TEXAS noise

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I had no doubts about TEXAS 3xLP set. Looking the line-up, it felt pretty much instant success.

A FAIL ASSOCIATION delivers intense noise harshness, appears to have its latest releases out 2010. Not much to say, but stlll among best of comp.!

CONCRETE VIOLIN announced quitting? 2010. I don't think stuff never hit me quite as hard as best of the Texas noise has done. This is among the best what I have heard though. Some stuff was plagued with crappy flanger/phaser efx, but now here we have bassy crunch dominating, yet some density in layers of details too. Basically we're talking about old-style wall noise. Not crackle studies, not one dimensional minimalism, but just heavy duty blast, which has drive, virility and energy. While things happen, it is still so low on dynamics that music starts to become harmonic drone. Especially 2nd track where drone element emerges very clearly from noise.

GOAT takes harsh noise up one notch. Further into brutal rumbling harshness. Not as good as Conrete Violin, but good. Keeps still active, since late 90's.

INHALANT - did he also stop 2010? I think project has some really good stuff, but not always. This belongs to less interesting moments. Could it be that bass frequencies may have disappeared slightly in vinyl cut? At least with more bass-loaded sound this feedback/electronics baseds works would be better. Also adding vocals would take it into US PE realms.

STEEL HOOK PROSTHESES keeps active. I appreciate what they do, but never really got into it. Too much of "cyber" / sci-fi soundtrack kind of stuff. 4 tracks, stylewise drastically sticks out from all the rest.

T.E.F. I don't see new releases happning for couple years, but assume still active. Confused this with Concrete Violin's announcement last time there was talk about TEF... Very good TEF. Not his best, but very good dynamic, cut-up, harsh noise!

Too bad this release has no insert/artwork etc. Not even tracklists. Some sides don't even mention artists name on label.

While there are bunch of Houston related compilations that have been really good, I think this Texas comp offers nice selection as well. New things in texas now?

[sterilization]

Obviously, the three best things to come from Texas are as follows:

1. David Gilden

2. Taint / Mania

3. Control Resistance

As far as newer/modern projects, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Diseased Peasant]

Brobdingnagian started in Virginia and relocated to Texas around 2010.
https://brobdingnagian.bandcamp.com/music

[LIFE]

I believe TEF is still active even now.

I always had a lot of respect for this general group of Texas guys. I never liked "Satanic metal humor" in noise (or music in general) but I enjoyed Goat and his style of doing things.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

3. Control Resistance

Very underestimated. I used to mp3 them back in the early 2000s, but finally grew up and bought the 10" a couple of years ago. For unknown reasons Germ Warfare remains both unblocked and cheap (not even reasonable - cheap) on Discogs.

[david lloyd jones]

no reference yet to Richard Ramirez/black leather Jesus, long time participants to this scene

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

no reference yet to Richard Ramirez/black leather Jesus, long time participants to this scene

Homophobia, my good sir, homophobia!

To be serious, I had no idea he was from Texas. Europeans tend to make fun of Americans' lack of geographical knowledge about Europe, and while there's certainly some foundation, we often don't know anything about the US either. I've always thought of RR/BLJ/Werewolf Jerusalem as "american", if that.

[david lloyd jones]

no reference yet to Richard Ramirez/black leather Jesus, long time participants to this scene

Homophobia, my good sir, homophobia!

To be serious, I had no idea he was from Texas. Europeans tend to make fun of Americans' lack of geographical knowledge about Europe, and while there's certainly some foundation, we often don't know anything about the US either. I've always thought of RR/BLJ/Werewolf Jerusalem as "american", if that.

but you only have to check where the stuff is recorded, other info to see geographical origins.
learn't my USA geography following their 80's hard core scene.
the vastness of the country are me realise how they could produce 'fanzines' in colour with hundreds of pages whilst UK zones were 30 photocopied pages of A

[Potier]

https://www.discogs.com/artist/497053-Breakdancing-Ronald-Reagan - probably safe to say that he is the backbone of Texas noise when it comes to shows & everything Austin-related
https://www.discogs.com/artist/2833990-Architeuthis-Dux - definitely worth everybody's time - high energy old-school pedal noise & much fun in a live-setting

[NO PART OF IT]

Architeuthis Dux is one of my favorites I've heard in a long time.  They do industrial noise in a way that harkens to krautrock / kosmische almost, and I think it is informed by Kenny's enthusiasm for psych rock, but still gritty, and definitely still purely industrial at the same time.  They are also very good at harsh noise. 

