NOISEXTRA - A podcast about noise

[PTM Jim]

I can see if someone would feel that way, but I personally don't. I feel that for example, I am where I am, and if someone would not like, they walk away, not me.

Unfortunately, that is how it is in the US. Even if you try to put on a show that is seemingly benign and someone takes offense, they will try to shut it down and, more often than not, succeed. I helped organize that Chicago show that John mentioned and was completely revolved around him coming out, so it was an utter embarrassment what happened. It forever changed my attitude on setting up shows for the worse. Sucks.

[Johann]

I can see if someone would feel that way, but I personally don't. I feel that for example, I am where I am, and if someone would not like, they walk away, not me.

Unfortunately, that is how it is in the US. Even if you try to put on a show that is seemingly benign and someone takes offense, they will try to shut it down and, more often than not, succeed. I helped organize that Chicago show that John mentioned and was completely revolved around him coming out, so it was an utter embarrassment what happened. It forever changed my attitude on setting up shows for the worse. Sucks.

Could you explain what did happen? Not a lot of info and I know for a while Chicago organizers have seemed to have to deal with a lot of bullshit from folks outside their scenes putting pressure on venues, neighborhoods etc when they wanna get butt hurt about shit that triggers them or whatever.

Did the dude get prosecuted? Beat down? Was it an act by someone being misguided and over zealous about how they felt about the music and energy thinking this was some WWE type shit? Or like fighting because he thought that's like the image he's trying to project? Total bummer that happened, not super shocked it was Chicago unfortunately.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Maybe he did he refer to same incident where Solotroff was surrounded by bunch of cunts who demanded some sort of explanation & apology for what he did with specific side project several decades ago. That story has curious element that who ratted out this type of ancient details to people who felt it would be needed be addressed these days. It basically displays, no matter what one would do meanwhile, 30+ years some sad loser refuses to pay attention what you've been doing, but always remember "oh, 30 years ago he...".  It is odd paradox, where someone seems to be obsessively interested in what artists has done, but really not interested at all. For such people one could just say listen a bit more industrial-noise, you might just learn something, bozo.

On positive note, there is a lot to learn on Noisextras episode with ERIC LUNDE!
https://www.noisextra.com/2022/03/16/in-conversation-with-eric-lunde-boy-dirt-car/

I don't know, was there a bit of pressure of WCN podcast interviews, that recently Noisextra has basically shifted from track-by-track album talk into interviews! I suppose they already planned this long before, as I recall they ask for suggestions for interviews probably year ago or so? Getting some input from listeners if there was some name they had not thought themselves. I recall they mentioned somewhere it was damn long list of targets that would take long time to get done even on weekly basis!

2022 alone has been like historically important podcasts. Thinking how last couple of months have been, damn! One could think where to go after Jerman, Lopez, Phillips, Margolis, Slogun.... Lunde piece here 80 minutes and very quickly gets to the point and deals with many things, early 80's, 90's, 2000's.. Physicality, language, computers, tape-noise, recording field, process of creation, mail-art, nature of album - release - .. gift!

As stupid as it may sound, I find myself being effected by existence of discogs. That sending out something, or putting out something, makes me cautious that now this will be soon listed as "album", while it is not. I fully realize how stupid and irrational the feeling is, yet it still have not really been able to not let it have small role when thinking should I let something leak into other peoples ears. Lunde is talking about some of the things he has made, and he concludes this is not release. He did it, sent out copies, but its no album. It was gift to someone. Just like mail-art sent out to 20 people, was mail-art. Quite separate idea from merch someone could buy. It is very inspiring to hear the perspectives of old timer, who certainly is involved, and is active in many ways, plus can sell you bunch of stuff if you're interested. But the art happens in other ways, than "music biz". I know I keep talking about same thing, but its perhaps due being in such place that I may see too much of music business, hah... It has its good sides, but also I am highly inspired about many things Lunde here talks about.

[moozz]

As stupid as it may sound, I find myself being effected by existence of discogs. That sending out something, or putting out something, makes me cautious that now this will be soon listed as "album", while it is not.

