Harsh Noise Wall [HNW]

[david lloyd jones]

When I have to start to manufacture my walls, my friends laughed at me, the salesmen in the specialized stores in musical equipment laughed at me...

"When I was young, I told my family and everyone I knew that I wanted to be a comedian, and they laughed at me. Well they're not laughing now!" - late UK comedian Bob Monkhouse.

Tao Te Ching is a great great book full of fun, mischief, mystery and compassion.

nothing to add, just like that bob monkhouse quote!

[P A N I C]

Someone should do an hour long cover of You Suffer by Napalm Death as a goof (there's a lot of goofy harsh noise wall these days)

Not HNW, but https://www.discogs.com/Kylie-Minoise-You-Suffer/release/1051948

[Deadpriest]

Someone should do an hour long cover of You Suffer by Napalm Death as a goof (there's a lot of goofy harsh noise wall these days)

Not HNW, but https://www.discogs.com/Kylie-Minoise-You-Suffer/release/1051948

FUCK

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Was reading HNW article from Fight Your Own War book, and like always, I'm at the same time confirming that vast majority of stuff is not for me, I always feel that there IS some HWN what will appeal to my taste.

Although being familiar with the stupidity of trivial & "light" subject matter of contemporary HWN, it's still such a annoying moment to read about existence of harry potter, pokemon or whatever my little pony themed noise walls.

If talking about good recent walls, I'm pretty sure TASKMASTER / WINCE split tape qualifies well. WCN release from recent times. Not only it is HWN, but it is good in what it is. Texture, force, brutality, saturation, yet at the same time stability of minimalism. You just need to sink in, and start to observe textures. No dramatic changes or cuts appear.

Good in this tape is that it does qualify as both, the real noise and hnw. One doesn't need some conceptual BS justify flat hissing, but wheter looking for static stability or energy, both are present. Compared to bunch of other HNW items I lately listened, this easily crushes everything.

[Deadpriest]

I hate the inanity in HNW too (it's completely incompatible with how I listen to it and completely cheapens it) I just came up with that thought and wanted to share.

[david lloyd jones]

have enjoyed recent discs by the Rita, who's releases whilst have a sound source/concept, nevertheless engage sonically (the recent throat lures being an exception).
despite limited changes their sounds are dynamic and invoke energy rather than stasis.
other releases bought and enjoyed are the last couple of creation through destruction tapesas well as stow stuff.

[Dr Alex]

other releases bought and enjoyed are the last couple of creation through destruction tapesas well as stow stuff.

Thanx, man! But Creation Through Destruction is not HNW and don't have anything with it. Anyway, glad you like it. ;)

[absurdexposition]

Was reading HNW article from Fight Your Own War book, and like always, I'm at the same time confirming that vast majority of stuff is not for me, I always feel that there IS some HWN what will appeal to my taste.

Although being familiar with the stupidity of trivial & "light" subject matter of contemporary HWN, it's still such a annoying moment to read about existence of harry potter, pokemon or whatever my little pony themed noise walls.

If talking about good recent walls, I'm pretty sure TASKMASTER / WINCE split tape qualifies well. WCN release from recent times. Not only it is HWN, but it is good in what it is. Texture, force, brutality, saturation, yet at the same time stability of minimalism. You just need to sink in, and start to observe textures. No dramatic changes or cuts appear.

Good in this tape is that it does qualify as both, the real noise and hnw. One doesn't need some conceptual BS justify flat hissing, but wheter looking for static stability or energy, both are present. Compared to bunch of other HNW items I lately listened, this easily crushes everything.

Taskmaster always delivers. 100% back this post.

[Minus1]

Fuck!!! I love this thread!!!

Thank you all for the recommendations, which I will now investigate.

In my 25 year Noise Journey I seemed to gravitate more and more to CDs that were close to (if not?) HNW. (I'm not very interested in exact definitions.)

So Merzbow - Akasha Gulva, Hijokaidan - Modern/Romance, and Rita - Thousands Of Dead Gods became favourites.

