Quote from: Duncan on June 30, 2016, 12:56:03 PM
In any case, I'm friendly with most people here whether or not I enjoy their music, but you can tell there are several folk who only listen to any kind of experimental music or noise when playing it or watching their friends do so.
This is one of the things that seems mythical to me. I don't know anyone that fits this category. I do not know a single noise artist that is only listening to noise that they or their friends do. Whether or not they are buying it is another matter. I experience some cliquey-ness, but in that I entirely don't blame them. I am not nearly as keen on doing shows with strangers as I used to be. BUT I wouldn't say that those people never listen to noise outside of their friends' material.
And this is going back to the "laptop/kaos pad" assertion, I have almost never seen this. The people I have seen use a laptop, either A; used it as less than 50% of their total set, and/or B: absolutely killed it, like for instance X Terminal (whom I have only seen on youtube, but met a few times), Cornucopia, and Brain Transplant. The only exception for me is John Wiese, that is the only noise artist that has done absolutely nothing for me up to this point, and only used a laptop, but he's obviously got some diverse approaches, at least in terms of now working with ensembles and whatnot, and the "scene credentials" to have achieved what he has achieved.
I just think it's funny how things are divided so much. For instance, I don't even know how to go about knowing all of the musique concret/academic people in my town. I can subscribe to their email lists individually, or I can hope to hear about it happening at some museum, or occasionally a DIY art space, but there is no "noise scene" for them, that I'm aware of, it's just a bunch of people hustling and schmoozing with art spaces, so far as I can tell.
I am all for shows that are extremely diverse; synth wizards, academics, PE, Industrial, Noise, Harsh Noise, Dark Ambient, Sound Collage/cut ups, etc. I would even throw in some metal, synth pop, "power noise", free jazz, noise rock, etc. Instead, what I see happening is a ghettoization of people wanting everything to be the same, thinking they have the formula for sincerity or "good noise", or otherwise, the connection to the "source", whether it is nostalgia or gear configurations or what have you.
I personally would love to see Ilhan Mimaroglu come back from the dead and play with a laptop. So far as I can tell, his last current (not previously unreleased etc) album was in 1983. I love seeing Morton Subotnick with a laptop. It's a matter of what people do with it that is different and exciting but most importantly, you can tell that they are presenting concepts that are also exciting to them, not marketing schemes or being simply "obnoxiously ambitious".
I still find the noise "scene" to be a break from the gear elitism of rock/metal scenes, where things are dynamic and constantly moving. I still feel like experimental sound is the only thing that can really break ground in this period of time, but part of that distinction is understanding that people have to start somewhere, and especially now, sometimes they start with their laptop ("hipster noise" as it were), and because of all of the "workshop" type of noise artists who seem more interested in making weird sounds than doing something that is not boring with them, some people become tired of looking for the things that actually thrill them, especially when you have entire shows that sound considerably similar.
I have recently come to a point where I can't take people seriously when they say they "only buy tapes", maybe a predisposition to vinyl is understandable, but to me this is more a level of merchandising than enthusiasm. I still buy anything by an artist that I'm into. I do not understand format problems.
To sum up, I don't know what interview this is in regard to, but if they don't make enough money to live on, chances are they are still listening to noise that isn't what they produce, it's just that they don't have time for the overwhelming amount of divisiveness, with regard to quality, openness/too many sloppy/boring artists, elitism, and what-have-you. Chances are, unless they're Merzbow, they are still, even if they are not listening to "the scene", are listening to things around them for inspiration to keep doing what they're doing, probably also some experimental sounds, even if it is a synth intro to a depressive/suicidal metal album, especially if they continue to do noise even though they can't make a living at it. I'm sure whoever said it, would like to be perceived as an "empty vessel" who generates ideas on their own, and maybe they are. I doubt it, though.