Users can edit the information in Discogs so if something is marked as an album you (or anyone else) can go and take out the Album tag which makes it appear in the Misc section instead.

[no_baizuo_allowed]

As stupid as it may sound, I find myself being effected by existence of discogs. That sending out something, or putting out something, makes me cautious that now this will be soon listed as "album", while it is not.

Users can edit the information in Discogs so if something is marked as an album you (or anyone else) can go and take out the Album tag which makes it appear in the Misc section instead.

That's a great point, but the post by FreakAnimalFinland about Lunde was a solid step in the direction of discussing the fact of noise releases being objects detached from the 'music business'. This could be a very important approach in the discussion of works, which could be helpful in moving away from typical conversation that is dictated by the discography or output of an artist as set out on Discogs. Where one draws the line between album, EP, tape, etc.

'Release' is one of the default terms I'd use ('work' being too pretentious), all the same it is great to hear it seems Lunde is hinting something about how the character of his decades-long output is made on his terms, not simply as products for a marketplace. Very inspiring indeed.
Thanks for bringing this topic up!

[Eloy]

As stupid as it may sound, I find myself being effected by existence of discogs. That sending out something, or putting out something, makes me cautious that now this will be soon listed as "album", while it is not.

Users can edit the information in Discogs so if something is marked as an album you (or anyone else) can go and take out the Album tag which makes it appear in the Misc section instead.

Depending on the length/quantity of the tracks, a demo can be automatically placed in the Albums section even if it does not have the "Album" field checked in the Format.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

https://www.noisextra.com/2022/03/30/in-conversation-with-nico-vascellari-ninos-du-brasil-codalunga/

Nico Vascellari is one of the rare cases on Noisextra, I had very little clue on who and what he is. My assumption is, that what he does and what I usually follow, crosses over basically on one aspect. His work with Prurient. I have not intentionally set to buy anything from Vascellari, but happened to get something due Prurient connection.

Interview is fun to listen. Italian accent is great here. Some really good stories, plus his idea of private tour is very close to what I had in mind for Grunt for 2022! Not that I would be set such strict artistic frame on tour, but seems fairly close to what I had in mind. This guy did perform 20 gigs, in 20 houses, for only people living in the particular house. Whole thing documented and all gigs somehow different. Of course being actually legit artist, it would be documentary for Italian TV.

There are lots of things that I like what he is talking about. One being starting as a youngster in small town, and DIY being only way to get things going in place where nothing is happening. 

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Quite mindblowing to hear when ND editor talks how print run of the magazine was even up to 3000 copies. Of course, times were different. I recall even ALAP #1 was 3000, which was way way beyond noise magazines normally are in 2000's. I guess with them, it was that it was exceptional writing there, distribution by proper dealer and so on.

What I talk to any zine makers now, even proper magazine with decent distribution, it is just a notch over basically any zine. If any zine debut issue can be sold 100, 200... and then a bit more established 300 or more.. and finally it seems like on the top of the foodchain are the ones with print run of 500-600 copies. But that's about it. Special Interests at its highest, has print run of 1000 copies. That was for SI#9. I am down to last 80 copies or so. After that issue was longer break, and most of all, the noise distribution infrastructure changed. A lot of bigger dealers who sold most of early SI issues, were no longer active. A lot of small labels, not having distro but having discogs account or bandcamp to sell from. That combined to rising postage rates. It seemed like times of moving 1000 noise zines is over. Not due lack of interests in general, but simply due lack of distribution possibilities. It is still quite amazing how wanted zines are, and how people order them all over the world, just to get handful of pages of noise information. And I am talking about all zines, not just SI. Anything I manage to get into mailorder, there are always people scattered all over the world who'd like to grab a copy to read.

ND operated from 1982 till the internet started to become more popular.

