Industrial / noise / experimental magazines that has existed?

Started by FreakAnimalFinland, December 22, 2009, 11:47:35 PM

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FreakAnimalFinland

Mr Untitled is scheduled for WCN interview. Will be interesting.

Read Rocker #6, which was easily worst issue so far. The Haters piece is absolutely the highlight here and makes zine worth having, but... I guess Rocker doesn't necessarily "identify" as NOISE ZINE, but that's how I've seen it and therefore expect noise content in it. It is noise related to some degree, but it is very frustrating to go through long audio-to-text interviews where artists focuses on insecurities and uncertainties and somewhat random life stories and just about anything... but noise. hah. NWN is fine, but recently been listening to not only his interviews in the podcasts, but also several hours long interviews of his from NWN podcast as well as interviews he has been making and it seems there is barely anything new here? Also not exactly deciding any specific angle to interview. If someone been around for as long as many grown up noise artists tend to be, these days could be good idea to plan interview a bit more to suit the purpose. Newbies we don't know, could tell more, but veterans could focus on something they're most interested to discuss, rather than re-telling whole story again?

Rocker #7 was started, and curiously there 30 year old American experimental noise maker is at page 10 of his interview as says "you're really just busting out the big questions. Let's go back and talk about noise"!
Yep. Fuck. "Have you ever been in love?", "Lets go to your childhood in detail". Dudes, this is not how interviews become "deep". That's the all day everyday chit chat you need to try to bear when interacting with people. Tell me something I would even know why I am listening to what is being said. If sign of good interview is that you want to hear the artists work, The Haters, I got instantly feeling that I NEED to listen to more The Haters. More than I already do. With Monte Cazazza interview, I got tempted to revisit. With Jacob Winans, perhaps mostly due his "let's go back and talk about noise", I feel tempted to check out his noise. The rest? Don't even know who they really are. People talking about stuff people talk about. I hear that everywhere.
#7 is definitely better. Despite not yet read ODAL feature, I feel it will be good writing from Frans De Waard, about artists who most certainly can be placed next to "under-rated" -label. Damn those ODAL tapes are good!
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MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
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FreakAnimalFinland

UNTITLED 9
Says fall 2024 on cover, but I guess this was more like end of year. I know I mentioned elsewhere that I have yet to really feel what is the spirit of the magazine. Most zines somehow identify with its maker. Night Science, Noise Receptor, Shock Tilt, even SI might have certain identity, even if I make very small % content. With Untitled, not really sure what the makers like. What is their taste or vision with what they do. Editorial here is funny, that it reminds so much of vintage zine culture. Remember times when editorials always included excusing for delay or saying that one doesn't know what to write, and does that kind of meta-writing. In this one, luckily he gets to write about eerie abandoned malls. Also curation of issue is very good. You got WCN oskar getting his top-5 noise written down. Small Cruel Party unpublished doodles, interviews with bunch of artists and Kayu Nakada is curious as he is making sound, but insists it is not music and should not be viewed as such. Harlow MacFarlane interview, the guy known from Black Metal bands, but also Sistrenatus and such talks about his music and sound, but also about involvement in movie industry. Man working with Nicolas Cage in Longlegs for example.
Feels like this issue has probably more content than some others, more reading. Good stuff. Uniform lay-out & design, and perhaps indeed I must adjust my views that I may not really know what's up with editors taste and vision, but how magazine is put together probably tells enough. Noise, but always also quite big attention to movies, artwork indeed has created certain feeling now that magazine is about to reach to admirable 10 issues!
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
LABEL / DISTRIBUTION: FREAK ANIMAL http://www.nhfastore.net

