I like the idea of unlearning any preconceived ideas of a what a noise show is 'supposed' to look like.
Anyway I did not mean for this thread to be a space to pessimistically vent about a lack of noise shows as that is obviously pointless, I much more intented this to be a place to discuss Belgian noise and noise culture (in relation to other scenes), as I don't think such a thread exists yet. Hence the neutral title 'the state of noise'.
Quote from: Nadir on May 30, 2026, 04:05:36 PMSo I am not alone in this observation that even the underground scene unfortunately is divided. Right I think your point about the Broadcast festival again ties in with what Dries calls this 'seriousness' in the art world. I personally don't see this as a bad thing necessarily, however I feel like there also always have to be (as a way to keep things in balance) spaces where these rules are more relaxed, where things are taken less 'seriously' and one can enjoy a drink while watching a performance or artwork! haha.
Good morning. Taking your project seriously, someone else's project, and being serious about your sounds is justified and necessary to keep yourself sharp. Most people I have had the pleasure of meeting who are active on various fronts of the experimental world have a good dose of self-reflection, and I think that is what I mean by saying that in the more sound art scene they are more "serious." But you see that just as much in the more underground scene, industrial scene, etc. It is something human... So it is not something that only occurs in the sound/avant-garde etc scene in Belgium.
Quote from: Nadir on May 30, 2026, 04:05:36 PMAs a starting point to characterize the difference between the art scene and the underground scene I think very crucial here is the economic factor: one is subsidised and the other is more DIY, volonteer run. To sound very academic myself here, I would like to bring up Marx' distinction between the 'base' and 'superstructure', and their hierarchical relationship, namely that the base determines the superstructure, in other words the economic reality shapes the ideas, the attitudes, the ethos. To apply this to the music scenes, the art scene relies on government money to fund their activities, the key thing here is that they have to 'justify' their claim to this money. Art has to be 'valuable', 'interesting' and maybe even useful to society, all of this is of course political. To put it bluntly, you cannot justify the use of tax payer money to screw around with some pedals.
Club Moral explains in the WCN podcast interview that they have/had regular day jobs and worked on their art at home afterwards. Because they were not financially dependent on their art, they could do what they wanted, had no restrictions, and did not have to hold back in their work. Fortunately, there is such a thing as subsidies in Belgium—government support to support various types of art. It is true, however, that you have to explain the expenses, ensure the money is spent wisely, attract a sufficient audience, etc. The trick is to keep following the same path with the added benefit of government support, rather than following a path only to receive the same or more support the following year. So indeed, a 15-minute chaotic performance with junk metal and broken tape sounds might be unjustifiable, but in fact, it should not be a breaking point. When we organized Noisefest, the venue we collaborated with, from which we received funding, was always supportive of what we presented, but over the years you noticed that they had to justify to the board that "only" 75-100 tickets were sold. Their question was: couldn't you put on a crowd-puller or something, etc. Finding and searching for something in between the two is the best solution.The DIY approach creates more freedom but also has its limits.
Quote from: impulse manslaughter on May 30, 2026, 12:47:54 PMSubrosa and Metaphon Records both documented the early academic electronic composers from Belgium. I'm not an expert but it seems there's a strong tradition of avant-garde and electronic music.
These two labels you mention do very fine work and are important in the rich history of avant-garde and electronic music in Belgium. And there is indeed a large circuit in these branches of experimental music here in Belgium, which I am very pleased with.
Quote from: Nadir on May 30, 2026, 04:05:36 PMAnother thing, and I think this is where the term 'academic' comes from, is that many artists featured on the line up of for example Oscillation festival have also studied at art school or the conservatory. This education is not neutral and defintely shapes the artists' direction in a certain way and imposes certain frameworks for making music. In contrast many underground artists simply started doing music as a hobby and enjoy the freedom that comes with this approach (but perhaps are also limited by their amateurship?).
A very correct perspective. Both are okay, of course, and if you can reconcile both, you have a perfect balance...
The Last Action (be), Kindvriendelijk(be), Distorting A Woodpecker(us), Dei Xhrist(us) & Woods Mattress(us) on 09/06/26 has changed location and is now taking place at Antwerp Music City.
