best of SLOW noise

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I was listening to WCN 3xCD set, and CAPERS interview clip has short piece where Oskar asks is there any rules to Capers stuff, and artists says (among other things) "it has to be slow".

Pace, tempo, of noise is curious, since if there is no obvious rhythm, sometimes you can't really decide is the stuff you are listening really slow or utterly fast stuff. A lot of HNW is like that. Back in the day when I first heard Hijokaidan and Incapacitants, those I also felt like were slow. If Pain Jerk, Merzbow, Monde Bruits, Killer Bug etc most often busy in modulations, changing the sound, cutting things, etc. While Hijokaidan and Incapacitants are actually really damn fast, I always got feeling of "stillness", since the overall atmosphere might not move much.

The topic subject here, it is still different. Capers certainly moves slow. Also I often associate Hum of The Druid among slow noise. Haters can be often slowly grinding something. Old Death Squad, many Dead Body Love... massive elements of colossal noise rumble, and I often got impression of slowness.

When thinking about NOISE, that isn't like death industrial or dark ambient, but real deal noise, feelings about the tempo of material?

[Stipsi]

Knurl.
For me is the best example of slow noise but without being static

[Moran]

Gelsomina's Disease With a Purpose is pure noise whose structure changes slowly and continuously.

[Baglady]

Zone Nord immediately comes to mind. The LP in particular, but Roferon A as well.

A later slow noise favorite whose sound isn't too far away from the Zone Nord LP is Vårtgård. But where Zone Nord feels dry, almost charchoal dry, Vårtgård feels moist and bloated. Slow motion waves of wet crunch. Hard to track down, but I'm pretty sure most of it is on youtube.

Another Swedish slo-mo noise project was the one off Ultra-Fuck - Sex At The Maly Trostenets. Reissued as an LP by Järtecknet, it shouldn't be hard to track down. Fat, claustrophobic synth and loop based noise. Great stuff.

Oh, and Sewer Election has done plenty of slow real deal noise. His side of the split with Altar Of Flies from 2008(?), entitled "Rotting Corpse" or something of that ilk. Sounds just like the title. And the Dismal C30 I released on Team Boro a few years ago - heavy slo-mo chunk:  https://sewerelectiongbg.bandcamp.com/album/dismal

[Stipsi]

Gelsomina's Disease With a Purpose is pure noise whose structure changes slowly and continuously.

Second this

[NerveGas]

Another Swedish slo-mo noise project was the one off Ultra-Fuck - Sex At The Maly Trostenets. Reissued as an LP by Järtecknet, it shouldn't be hard to track down. Fat, claustrophobic synth and loop based noise. Great stuff.

Glad to see this mentioned. Don't see people bring it up ever. Certainly fits the topic. Dirty and slow. I have it on cassette, but I believe the LP should be available on Discogs still for (relatively) cheap.

[tisbor]

Another Swedish slo-mo noise project was the one off Ultra-Fuck - Sex At The Maly Trostenets. Reissued as an LP by Järtecknet, it shouldn't be hard to track down. Fat, claustrophobic synth and loop based noise. Great stuff.

Glad to see this mentioned. Don't see people bring it up ever. Certainly fits the topic. Dirty and slow. I have it on cassette, but I believe the LP should be available on Discogs still for (relatively) cheap.

Yes! Definitely slow and disgusting. Maybe lots of nordic stuff from that era has a similar feel: murky tape sound, slow pace, unease/disgust etc

[PTM Jim]

Slow and fast noise might just be your mind perceiving the actual physics of sound. For instance low rumbling noise definitely sounds slow compared to high squealing noise probably because the actual wave form is moving at a slower rate.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

indeed, but when fact is there is no really "sound" without ear and brain. Merely pressure waves, that can be heard as sound if someone has organ that transforms those into sound... so yes, very physical, but I would make assumption that even from rumbling low pitch, you detect what is actively modulated, quickly processed and altered, vs. slow rumble of something happening without fast active action happening with it? More difficult question would be like is The Rita crackle studies slow or fast? I recall one interview where each grain of sound was rated as sound element. So is there something happening all the time with immense amount of changes and almost like gravityblast drumming.. or.. one thing that doesn't really change? Like said in opening message, this fine line isn't as interestesting, as noise where you can detects the pace and who are the greats in captivating slowness.

Lets say, Solmania and G-Hörsturz, both operate on guitar/bass strings noise. Solmania to me, appears to be fast. Not always, but often. G-Hörsturz is a bit trickier, as they do have some impression of fast shredding of industrument to create more chaotic feel, yet most of the time it is slowly rumbling massive slow slab of noise with just little textural variations on top. Very different from fast and chaotic Solmania shredding on couple of early albums.

[Balor/SS1535]

It has been a while since my last listen to them, but this topic has me thinking of some of the loop "albums" that Merzbow included in the Merzbox and loops in general in the context of "slow noise."  While rhythmic, loops can sometimes "stop time" in an interesting way.

[unheimlich]

At an objective level higher frequencies are faster cycles of oscillation, but at the subjective level as others have noted things can become more complicated. Things we perceive as sonic event such as a repeating pulse that we hear as a rhythm can determine pace, but does it "feel" fast? A muffled low frequency repetitive rhythm could feel soothing and slow or trance inducing even if at a high bpm. But any rhythm sped up fast enough will become a "tone"

I think a succession of varied events (rapid changes, panning, cuts etc) especially if including lots of high frequencies ends up being perceived as fast. Harder to quantify the feeling of violent energy that can be captured in such recordings... but pace of the variation in frequencies I think has a huge effect.


This book by curtis roads kind of the inventor of modern granular synthesis called "composing electronic music: a new aesthetic" talks a lot about this.

[Cementimental]

not to toot my own horn as it's not the 'best' i'm sure, but I always enjoyed this 'ambient-wall-noise' blog review of the 'slowness' of one of my doom/wall-ish albums: "The true is in this recording noise developping very slowy, crawling on the floor as long and old snake."[sic] - https://cementimental.bandcamp.com/album/donsummatldren

[Cranial Blast]

Atrax Morgue kind of comes to the slow noise in my mind with certain tracks or releases, or maybe it's just the slower dirge of death industrial influence as a whole. One track that comes to my mind immediately when talking about "slow" noise is Atrax Morgue's - I Execrate My Eyes, which to me seems slowed and tormented as ever, it has a slowed touch of high synth chords to make it even more eerie, but that track and even Invisioning the graphic torment of such actions, I'd imagine to be slow and painful. This is what comes to my mind immediately.

[Moran]

Hal Hutchinson's Cold Industrial Experience and his tape with Rodger Stella have slow metal molestation that sounds great with thick undulating synth. I'd like to hear more like this.

Alfarmania's Ur Ens Inre Exil uses slow repetition and gradually changing patterns of sound that make the music feel slow including when the constituent sounds transform quickly.