Post-industrial neo-electro dance music

[LIFE]

I've kept myself out of the loop on many things because it turns out art and music cause cancer, but I guess the latest idea to sweep the underground the past few years is noise-informed dance music.

It almost seems like a conscious effort to reinvent the pattern that some "classic" industrial/experimental artists followed many years ago where they transitioned into dance and electro music, though I guess what's going on is a bit more loyal to its roots. I do wonder if newer generations are subconsciously mimicing their idols or if it's a natural evolution? Or is this just something that is influenced by their peers today? I know that certain personalities active in underground music gave people the "green light" to openly like electronica and be involved with it, so maybe that's where it all comes from. Before that I remember the idea of dance music getting met with a lot more criticism.

My question is... has anything good come from this trend? I enjoy electronic music on occasion and if people are creating something musically very good, I would be interested. So far what I have seen and heard is mostly airhead music based on surface aesthetics and nostalgia. I mean no disrespect to any individuals here who may be making music like this, only speaking objectively about what my curiosity has led me to. I am genuinely interested in hearing what people might consider "the real deal" when it comes to this thing and any other thoughts about it...

[practical life]

when i was a kid i always thought that 'trance' music was a completely wasted term and then later on around the time i started to really get turned on to noise and all the strains of experimental music i thought it strange that someone never 'went back' and reclaimed 'trance' from itself and tried turning it into something else.

having said that though i think i find vatican shadow fairly embarrassing and yet godflesh's us and them album is kind of a special piece of music. so maybe i should just stay out of this..

[Brad]

I've kept myself out of the loop on many things because it turns out art and music cause cancer, but I guess the latest idea to sweep the underground the past few years is noise-informed dance music.

I like some of this music, but I wonder if anyone is really excited about dancing to it?  Or would it be more accurately be described as "noise-informed, dance-informed, electronic music"? 

[Jaakko V.]

[...] the latest idea to sweep the underground the past few years is noise-informed dance music.

Care to elaborate a little? Maybe make a list of artists/bands currently doing this? I know of Prurient but would love to hear more examples.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

It depends how it's looked at, and what one accept to be part of "noise". In europe, all sort of rhythmic stuff has been quite popular always? You look labels like Ant-Zen or Galakt Horro and whole "power noise" kind of thing.

Certainly there is bunch of stuff like Lust For Youth and some Posh Isolation things, but still those are kind of minor things compared to noisy electronic music of all sorts of danceable qualities.

That some project gets few features in Pitchfork and plays couple festival gigs doesn't much qualify as "trend"? It may be sort of fad, where a large population and is collectively followed with enthusiasm for some period, but it's over soon. Novelties gets this attention pretty easily for simply bringing something "new" to specific group. One could say same of "black noise", where someone inserting vague black metal aesthetic to noise has gotten more enthusiasm and attention than for doing something "usual". Someone who did tapes when nobody else did. etc..

One could say that many kinds of things create small "micro trends" in noise and despite quite marginal as it is, dance elements probably just get more attention as it is more easylistening for larger amounts of people.

[redswordwhiteplough]

Not sure what you exactly mean, but what comes to my mind from "Post-industrial neo-electro dance music" is The Haxan Cloak, Demdike Stare, Shackleton, Blackfilm, Teargas & Plateglass and that kind of stuff.

[Goat93]

Maybe this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P10zXbjnOkw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjaQ9tSDPtg

thats what comes in my Mind when i combine Industrial or Noise with the Word "Dance"

[Bloated Slutbag]

Care to elaborate a little? Maybe make a list of artists/bands currently doing this?

How about Cloaks:
Detritus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_qSczhfeQ

Cloaks in particular, as they are/were coming out of the dance scene with apparently little to no knowledge of actual noise – or, say, Mental Destruction - or even things like death metal (or so they claim). Rather, they cite the "massive inspiration" of Jah Shaka mixtapes: ""When he plays live through a stack it's all very nice and bassy and reggaeish, but the tapes that he released, because they're recorded on dictaphone, they're really distorted."

If serious dance music types are increasingly inspired, within their own sphere, to move onto noisier climes, I think that has real potential to have a lasting impact. I mean, it's one thing to select from one's library a string of Merzbow clips and flip some disco loops (if this is the trend to which LIFE refers?); it's quite another to try to further the bounds whilst working strictly within the perceived confines of a particular field of sound.

