"Doing the research" for a release

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I could pick up other quotes from above messages, but lets use this:

Another interesting point is how that knowledge actually enters the noise. Does it become a title, artwork, sample, atmosphere, lyrics? Or does it simply remain in the way the artist approaches the subject? Research can be explicit or it can simply change the way the artist looks at a particular theme.

I would like to think, material itself has some qualities. Someones research (or whatever you'd like to call it, I think this is suitable in contect of ReSearch industrial culture handbook, hah..) may lead that there is ability to put something subtle there. Be it sound, lyrics, artwork. To express something delicate and detailed, which is beyond just "whatever", may result something unusual. Lets say someone with sole purpose of creating offensive power electronics, it may be as simple as using the first Hitler sample and first synth oscillation and yelling something. Might work out fine, who knows, but it mostly likely is not Les Joyaux De La Princesse level piece of work. Where speeches are not whatever, old vintage songs or crackling pre-vinyl audio sources, they all had to be found. One had to know they exists, where to get, taste and vision how to put together piece of work. Someone might just sigh in disbelief that what the hell, lame repetitive keyboard melody and some sort of collaborator talking whatever.

Or in other hand something like Militia in some of their releases. Con-Dom, connecting dots, putting together pieces from various things to create something new. All these kind of obvious examples of artists everybody probably knows.

It seems to be that this research was their path for intesting things and it opens door for listeners as well.

None what said, rules out that one could simply focus on purely "sonic research".

[Into_The_Void]

Interesting discussion. Researching - concept-wise first, sound-wise and sample-wise later - is an important process in the realisation of an industrial release, and I've always envied a bit those capable of producing works full of abrasive and captivating samples, which really are indeed part of the narration at least as much the music does. One who comes to mind is Marco Deplano, with incredibly meticulous research behind the releases to create a real atmosphere. Concerning all the questions Mikko put in the first post, I'm quite sure that, the more an artist is involved on a personal level into the topics he handles, the most this is surely audible in these works, but an accurate, let's say "passionate" work moved by a genuine interest is for me enough to create the basis of an authentic work in both sound and not-sound parts. For me, this is definitely the main way I go about it, and it's one of the reasons I am quite slow at doing stuff.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Seems to me that "research" isn't really the right word in a lot of cases, as they would be people just obsessively interested in their various subjects that whether they are in fact digging through mouldy old texts in obscure university libraries, or just gathering as much information as they can from the news media or where-ever, it's more a case of trying to sate a desire than what could be called calculated, rational research. So when it comes to putting out a release, from the shortest C.5 min cassette to a triple box set, the very information, and the desire for it, is at the heart of the desire to convey it to others.

Maybe it's a chicken-and-egg thing. Did the investigation into certain topics come first, or the desire to put out a release on that topic? For example - Mike Dando of Con Dom said that he was fascinated by the work of T.E.Lawrence. Seems in that case, the interest was already there, and it made sense to him to make recordings around the interest. And his "How Welcome is Death to I Who Have Nothing More to DO but Die" album, if I'm remembering right, was more about his direct experiences with an elderly relative wasting away in a nursing home.

I'm sure there are releases that are based on someone coming across a topic, thinking "that'd make a good Noise release", then that someone doing a bit of Googling or whatever. But there's something about that I'm not sure I trust.

[aububs]

isn't this what pete townsend was doing