FreakAnimalFinland

#182
NOISE RECEPTOR #13
Good issue! Review section perhaps smaller than in some issues, no complaints (there 50 of them anyways!!), as it is kind of replaced by other "editors material". First thing I was diving into, was Cloister fest report. It was just couple weeks ago when I was talking one Finnish friend asking did he ever get to see any real reports of Cloister fest. We did get some at SI forum, perhaps people posted pics at social media, but it doesn't feel quite the same if there is quickly passing IG stories and 25 second video clips. What we talked, was that perhaps Finland gets a bit more "exposure" for exactly that reason that you got guys posting video documentation, writing longer reports from even slightly smaller shows, but usually every fest. One would suppose there is a lot of things happening, but it seems as if you really had to wait Australian Noise Receptor to publish report to really make sort of permanent documentation of event? Perhaps extending even further into mood of the fest could be good, but I like full coverage and opinions plus decent photos.
Even more so, next thing the essay: Trading in the Currency of Culture: a post-industrial underground perspective.
It was originally meant to be in the Fight your own war part 2 book and despite merits, it feels a bit misplaced in underground zine. As example, I got submission for SI zine that got so close to university thesis, that I had to instantly reject it. Too many footnotes, too many clever words, too many ultra basic ideas explained with complicated jargon. I just mentioned writer that it is good, for THAT purpose. If you publish it in music studies journal for some sort of academic audience, fine. IF you write to the fellow noise head, would feel like you can do many things different. First of all, you can use language in form you would talk to reader. Second, you can assume that reader is indeed already informed about thing you are saying, and besides the absolute basics, would be nice if you have something to offer that is interesting to guys of that type. My criticism in this article, that is good, but why I say it is misplaced in underground industrial culture publication: Do WE need affirmation that Muslimgauze, Whitehouse, and that types are ok? Or is it somehow news to us that industrial culture traditionally was, and still largely remains, as one of the last expressions where contemporary garbage of "cultural appropriation" and so on, has very little meaning. 
...or does it? Actual core question is what is the "cultural currency" of industrial? Meaning, that if only actual lived experience is tradeable "cultural currency", and the only means of displaying true authenticity. But how does the "currency of culture", and the questions of authenticity and "appropriation", function within the post-industrial underground?
To compliment the piece, I have to say its almost refreshing to see Cut Hands simply flat out basically say "it is MY music, not theirs". My criticism would be that language has been tweaked notch too nice and artists we are discussing are great for larger audience and topic is something so common that the typical western academia can chit chat about eternally. But within noise scene? I think we could already proceed further from the mainstream style pathological afro themes into the world of industrial culture itself! Like what is authenticity and lived experience in this culture and in what ways do artists deal with external influences plus what it does for the artform if "authenticity" is seen as flat out 1:1 "lived life". In larger musical culture they're still struggling with questions like "is Ramleh acceptable, what if it is/was authentic.." and within industrial culture I feel we could be able to skip that and go into angles that are valid for our authentic industrial culture that is not subordinate to... well, pretty much anything.

That all said, I would strongly recommend mr. Noise Receptor to keep on doing essays for future magazines! It would be excellent reading and underlining that the crowd who buys a paper magazine now, is the crowd who has such level interests in industrial/noise culture that they probably hunger thoughts that go even deeper than latest artists news.
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
LABEL / DISTRIBUTION: FREAK ANIMAL http://www.nhfastore.net

Penon

Another great issue indeed! I am almost done with it and will be moving onto SI #17 soon.

I think the problem is broader than just some people seeing absence of "lived experience" as "cultured appropriation". Even among more, shall we say, reasonable noise and industrial fans who are above such simplistic judgements, there is tendency to believe that the most honest and moving music is made by people who have been through suffering and trauma. The romanticised image of a struggling artist remains alluring, I guess. This approach also pretty much implies that lived experience is a superior method of creating art.

The reason why I reject this idea is that it essentially strips the artist of agency. In simple words, it says "you have created something notable not due to skill, talent or hard-work; first and foremost, it is thanks to circumstances of your life, thanks to environment you happen to be in". It is really quite dismissive, if you think about it. And it seems to be uniquely found in music - no one demands the director of Schindler's List to have lived through the Holocaust, or the author of Crime and Punishment to actually have murdered a granny. Fine, the only artform where lived experience is commonly expected is stand-up comedy - but that is perhaps the most literal form of art, while music is most abstract. Demanding "lived experience" from the creator of abstract art is intellectually disenfranchising.
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