Worst Releases by Favorite Artists

[Selfish6]

What are some of the worst Noise/PE releases by your favorite artists?

[piisti]

Continues on twitter

[k.p.g]

The new Cherry Point disc all but turned me off to that strain of harsh noise for the foreseeable future.  I am hesitant to even revisit the older classics from the project currently.

[Stipsi]

I'm heavily into masonna stuff, but i can't deal with controlled death.
Just not my kind of stuff.

[Kaaoskultti]

Prurient's "Through the Windows". Can't help but hate the techno-oriented approach of some of his releases, nor the darkwave-inspired synths of "Cocaine Death". Dominick's musical volatility usually delivers more than good material, but that one is a "side" of his music which I just dislike. But let me tell you something, this seems like a very hard question for me.

[k.p.g]

But let me tell you something, this seems like a very hard question for me.

It is pretty tough, given noise's tendency to be laissez faire approach to output. 

[Balor/SS1535]

The XE side of the split with Reek of the Unzen Gas Fumes is awful.

[Olion]

The XE side of the split with Reek of the Unzen Gas Fumes is awful.

I really like this material, but I'm not a fan of XE side of the split with Atesh (and XE is one of my favorite PE projects).
20 minutes of the same static feedback is too much for me...

[BatteredStatesofEuphoria]

Prurient's "Through the Windows". Can't help but hate the techno-oriented approach of some of his releases, nor the darkwave-inspired synths of "Cocaine Death".

As someone who was into the industrial club scene for many years, I really enjoy Through the Window. I feel like with only a few years of experience of making beat-oriented music, with "You Show Great Spirit," Dom made a better industrial dance track in one take than veterans of that scene did in decades-long careers. I wish sometimes he'd take some more spins at that kind of sound, but maybe he feels he can't outdo it and would rather leave it at that.

But I can totally see how it turns off fans of his earlier material. Not that I'm usually a "project purist," but I've always felt Through the Window would have been better off released under a different one off name (it doesn't really fit the Vatican Shadow sound either). Cocaine Death, FNF, Bermuda Drain...I think even with those there's enough noise elements that they still "fit" as Prurient releases. But TTW seems like a different kind of entity to me.

But let me tell you something, this seems like a very hard question for me.

Its a weird topic. I think most people when they don't like something, myself included, tend not to dwell on it very long and forget about it. There's enough negativity in the world to deal with. Why am I going to obsess extensively on something I didn't like?

And for my favorite artists, I can't say they usually put out anything I truly HATE, maybe more of an emotion of mild disappointment than anything. I guess Con-Dom-Subjection would fit the bill. It was interesting to hear Mike do a take on harsh noise instead of his usual approach, but once the novelty of that wore off, I found it just couldn't sustain my interest. I've always felt it would've worked better as a C30 than a C60. Its not that the sounds are bad, per se, it just overstays its welcome. Less would've been more.

I guess its an interesting topic in that I've already seen a couple things mentioned that I personally love. Different strokes....

[Selfish6]

[/quote]
Its a weird topic. I think most people when they don't like something, myself included, tend not to dwell on it very long and forget about it. There's enough negativity in the world to deal with. Why am I going to obsess extensively on something I didn't like?

I guess I'm interested in disappointment as a music experience and creative decisions that can alienate audiences of experimental/extreme music.

[Balor/SS1535]

The XE side of the split with Reek of the Unzen Gas Fumes is awful.

I really like this material, but I'm not a fan of XE side of the split with Atesh (and XE is one of my favorite PE projects).
20 minutes of the same static feedback is too much for me...

I have tried several times, but I just cannot like it no matter how hard I try!

[Johann]

I'm all for criticism, and I think not enough criticism in noise/experimental exist but I think the question should be "why aren't people being more critical in the recent listening section".

I think by starting a thread like this that it doesn't really accomplish creating a dialogue, it just adds to the reductive quality of internet culture.

A similar question I think it worth interrogating in music/noise/art in general is "does the success of a release stifle future releases". Without having heard anything mentioned above and not being able to comment specifically on any of it, it's been a long running theme of noise/PE listeners being extremely resistant to change/progess.

I also think one reason this might be a "hard question" as mentioned above is that listeners of "difficult" music are repeat listeners (I do wonder if this is changing now due to the over accessibility to new and different releases) so I imagine many more listeners of noise would relate to the experience of hearing something, not liking/understanding and being compelled to return. I think the bulk of people into difficult/abstract music will know this experience well and I think it's why they continued to listen and engage. This more than anything may account for the lack of criticism.

