Noise For Beginners

[groesk]

As for someone who typically listens to harsh noise, I've been showing my friend the genre and he seems interested.
While You Were Out by Kazumoto Endo is a pretty good pick for beginners, but I've also heard 3: William Bennett Has No Dick from Hanatarash is also varied enough to fit the bill.

Also for some reason there's people that reccomened Pulse Demon and Verenology from Merzbow, like dude that's way, way too much. My first harsh noise album was Noisembryo from the same artist and I put down the genre for a while afterwards, although I was still interested.

I'm not too well verse in the other noise genres, (aside from noise rock) so i'll be interested to see what comes up.

[pidgeons]

Now I have honestly never been able to get any close acquaintance into noise, nor have I tried to do so since past my teens, so take these suggestions with a grain of salt.
I would go by what type of music they already enjoy and ease them into it from there. If they are into Jazz, Improv, Classic, try 80ies Merzbow like Batztoutai with Memorial gadgets, Ecobondage etc.

If they like Metal or other Heavy music with song structure, maybe some Post Industrial/Power electronics like more recent Genocide Organ (In-Konflikt, Obituary of the americas), Linekraft (Asura, Chaos State), Survival Unit (Fentanyl Martyrs, Tied Down For Survival).

If they enjoy athmospheric music like post rock or shoegaze, electronic or just 'vibes' maybe some of the early Aube Discography (Sprindrift, Flash-Point) or Entre Vifs (A Scent Of Strength, Ontologie). If they enjoy techno go from anything Esplendor Geométrico.

[Balor/SS1535]

The Prurient albums that blend in elements of dark ambient/techno/general non-noise electronic music might also work.

[Balor/SS1535]

I think Mania might be another good one, as it is very spatial and "tells a story" in ways that might be appealing to someone looking for anything a bit more concrete?

[piisti]

It depends what kind of people you are poisoning. In my case there have to be some familiar. My path was fanatic Ride for Revenge fan boy pretty natural after I heard Undor/RFR split.

[BatteredStatesofEuphoria]

Like others have said, its not going to be the same thing for every person. For someone who's entirely unfamiliar with anything beyond commercial music, sure, handing them Pulse Demon is likely going to turn them off. For someone who's a fan of extreme metal, though, Pulse Demon probably isn't that much of a leap at all. In fact, it might kindle their excitement and curiosity even more.

Waaaaay back in the day, the first true power electronics and harsh noise releases I ever heard were Con-Dom-Control Domination and Skin Crime-Audio Pathology, mainly because of how cool the packaging descriptions sounded more than anything, although I was curious about the music. Both amazing releases, but would they work generally as introductions? I was at a place where I was ready for them, although it took a bit longer for me to "digest" Skin Crime.

That said, there's probably some projects that are more amenable to easing most listeners in than others. Power electronics...I might go with NTT/Theologian or Control..they all have moments of more traditional musicality along with the typical genre staples that could help newcomers get used to the sharper edges. Noise-wise, maybe Daniel Menche or Wilt...both not harsh noise per se, but having moments of abrasiveness and atonality to introduce new listeners to what that's about, without the non-stop assault of more full-on harsh noise. Aube-108 is another good one. Experimental, a lot of quiet parts, but still moments of harshness that don't overstay their welcome.

[John Cagefight]

Birdseed seems to be the album that tipped the scales for quite a few folks I talk with about the subject.

[k.p.g]

Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind would be my go to answer in this day and age.  It has a little bit of everything to be a good gateway drug.  Also, at $2 a pop on the resale market, it is hard for people to not take a gamble on it.

My personal intro, and one I will still try to show anyone who wants the really harsh stuff, is 50,000 Fans by Japanese Torture Comedy Hour.  It is full throttle with just enough weirdo nuance to keep a listener engaged for the runtime.  Metal heads wouldn't have a hard time enjoying this, similar to what someone said with Pulse Demon.

