The State of Noise in Belgium

[Nadir]

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 :).

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.

[NedOik]

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.

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.   

[urall]

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..