[DBL]

I'm all for criticism, and I think not enough criticism in noise/experimental exist but I think the question should be "why aren't people being more critical in the recent listening section".

I think by starting a thread like this that it doesn't really accomplish creating a dialogue, it just adds to the reductive quality of internet culture.

A similar question I think it worth interrogating in music/noise/art in general is "does the success of a release stifle future releases". Without having heard anything mentioned above and not being able to comment specifically on any of it, it's been a long running theme of noise/PE listeners being extremely resistant to change/progess.

I also think one reason this might be a "hard question" as mentioned above is that listeners of "difficult" music are repeat listeners (I do wonder if this is changing now due to the over accessibility to new and different releases) so I imagine many more listeners of noise would relate to the experience of hearing something, not liking/understanding and being compelled to return. I think the bulk of people into difficult/abstract music will know this experience well and I think it's why they continued to listen and engage. This more than anything may account for the lack of criticism.

I think you kind of answered your own question there. Saying something is great and saying why is easier than trying to describe some album that you keep returning to even though it's somehow plain bad and unappealing, but somehow it still keeps pulling you back and you don't know why. Like you'd feel you have to "solve" the album. Or even if describing that wasn't more difficult, it just likely happens over a longer period of time so you don't have that immediate "vibe" you could comment on the spot. I wish I had some good example of an album like this in mind but I don't. Closest one I can think of is K.M. Toepfer's Retrace No Steps CD (White Centipede Noise, 2021) which has a heavy emphasis on some of my least favorite elements of noise (quite a sterile sound and shrill yet clean/flat feedback-like frequencies), yet it's somehow really good. It's an album I got as a trade bonus, which is good as if I had checked bits of it online I quite likely would've just labeled it as not to my taste and wouldn't have given it a chance. Now that I got the disc, it felt natural to play the whole thing despite having no prior idea what it'd be like.

And not to get all hippie here, but while I agree with your notion that "a thread like this that it doesn't really accomplish creating a dialogue, it just adds to the reductive quality of internet culture", we can make dialogue happen if we get together and try, haha!

About being resistant to change/progress, I'm not sure I 100% agree. I mean, there are a lot of types of noise/PE and the crowd the stuff gathers is quite diverse, and both keep changing. Even if some larger group would say "this line-in sound is killing true PE" or "analog xerox collages are wannabe wank" or whatever, it likely won't matter to those who see it as something they're looking to experience. I think it's been often been stated here how power electronics has been stated dead already decades ago, but similarly to punk it just keeps on going on. It couldn't possibly be the same anyway as all the culture and communication around & within it has changed to such an extent, and keeps doing so. I think I may have missed your point though.

[Tribe Tapes]

About being resistant to change/progress, I'm not sure I 100% agree. I mean, there are a lot of types of noise/PE and the crowd the stuff gathers is quite diverse, and both keep changing. Even if some larger group would say "this line-in sound is killing true PE" or "analog xerox collages are wannabe wank" or whatever, it likely won't matter to those who see it as something they're looking to experience. I think it's been often been stated here how power electronics has been stated dead already decades ago, but similarly to punk it just keeps on going on. It couldn't possibly be the same anyway as all the culture and communication around & within it has changed to such an extent, and keeps doing so. I think I may have missed your point though.

Following off on this since it is an interesting thought (although maybe not the original point of the thread) — Puritanism or ideas of what noise / PE "should be" serve an important role as said puritans act as traditionalists of the genres. Obviously with my label activities I am a fan of different approaches towards noise. But more opinionated takes on the genre serve well to keep the traditions of decades past. Look at D-beat punk for instance, very simple archetype of using the same drum beat across different bands — not reinventing the wheel and not going to be for everyone. But, it is clearly something that certain people are passionate about, as well as a tradition that they wish to keep alive.

[Tribe Tapes]

To give my two cents on the original topic — if a noise artist is one of my favorites, I enjoy their approach to the genre and thus it feels like hyperbole to describe anything as their worst. There can be releases that don't impact me in the same way as others, but it would be rare for a favorite artist to put anything out that I honestly regard as bad instead of merely disappointing.

Maybe when a noise artist puts something out completely different from their prior output? Like the aforementioned Con-Dom "Subjection" where Mike is doing harsh noise instead of his more expected approach. Or Controlled Bleeding releases where over the years their style completely shifts from noise and into other territories (post-punk, industrial rock, etc.) But it is hard to listen to an artist with a defined sound, and truly feel that any of their releases are significantly worse than others. Really, it is only abrupt changes in a performer's genre / style that can put me off from certain releases.