[BirdBolt]

Ramleh - Hole in the Heart. Very approachable sound / quite melodic and accessible on the surface, but also opens up the whole Broken Flag / PE scene.

But there's something to be said for just going for it with something full-on that has an immediately appealing sound / incredible textures. As long as it's a semi-decent recording and there's a reasonable amount of low-end, I reckon you could push the boat out quite far. Stuff like Black Leather Jesus - A.N.T.I. / Macronympha - Intensive Care / Incapacitants - As Loud as Possible / Dead Body Love - Lo-Fi Power Carnage / Jaakko Vanhala - Here Be Lions etc.  I know I didn't want any half measures when I was getting into it for the first time, but I also wanted something that wasn't painful to listen to.

[Phenol]

When I was getting into it I wasn't interested in anything "entrylevel" or softer. It was the hunt for extremity in sound, idea, content, imagery etc. that drew me in. The whole industrial package with esoteric films, books, art and so on on top of the music was just very appealing and continues to be so. I'd say don't hold back, just expose your friend to the absolute best stuff in your own view, old and new, and tell them why you think that's the best the genre has to offer.

[cantle]

FWIW - I started with Whitehouse- coming from a metal background....

[Johann]

Without knowing your friend or your backgrounds in music it's really difficult to say what is the best entry as there's so many.

Generally I think for anyone who wants someone to get into it I think it's important they develop an ear for it, and many of us I'm sure came up the same way.

Some variation of:

Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Nurse With Wound etc, while simultaneously hearing stuff like Merzbow but not having a developed enough ear to not have our brain just overwhelmed and miss the pattern recognition until finally it clicked. Probably hearing Wolf Eyes, Dilloway and a lot of that era of American Noise...

If your coming from a metal background I think Sunn, Ride for Revenge, rawer black metal, moving towards noise rock. Then I remember stuff like Nicole 12 being pretty listenable, there's better "more musical" Power Electronics releases and honestly it's been so long since I've listened to any of it I can't say what those are. I remember some Grunt being like that, obviously late period whitehouse.

I think a person getting into noise does a lot of personal listening work because they want to understand it, and if a person lacks that they probably won't get into it. But in my experience with friends that were at least open to me playing weird music when we hung out they had the best experiences in understanding it by seeing it performed live or fucking around and making Freeform sound together which made them a more active participant.

My list of potential stuff I might tell someone to check would be

Robert Turman

Dilloway and Turman Blizzard (I like the cassette best, but the collab cd is what I am talking about), then Dilloways stuff like Concealed, the Squid with C. Spencer Yeh.

If they like grind, Sissy Spacek then other Wiese

Emil Beaulieau Americas Greatest living noise artist (think it's on YouTube)

Smegma nattering nayboobs, and then you could use that as a jumping off point to the Plays by Smegma/Merzbow album helicopter putout.

The main thing is to avoid creating some impossible listening barrier by just overwhelming their ears, I think people find there way into the more harsh stuff in time.

One of the first releases I bought was a swampland tapes the Rita, and let me tell you, it was not a good entry. I kept returning to it intrigued but it never did and that project has never done anything for me.

[Zeno Marx]

I'd recommend experimenting with experimentalism. Ambient, dark ambient, ethno-ambient, industrial, death industrial, power-electronics, cut-up, electro-acoustic, field recordings, avant-garde, new age, rhythmic noise...I'd have them hit everything out there.  Maybe some good, old compilations.  Born Out of Dreams, Howard 31, Twilight Earth.  And I say older because they were most often less genre specific.

Best Industrial/Noise Compilations
https://special-interests.net/forum/index.php?topic=4233.msg36023#msg36023

[Baglady]

To me it was seeing noise live that made it click for me. I had bought some tapes (Mania, Sewer Election, Paranoid Time whathaveyou) from the noise bin at the local punk venue before, but they didn't do THAT much for me until I saw Treriksröset perform there. I got a sense of how the sounds were made and sensed the energy in the flesh, so to speak.

[W.K.]

Make it As Loud As Possible and then go from there.