Also, the project Sex Bruises and the ensuing solo project of Power Monster is very good harsh noise, totally blistering and dynamic.  

[Peterson]

no reference yet to Richard Ramirez/black leather Jesus, long time participants to this scene

Homophobia, my good sir, homophobia!

To be serious, I had no idea he was from Texas. Europeans tend to make fun of Americans' lack of geographical knowledge about Europe, and while there's certainly some foundation, we often don't know anything about the US either. I've always thought of RR/BLJ/Werewolf Jerusalem as "american", if that.

To be fair, I've tried to like a lot of Ramirez and BLJ releases in the past and just find certain pervasive stylistic elements to be "not my thing," I.E. the often "jammy" feeling and didn't care for Richard's take on PE. Richard is really talented, though, and has done various releases in a handful of his nine thousand projects that I've found really enjoyable; some BLJ, Werewolf Jerusalem, one or two solo tapes, some stuff from Last Rape. I recently reviewed his reissue on New Forces and I'd probably seek out more old BLJ because of it. Rumor has it Richard was almost a member of Taint but couldn't make the initiation cut, so to speak.

Streetmeat is a project that has fallen by the wayside, it seems, but at one point for me represented a certain underbelly of Texas.

I'm not sure if David Gilden was from Texas or not, but he was closely associated with the whole Deadline Recordings folks/Richard back in the '90's. His stuff is insane and psychedelic, I guess I might compare it to Macronympha at times.

Shit, nearly forgot Respirator, an almost-unknown project from a former (?) BLJ member. This stuff straddles PE and noise in a way that some people just don't like; I guess I'd compare it to Weak Sisters in that above anything else, it's just fucking raw and intrusively harsh. Stuff is really hard to come by; but a couple of releases I've heard had seriously fucking intense S&M samples, I mean ROUGH.

Those are what I think of for TX noise other than the obvious ones already mentioned.

[Baglady]

Trying to find your way in the BLJ discography can be quite hard I suppose, but three real gems are Torturous Chapter, Torture Machinist and Crossburnt. Speaking of David Gilden, he was in the line-up on both Torture Machinist and Crossburnt.

ORIFICE TRAINING was from Texas, right? That LP on Praxis Dr Bearmann is really good (and very affordable). Would love to hear that Always Keep Your Hands On My Cock tape as well some day.

[totalabuse]

Trying to find your way in the BLJ discography can be quite hard I suppose, but three real gems are Torturous Chapter, Torture Machinist and Crossburnt. Speaking of David Gilden, he was in the line-up on both Torture Machinist and Crossburnt.

ORIFICE TRAINING was from Texas, right? That LP on Praxis Dr Bearmann is really good (and very affordable). Would love to hear that Always Keep Your Hands On My Cock tape as well some day.

Yeah love the OT lp.. I only recently discovered it... I actually got one of the limited screenedMetal covers that Praxis did... Great stuff.. Would love to hear the tape too

[Peterson]

One guy I knew when his girlfriend left him for three months acted like he was her and presented himself as her to us and went to a cheap thrift store because he was broke and bought cheap horrible looking dresses and wore them. When she called him and they got back together he randomly dropped the act.

This is the exact plot of an episode of King Of The Hill, obviously also based in Texas. I'm not calling you a liar at all, but that's quite the coincidence, haha.

[bitewerksMTB]

Is anyone in touch with Houston noise artists such as Austin Cooley, Richard R., etc. or have read posts on fb, etc. from them? Houston is water-fucked right now...