In recent years, these favourites caused me to ask "Does anyone do completely minimalist static walls?" I didn't even know the term "HNW" until I stumbled upon it, and found Vomir, ...my Mount Everest!!

Is this "the end of music?", as in, where do you go from here? (Or did John Cage get there first?)

Vomir's Urashima 6CD brings me great joy, and is my favourite Noise. (Aside: On CD6, about 10min before the end, there is a brief and shocking breakdown!! Was this intentional?)

"No ideas, no change, no development, no entertainment, no remorse, no action, no play, no point, no result, no stategy, no compromise, no social lubricant..." Why not? This sounds wonderful to me. Fuck fist-pumping. Put a bag over your head instead.

Cage asked why sound cannot just be sound. And here we have beautiful sound, just being sound.

There's good/bad HNW of course.

And there is a million shades of grey and surfaces that one can utilize for HNW.

(Aside: I laughed hard when Romain indicated that he initially wanted the 6CD to all be the same. But we do have 6 slightly different flavours.)

I've fallen asleep many times in the back of a noisy military aircraft. Static Noise can be so beautiful/soothing. A brain cleanse!

Bring me my HNW!!!

[Balor/SS1535]

In recent years, these favourites caused me to ask "Does anyone do completely minimalist static walls?" I didn't even know the term "HNW" until I stumbled upon it, and found Vomir, ...my Mount Everest!!

Is this "the end of music?", as in, where do you go from here? (Or did John Cage get there first?)

Paul Hegarty writes about it in such terms in his more recent book!

[Cranial Blast]

One tape in perticular that I've quite enjoyed in the HWN sound has been Dead Body Collection's, Her Skin Remembers My Distressful Pleasures. Hiisi Productions had released that one. I'm sure there are a lot more tapes by Dead Body Collection that are also good, since that one was pretty solid. There are also some Werewolf Jerusalem tapes that are enjoyable as well. I forget the name of the one title, but it's got the cool Children Of Damned cover image on the tape. HWN isn't a big go to for me, but I like the tapes and CDs that I have picked up by some of that genres best.

[VORACLE]

I feel like (some) HNW might be good for meditation practices (Kundalini, Lynchian TM, etc.) so perhaps I might attempt to use some of it for that purpose. Otherwise, a lot of HNW eludes me. It seems mostly "throwaway" in its ethos. Someone please correct me if I've got too narrow a view on this.

[Minus1]

Someone should do an hour long cover of You Suffer by Napalm Death as a goof (there's a lot of goofy harsh noise wall these days)

Not HNW, but https://www.discogs.com/Kylie-Minoise-You-Suffer/release/1051948

In honour of this thread I purchased Kylie Minoise - Empire Of Puke! yesterday, even though I believe that he is more PE than HNW. I hate to admit that I knew nothing about him until this thread. (I cannot even find a review anywhere for this purchase. I'm sure that it will be lovely.)

But I digress:

Someone was mentioning Minimalist Music a few pages back. I agree that HNW is indeed Minimalist Music. All the reasons that I fell in love with Glass, Riley, Oliveros, Bryars, Radigue, Niblock, Young, Reich, Lucier, etc, etc years ago are greatly amplified (pun intended!) here for me. Now we get to concentrate on texture, colour, and all of the physical properties of the sound, without being distracted by all of those other silly things like meter, layers, development, etc etc. It's so beautiful and pure - when done well.

A slight diversion:

A 3CD split between Vomir and Legions Of Andromeda is coming my way. Apparently, LOA takes a different approach to Minimalism: The same beat/percussion always!? (Hatebeat!) 

[DrRichard]

There's good/bad HNW of course

according to what criteria?

[groesk]

I dunno i see the whole "good and bad harsh noise" as kinda pointless. Are there projects that use other influences? Yeah, sure. It's basically on the same level as ambient music for me. If it can hit that level of aggression while still keeping me engaged, then I like it.
Just kinda more subjective than just black and white.