To think about it some more.. It is history, and government support for labels and organizations (not all of them, of course), that ensure that certain aspects of the experimental scene are largely absent here in Belgium. As a student or young person, you are exposed more to the other end of the spectrum than, for example, PE or Harsh Sounds, etc., so you can't expect them to organize such events unless they receive tips from someone or have a genuine interest in what is still alive. In any case, it is always good to see young people active in any kind of experimental sound. For instance, a few months ago I saw ADIA VANHEERENTALS & KIARA GOVAERT performing as the opening act for BAUDOIN OOSTERLYNCK in Wilrijk. Beautiful sound collages combined with sax sounds, and you were allowed to have a drink in the venue :).
To stay in the mood..Friends of mine are still looking for a gig in Belgium. Jackson aka JHK is going on tour with Scathing and Kiran Arora. They are looking for a show on 23/08 or 24/08.
Quote from: Dries on May 31, 2026, 08:37:31 AMClub Moral explains in the WCN podcast interview that they have/had regular day jobs and worked on their art at home afterwards. Because they were not financially dependent on their art, they could do what they wanted, had no restrictions, and did not have to hold back in their work.
Wow! How did I miss a 2 and a half hour interview with Club Moral on WCN podcast! Had to listen immediately haha.
QuoteFortunately, there is such a thing as subsidies in Belgium—government support to support various types of art.
Absolutely! Subsidies for the cultural sector are a blessing. Looking back at my previous responses I notice that I have been too critical of governmental support, while this is obviously what keeps everything going. Also I have been too binary, as of course many if not most 'underground' organisers and venues are also enjoying the benefits of government support one way or the other.
QuoteWhen we organized Noisefest, the venue we collaborated with, from which we received funding, was always supportive of what we presented, but over the years you noticed that they had to justify to the board that "only" 75-100 tickets were sold. Their question was: couldn't you put on a crowd-puller or something, etc. Finding and searching for something in between the two is the best solution.The DIY approach creates more freedom but also has its limits.
Yes, I think I heard you talk about this on the WCN podcast also. Of course getting a 'crowd puller' in the noise/industrial underground is a bit problematic haha. Sad to hear the noisefest came to an end this way.
Quote from: Dries on May 31, 2026, 09:05:30 AMThe Last Action (be), Kindvriendelijk(be), Distorting A Woodpecker(us), Dei Xhrist(us) & Woods Mattress(us) on 09/06/26 has changed location and is now taking place at Antwerp Music City.
Awesome! I will be there, looking forward to your performance.
Quote from: Dries on May 31, 2026, 09:24:34 AMTo think about it some more.. It is history, and government support for labels and organizations (not all of them, of course), that ensure that certain aspects of the experimental scene are largely absent here in Belgium. As a student or young person, you are exposed more to the other end of the spectrum than, for example, PE or Harsh Sounds, etc., so you can't expect them to organize such events unless they receive tips from someone or have a genuine interest in what is still alive. In any case, it is always good to see young people active in any kind of experimental sound. For instance, a few months ago I saw ADIA VANHEERENTALS & KIARA GOVAERT performing as the opening act for BAUDOIN OOSTERLYNCK in Wilrijk. Beautiful sound collages combined with sax sounds, and you were allowed to have a drink in the venue :).
As someone in his early twenties I can say that in the age of internet, everything is essentially at your fingertips. You only need a good dose of curiosity and you will eventually find what you've been looking for, without knowing you were looking for it so to speak haha. Of course the problem is that today many (young) people are stuck on platforms like spotify that have algorithms pushing what they want you to hear, besides there is virtually no noise/experimental music on there. Anyway the disease that is spotify is a discussion for another time.
All that being said, finding stuff on the internet and actually finding the real life music scene are two different things. I started getting into underground music via (black) metal, but like I already implied in the OP, I became disappointed with this scene and started looking for something new/different, eventually landing on industrial and noise. However the noise scene in Belgium seemed at first to be a void! So my initial question in the live reports thread was not just a cynical rhetorical question, but one of genuine interest. Anyway if this thread so far proved anything, I think it is that there is much more interest in noise in Belgium than appears on the surface, so for that I am very happy.
Quote from: Nadir on June 02, 2026, 11:27:17 PMAbsolutely! Subsidies for the cultural sector are a blessing. Looking back at my previous responses I notice that I have been too critical of governmental support, while this is obviously what keeps everything going. Also I have been too binary, as of course many if not most 'underground' organisers and venues are also enjoying the benefits of government support one way or the other.
It's interesting regarding Club Moral, when I interviewed them for a doc that I was making about art collectives - now 20 years back - they both said that that subsidies were available but there was a conscious decision not to accept them. As obviously the organisations giving funding are doing it in their interest, and once you stop becoming a "useful idiot" then they will drop you. It can be a means to an end but in the long term it's counter productive to producing anything "vital" in terms of a culture.