When in doubt, I suppose we could always fall back on dance informed noise music:
https://soundcloud.com/dub-specialist-1/binding-contract-of-battery

[Brad]

How about Cloaks:
Detritus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_qSczhfeQ

Do people dance to this?

[Bloated Slutbag]

The million dollar question:

Do people dance to this?

My $.02:
I can't see that it matters how people respond, be it dance, stroke their chin*, or wriggle like a fucking eel.

I used to accompany a serious dance music fan to various raves, club events and so forth. For me the music was at best a peripheral interest (I was probably more interested in response number three, above). I once joked to this serious fan that no one goes to these things for the music - that is, as listeners - and he was genuinely offended, "Some of us do."

If the people making it say it is what it is, who am I, a mostly peripheral observer, to question?

Dalek would insist that this is "hip hop"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38g-CCl6Cik

...what some might not find out of place on a Con-Dom disc. Again, am I really one to question?

Perhaps this piece of Cloaks is more danceable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jghUoE8h85k


*chin; Japanese for "penis"

[pentd]

so i link-hopped from this cloaks (never heard) all the way till this

http://www.3by3cloaks.blogspot.co.uk/

and this mixtape sounds pretty unsane! i tried to check out "industrial" in the 90's and hit my head on embarassing goth walls too many times, and just gave up for many many years. so if "those" sounds have evolved into this then i would say (to the original question in 1st post) definitely yes. but i cant relate to the purple hair + rubberpants stuff.. which these sounds kinda maybe bring to mind... if they keep it fucked up and broken instead of green-hair-metal-dramatic-gothic then i dig!!

i appreciate it when they (electro artists) break the rhythmic aspect to broken shitty pieces

and dälek is mega anyway!!

[Bloated Slutbag]

http://www.3by3cloaks.blogspot.co.uk/

and this mixtape sounds pretty unsane!

Thanks for that link. Found the mixtape on Souncloud:

http://soundcloud.com/3by3music/3by3-label-mixtape-aug2012

"Keep it fucked up and broken" is a good working mantra. And that goes at least double for those coming at it out of the noise end. Nothing disappoints more than having a noise guy - from whom my expectations for "fucked up and broken" tend to run high - release a "dance" track which sounds like regular old noise over boring old four-on-the-floor rhythms. (Though if someone could actually pull off something interesting along the lines I'd be all ears.)

EDIT One good model for fucking Le Shit up might be Kazumoto Endo "Boom Boom Roppongi", from While You Were Out -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BN0AhKK7u4

- admittedly much further into harshnoise. (I personally feel this stuff was so well composed it essentially scared away would be triers.)

[tinnitustimulus]

Anybody remember Mammal - Fog Walkers? I don't think anybody actually danced to it, and it is more in the early 2000s michigan circuit bent tradition, but it is definitely something that is more dance music informed than wolf eyes. And coming out in 2002, I don't think this exactly a trend. What about Techno Animal and Porter Ricks? Anyway, I do enjoy the opposite side of electronic acts getting noisier, like Andy Stott's We Stay Together.

One thing to note about Dalek is that it was that it was a lot noisier when Still, a turntablist, was a part of it. I recall seeing him rub record needles on his tongue first time I saw them live.

[LIFE]

I'm not too knowledgeable, hence the original post, and didn't mean for it to be purely cynical though I can't really exist without coming across that way.

I've been been more aware of it on my periphery and am actually looking for recommendations along with commentary, since I think this idea is interesting though when it's put through too much of a "retro" or "nostalgia" filter it comes across shitty.

The European stuff from the past (and probably present) seems to be a bit colder with more traditional industrial themes, whereas the stuff I've caught glimpses of seems to come from a much more American noise, hardcore, or other subgenre background from the US coasts.

[Bloated Slutbag]

One thing to note about Dalek is that it was that it was a lot noisier when Still, a turntablist, was a part of it.

True dat. Shit was LOUD. But the beats.... the beats were pretty straightforward. Certainly nothing on par with the very dense layerings of Atypical Stereotype

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o98M_LjHuZE

...or the pe-ish delivery over dense, CMI-esque, soundscapes of Los Macheteros / Spear Of A Nation
(couldn't find a link)

To me, "noise-informed dance music" means shit that would make your would-be dancer pull a tendon. In the hip hop sphere, I'd recommend "dancing" to someone like Zeroh, and a track like Pork Oil:

http://horez.bandcamp.com/track/pork-oil-from-the-holy-no-2