HNW Essentials ?

[Ashley Choke]

Giving the genre seems flooded with releases and I have very little idea of how to navigate it. Someone with the proper knowledge please fill me in on the essential Harsh Noise Wall releases.

[bitewerksMTB]

Get one release by The Rita & be done with it. Or just make a tape yourself with some Euro-sleaze film imagery; it'll be just as good as anyone else who has numerous releases.

Infirmary is good from the couple tapes I've heard. There is an LP on GapingHole.

Vomir, Godless Girl (Ascities side project). I'm no authority; get more than 1 or 2 releases by a few HNW artists and they'll all run together. Or just get that "Total Slittings of Throats" with a bunch of fags doing the exact same sound all layered one on top of the other..

[Ashley Choke]

Funny you mention Infirmary because I heard the LP and absolutely despised it. Totally shallow onelayered line-in recording. I was always under the impression that HNW had to do with large field/room recording type stuff. Not flat electronic 4tracker sound??

Am I completely off or are there as with much else different approaches to the HNW sound?

[ADR]

GRIZ+ZLOR is a project that should be known. Track on the ADR comp and very limited cassette box set coming in 2011 as well.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Majority of recordings of wall of noise which I hear, is indeed something close to line-in recordings. Focusing on rumbles / crackles / hiss / fuzz in ways that its pretty much the "super close-up" of the sound. More of hearing the sound of pedal rather than sound of amps in room for example. Listening the details of crackles and distortion fuzz, rather than loud amplifier damage.

I think the best "wall of noise" may be the ones who don't probably aim for it, but hold many similar characteristics. One could refer some specific works of Haters, Incapacitants, etc. Some works may have the density and monolithic quality of "wall", yet there is endless amount of texture and movement on smaller level. I think "the essentials" of wall noise is about the same as essentials of noise in general.

[Max]

to me INFIRMARY's "necropenetrator" doesn't sound at all like HNW, pretty typical harsh noise. would compare it to, say, PAIN JERK. or am i talking about another record here...?

i'm not a HNW-afficionado, but when the mood strikes i'll usually play something like VICE WEARS BLACK HOSE lp on Urashima. this label may be the only "modern HNW" label that i actively follow. since this genre is so concept driven, it's especially important to have the sound presented in a stylish manner: a nice slab of vinyl that makes a well crafted wall sound thicker and more punishing. Urashima lp covers look smooth too (yes, the giallo-shit can be pretty cool when done right). plus to me a side of a 12" is an ideal length for an unmoving wall.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

to me INFIRMARY's "necropenetrator" doesn't sound at all like HNW, pretty typical harsh noise. would compare it to, say, PAIN JERK. or am i talking about another record here...?

I think the opening track is, but not the rest of album. There is review somewhere here. There is quite a lot of variation of that LP, but I wouldn't find Pain Jerk'ish stuff necessarily. Of course matter on what basis comparisons would be done. Some of the fierce "hi-fi" sound pressure certainly could be, but what comes to method of composition or texture... not really.

[Zeno Marx]

various Incapacitants
various Chop Shop
Hermann Nitsch - Islands
The Rita - Sea Wolf Leviathan
The Rita - Anna Christie
Heamorraging Fetus - s/t 3"CD
Heamorraging Fetus - Procreation: A Disease/Tangled Desires LP

I'd like to have dug deeper into this clique, but I lack the economic motivation to even begin to mess with it now.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Get "Total Slitting Of Throats" then forget about the genre as a whole. You'll have the whole "militant harsh noise wall" thing right there in one handy album.

As for projects that actually identify as HNW, The Rita, The Cherry Point, maybe the odd bit of Vomir, and that's it.

As for the rest, don't even piss on them. It has become too fucking easy for people to toss off "HNW". Find a tone you like, record it for an hour, stick it on a tape, there's your release. I've noticed nearly every second Noise release these days is classified as "HNW" and it's shitting me. It's too easy to do, that's why there's so much of it. There is PLENTY of Noise that is so built up and layered it could be passed off as "HNW" and that's usually the more interesting material.

But my advice is, anything labelled as HNW these days is best ignored. The world does not need another fucking box set of variations on a bit of static crackle.

What we need is a discussion on minimalism. That would cover a lot more ground.

[Zeno Marx]

As for projects that actually identify as HNW, The Rita, The Cherry Point, maybe the odd bit of Vomir, and that's it.

I have to disagree with this.  I've barely touched the neo-wall noise surface, and just one example of someone who continues to slip undrer the radar, with as horrible as the moniker is, Heamorraging Fetus is truly impressive noise.  There has to be others in this clusterfuck.  That LP on SNSE is one of the best all-out noise releases I've heard maybe this decade.  I know I've played it more than any other noise release in recent memory, even more than some of The Rita's that I found top shelf.  And the 3"CD I listed is probably even better than the LP.

I better go back and re-listen to Total Slitting of Throats, because it didn't hit me like it apparently did others.

The Vomir thing strikes me as something similar to the Masonna phenomena.  It's a kitsch collector thing more than anything else.  I like Masonna.  I'd probably like Vomir.  I'm not taking a shot at either of them.  It's just sort of where we're at right now.

[Andrew McIntosh]

In fact I got interested in Heamorraging Fetus when I read Chris's review of the 12" in Night Science, so I'm going to take the tip and try to find out more.

I suppose my point is that with HWN as an actual genre there's only so far it can go (of course) and that if anyone's going to acquaint themselves with it, there's what I regard a real limit to such a stark, minimal style. The Total Slitting Of Throats is, in itself, an example only, in that any other HWN album could be an example. I mentioned it since it's a collaboration of the major suspects in the genre. Same with Vomir; apparently Masonna wanted to be "the Ramones of Noise", so Vomir can be the Ramones of HWN, and from what I've heard, he's succeeding. Once you've heard such stark, minimal sound it's really only a question of the tiniest degree.

I've had a personal issue with this whole thing for a while now. There's been a lot of Noise, over the years, that revels in being huge, minimal/maximal blocks of total sound. But now we've got this bullshit term that's narrowed the whole thing down even finer. I also have a problem with it's proliferation; it's a sign of laziness and lack of imagination to me.

[Zeno Marx]

it's a sign of laziness and lack of imagination to me.

The Echo Generation.  It's not just a term sociologists and marketers throw around in their think tanks.  Shit is actually applicable.

[sportfan]

Keranen - Green car crash  - not HNW per se, but it is actually worth listening to, and I think it has the consistency of HNW releases

[RG]

GRIZ+ZLOR is a project that should be known. Track on the ADR comp

yes that track is very nice. is all their material in the same vein?

I'm in the same boat as the thread starter: have absolutely no clue about this sub-genre. I do find it interesting that no one has mentioned Richard Ramirez yet...isn't he supposed to be a big prolific HNW guy?

The whole concept-driven thing is kind of funny to me...this release is about creepy urban landscapes at night = 30 minutes of crunching static. Or this release is about rape and dominance = 30 minutes of crunching static. Or this release is about mass graves and genocide = 30 minutes of crunching static.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Just had a listen to a sample from the newly released Black Air album, Paris, and think it's a perfect example of what RG is referring to. Apparently the crunching static this time signifies "the wormholes of used stockings laying about the 1920s streets".
Concepts in Noise, though, is a totally separate can of worms and worthy of another discussion in it's own right as well. In fact, it's been done to death already, I think. Best of luck to Black Air but again, not my damn thing.