Interesting topic to see popping up here :) A lot of insightful views already as well.
I agree there's seems to be less room for harsher/cruder noise coming from the 'scenes' i prefer to listen to in Belgium. The rare occasions i talk to someone in Belgium/Brussels about noise (outside the usual suspects like Dries and some others), not a lot of people have an idea who Sewer Election or Grunt or.. are This example just as an observation, not a judgement. And it seems if you don't have a visual 'schtick' or concept or whatever, it's not interesting enough to book.
There are exceptions evidently, artists who are noise 'mainstream' like Pharmakon, Aaron Dilloway, etc.. more people are aware of or are interested in.
Unfortunately the 'lack' of knowledge concerning 'our' current noise scene was unfortunately also a reason why Noisefest (which Dries and Fré organised) didn't attract the hoped number of visitors i assume.
Of course I'm generalising here for the sake of this argument..
Like mentioned by someone else before, i also see a lot of separate scenes/groups/collectives in Belgium which may have similar traits soundwise, but do rarely overlap organisationally/philosophically as everyone wants to do their own thing. DIY-ing everything to death, causing more shows but less people.
Especially in Brussels, living here since a couple of years, there's lots of tiny spaces/collectives, to the point i can't keep up anymore what's going on. And then you have the 'big shots' like Bozar, AB who then also book shows which overlap with a certain crowd.
Seems to be very contradictory to say then there are not a lot of noise shows in Belgium but in a sense it's very true. There is a blind spot for sure.
I don't want to be bitter (i'm not), and i'm very much appreciative of everyone organizing anything. I listen to all things sound myself too, so some of my itches certainly get scratched here.
But i feel those existing scenes are very closed unless you have one foot through the door already, and I'm speaking as 'performer' but also aspiring promoter (although I've given up on that tbh). Last year i mailed 10 venues/spaces in Brussels and i got maybe 2 replies saying they weren't interested in doing something together, the rest didn't even bother. With that you have the added issue that a lot of those spaces have horrible communication skills, more than once i missed an interesting show because i happened to miss their 1 instagram story 3 days up front..
Quote from: urall on June 08, 2026, 03:30:55 PMI agree there's seems to be less room for harsher/cruder noise coming from the 'scenes' i prefer to listen to in Belgium. The rare occasions i talk to someone in Belgium/Brussels about noise (outside the usual suspects like Dries and some others), not a lot of people have an idea who Sewer Election or Grunt or.. are This example just as an observation, not a judgement
This is another interesting point: although the noise and the sound art scene both share an interest in sound and try to push the boundries of what one can do with sound, they seem to have a different 'frame of reference'. You mention Sewer Election and Grunt, one could easily add all the names for example listed on the 'canon of power electronics' (https://special-interests.net/forum/index.php?topic=13) topic. Point is, where did you get your inspiration from? Who are your 'heros' so to speak. The people on this forum will have a more or less overlapping frame of reference, but as you mention some people that are into experimental music have never heard of some names you think are 'canonical'. They come from a different angle.
To refer back to the Club Moral WCN podcast: when asked what DDV and AMVK thought of the 'current noise scene', especially DDV didn't seem very enthousiastic, talking about how people just appear to be copying the pioneers of the 80s and 90s. What happened since then is pretty simple, noise/power electronics became a genre with certain innovative bands in the formative years inspiring new generations of artists who give their personal interpretation on the genre. DDV explains earlier that in his days there was no 'noise/industrial genre', I recently read a Merzbow interview where he said the same thing. Whereas some early groups like Club Moral and Throbbing Gristle originated from the broader art world, they were subsequently marginalized because they were 'fascists' or smth. They were driven further 'underground' so to speak and now this underground has become more autonomous and largely independent from the art world.
Anyway, what's funny is that, although when asked, DDV was very sceptical and critical about the current noise/industrial scene, he later sort of admits these are the people who 'get' what he is doing and understand what he stands for. He seemed very reluctant to do another performance within an art circuit, because there he keeps getting the same "wow that was really something 'special'" reactions, while he was much more enthousiastic about the reactions he got from the crowd at Tower Transmissions festival! haha.