You can hear the entire story here:

https://www.noisextra.com/2022/04/06/in-conversation-with-daniel-plunkett-nd-magazine/

[Soloman Tump]

Quite mindblowing to hear when ND editor talks how print run of the magazine was even up to 3000 copies. Of course, times were different. I recall even ALAP #1 was 3000, which was way way beyond noise magazines normally are in 2000's. I guess with them, it was that it was exceptional writing there, distribution by proper dealer and so on.

What I talk to any zine makers now, even proper magazine with decent distribution, it is just a notch over basically any zine. If any zine debut issue can be sold 100, 200... and then a bit more established 300 or more.. and finally it seems like on the top of the foodchain are the ones with print run of 500-600 copies. But that's about it. Special Interests at its highest, has print run of 1000 copies. That was for SI#9. I am down to last 80 copies or so. After that issue was longer break, and most of all, the noise distribution infrastructure changed. A lot of bigger dealers who sold most of early SI issues, were no longer active. A lot of small labels, not having distro but having discogs account or bandcamp to sell from. That combined to rising postage rates. It seemed like times of moving 1000 noise zines is over. Not due lack of interests in general, but simply due lack of distribution possibilities. It is still quite amazing how wanted zines are, and how people order them all over the world, just to get handful of pages of noise information. And I am talking about all zines, not just SI. Anything I manage to get into mailorder, there are always people scattered all over the world who'd like to grab a copy to read.

ND operated from 1982 till the internet started to become more popular.

You can hear the entire story here:

https://www.noisextra.com/2022/04/06/in-conversation-with-daniel-plunkett-nd-magazine/

Interesting to read.  My highest print run was 130 copies, and my first ever zine was 15 copies (plus a 15 reprint sometime later), and yes these end up in a couple of international distro's but mainly posted from home to wherever I can connect to.  In the past I have sent copies to Singapore, Australia, even Africa, which was really great.  I know someone who is off to Antarctica next year, I can get a zine in their hands then I have covered all 7 continents!

[Zeno Marx]

Excited about this ND episode. The most anticipated and key source at the time. Would love to see all the issued collected, or at least all the issues prior to the final couple of massive ones.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Iugula-Thor "processcenes" tape, I remember back in the day, not being instantly caught by this. Wondering even why it was picked up for re-release, but over the years, uniqueness of I-T has proven to not only sustain its strength, but show that there ain't really coming projects like that...
https://www.noisextra.com/2022/04/13/iugula-thor-processcenes/

NSI "M Plays Havoc" episode is good one for being such obscure release and plenty of talk about hunt for unknown and totally obscure industrial tapes from the 80's.

Hermann Nitsch episode with Ryan Martin is full of neat information. Even after reading bunch of articles, books, interviews related to his work, it is really good one with enthusiasm and admiration for Nitsch oozing from all the people talking about his work. Ryan Martin has lots of stories worth hearing!

Suzy Poling, I was unfamiliar with. There is a lot of talk of noise/art/music, but also focusing more on near-death-experience of hers and other struggles.

Government Alpha "erratic" episode, those who want to hear this tape, during this summer should be out 5xCD box of G.A. that includes tape in its full glory, mastered by G.A. himself.

In Conversation with Jacob Kirkegaard is another guy I had no knowledge before. If it is someone working under his own name, I got serious challenge to remember anyones names. I would prefer to know them by works, attached to project name...  This guy has a lot of interesting stories, recordings of death, field recordings of chernobyl, all sorts of oddities
https://www.noisextra.com/2022/05/18/in-conversation-with-jacob-kirkegaard/

Mortal Vision "Nacht Musik" talk is nice. It is very hard to estimate how someone hearing this now, would feel about it? It is nice tape, and reissue LP should be widely available. As project produced only very very limited amount of stuff, it is far less famous than CCCC, Astro or such. For me, merely short piece on Come Again II was reason why I just wanted all that is possible to get. Missing only short comp track on Deadline, and the one split tape that came out 5 years ago.

Teatro Satanico episode makes me want to check out more of his stuff. Name is well known, but can't quite grasp any feeling how exactly any of the particular releases sounded like. Noisextra people certainly are fans.