Bottom line is, that over the years noise became an independent, autonomous genre and this goes back to what Duncan refered to as 'hyper genrification'. In wanting to establish itself as a genre, to gain credibiliy, noise had to differentiate itself from sound art, punk, metal, electronic music etc. This situation in Belgium is now that we have all these independent systems existing side-by-side instead of collaborating more with eachother, because obviously these 'exclusive' genre labels are just abstractions and completely ignore that music fans usually like more than one music style and would be open for crossovers (except metalheads, joke).
One more thing though about genres: I personally think genre labels are very helpful and also nessecary to make sense of the current diverse music palette, however I've always rejected the notion of being a 'metalhead' or 'noisehead' and being blind to everything outside of 'your genre'. I have (strong) preferences, but that doesn't mean you can't be open for other stuff.
Quote from: urall on June 08, 2026, 03:30:55 PMThere are exceptions evidently, artists who are noise 'mainstream' like Pharmakon, Aaron Dilloway, etc.. more people are aware of or are interested in.
This is also something I want to bring up, firstly indeed the Pharmakon gig earlier in May attracted a considerable crowd and people seemed to be really on board with it. More striking however, there was a Merzbow - Iggor Cavalera - Eraldo Bernocchi show in September in Brussels, Botanique. I was a few minutes late due to circumstances and upon arriving at the venue I was really amazed that the largest space in Botanique was completely filled and I had to squeeze myself somewhere in the corner where the sound was horrible. Still an amazing gig though, but who are all these people all of the sudden so interested in noise? haha.
Quote from: urall on June 08, 2026, 03:30:55 PMLast year i mailed 10 venues/spaces in Brussels and i got maybe 2 replies saying they weren't interested in doing something together, the rest didn't even bother.
This is pretty sad, definitely not very encouraging for people who want to organize noise gigs... I guess Dries talked about similar experiences above. I wonder why they don't like the idea of doing a noise show? Are they afraid not enough people will show up?
Quote from: Nadir on June 08, 2026, 08:32:58 PMThis is also something I want to bring up, firstly indeed the Pharmakon gig earlier in May attracted a considerable crowd and people seemed to be really on board with it. More striking however, there was a Merzbow - Iggor Cavalera - Eraldo Bernocchi show in September in Brussels, Botanique. I was a few minutes late due to circumstances and upon arriving at the venue I was really amazed that the largest space in Botanique was completely filled and I had to squeeze myself somewhere in the corner where the sound was horrible. Still an amazing gig though, but who are all these people all of the sudden so interested in noise? haha.
I was at both shows as well. I was not so much surprised about the amount of people at the Merzbow show honestly. You have thé noise name for mainstream folks combined with the original Sepultura drummer...
But yeah, makes me wonder how far the dedication goes for those noise heads because you don't have those crowds otherwise :)
Quote from: urall on June 08, 2026, 03:30:55 PMLast year i mailed 10 venues/spaces in Brussels and i got maybe 2 replies saying they weren't interested in doing something together, the rest didn't even bother.
When I was looking for a job in Brussels area about 4 years ago this was exactly my experience with job applications. A fraction answered no thank you, the rest didn't even bother. Is this a general Belgian thing? :)
Edit because I think what I tried to say came out wrong.
Btw, a while ago someone started a newsletter of experimental concerts which might come in handy to folks
https://experimentalbelgianshowscalendar.eo.page/1rwn1
Quote from: urall on June 16, 2026, 07:25:12 AMBtw, a while ago someone started a newsletter of experimental concerts which might come in handy to folks
https://experimentalbelgianshowscalendar.eo.page/1rwn1
Thanks for sharing, that's an interesting initiative. I will add it to the OP.
Just wanted to point out that the recent Pankraker Festival pre-show last Thursday was in my opinion an excellent example of the cross-over that I was advocating for earlier. I have to commend the organizers of Pankraker for doing this pre-show for an underground black metal festival featuring mostly noise acts (Transistor Brass, Last Action & Absolute Key). I also have to give kudos to Final Dose for taking on this noise line up as the only proper 'band' on the bill. Of course Final Dose are themselves already a crossover between black metal and punk, so it makes perfect sense that they were open to do something like this.
Despite the fact that when the noise acts were playing the venue wasn't as filled up as with Final Dose, I think the show definitely managed to give a few metalheads a taste of noise. Especially Absolute Key seems to be a 'bridge figure' par excellence between metal and noise given his multifaceted background in (more experimental) black metal and now noise. I guess it's in the name: a key that opens the door to noise for metal fans!
Again thanks to Pankraker for doing this show and hopefully next year I can participate in the whole festival as it seemed like everyone had a blast there last weekend!