Prepping for Tour with Black Leather Jesus, Moonbeam Terror and Straight Panic -episode is slightly unusual take. Its kind of mix of promotion for the tour that just got finished yesterday if all went according to plans. They interview all the touring acts separately, catching up some recent things, some personal things, and talk about touring as noise artist and what type of preparations, obstacles and such there are. It would be nice to get other this type of things. Perhaps after the tour -reports? Like mentioned in multiple topics of this form so many people acknowledge the void of information. Things that kind of create the sense of things happening, and feed energy into movement. Back in the day, it could be just Trance writing tour report for his visit in Japan or something like that, what is kind of immortalized among stories we know of Japanese noise. It would be odd if lots of shows and fest happen, and all we get, is 30 sec video clips that disappear into cyberspace.

The most recent episode Mental Descruction CD worship. This is tough CD for me. I did listen it not that long ago, just confirm can I get over the low-bit-rate sampling, bit crushing noises etc... and got to say there is challenges for that, haha.. At the same time, I like it, but there are challenges. It is something what has traumatized my brain on what "digital noises" can sound like.. hah.

[Phenol]

Nice episode. I like the MD CD a lot. It was one of the first industrial CDs I bought way back when, and back then it just blew me away, so it's a very important album for me personally. Anyway, I like the in depth track by track approach including how they are able to talk about the more technical stuff and explain how some of these sounds were (probably) made.

[Zeno Marx]

Hermann Nitsch episode with Ryan Martin is full of neat information. Even after reading bunch of articles, books, interviews related to his work, it is really good one with enthusiasm and admiration for Nitsch oozing from all the people talking about his work. Ryan Martin has lots of stories worth hearing!

Yes, a great episode.  Unless you got there, you would never hear about all those little interesting details.  I went as far as getting an application for an Aktion, but it could never happen.

The most recent episode Mental Descruction CD worship. This is tough CD for me. I did listen it not that long ago, just confirm can I get over the low-bit-rate sampling, bit crushing noises etc... and got to say there is challenges for that, haha.. At the same time, I like it, but there are challenges. It is something what has traumatized my brain on what "digital noises" can sound like.. hah.

Mental Descruction are a sleeper, both in the CMI catalogue and in general.  I revisited them after the episode, and all their albums, and even comp tracks, are pretty darn great.  I remember Straw receiving some good talk and acclaim when it came out.  Recommended.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

https://www.noisextra.com/2022/06/22/in-conversation-with-en-nihil/

En Nihil interview was nice. I got many things from him, perhaps earliest is the Pinch A Loaf tape 1995, that came under name NIHIL. Output in the 90's is not so huge, so I ended up with fairly good % of them without even trying to consciously collect anything.
1994-1997 I was perhaps more spellbound by power of Japanese noise. Or, lets say, not totally, but a lot of time the bleak, lo-fi, low-tech, dark and such was not such a priority, although when you look the years now, you got Con-Dom 7"s series, GW 2nd and 3rd album, GO mind control, remember...  and countless others coming. Nevertheless, in list of what I should purchase with little money I have, En Nihil wasn't on top of list as I associate it with dark ambient / death industrial kind of things, and it feels like I was focusing then more on thinking how to get Masonna, Gerogerigegege, CCCC, Merzbow,.. although plenty of PE as well. Ended up selling most of things I associated with "dark ambient", only to regret it later...

En Nihil tells the story from beginning, fairly short active phase in 1994-1997, and then comeback more than decade ago. Tells how he had pretty self destructive life for a while, quitting noise and trying to do something else, other type of experiences, and eventually returning to noise with more positive approach. I am sure positive just meaning more than creation is rewarding and creative, rather than sinking into hopeless destructive tunnel with no light ahead, hah. Creative & rewarding is obviously better if you ask me. That route to self destruction if often better as story, than as audio.
I heard some of the comeback stuff, but should probably check out the ones he mentioned to be possibly the best ones from new era.

[Strömkarlen]

The most recent episode Mental Descruction CD worship. This is tough CD for me. I did listen it not that long ago, just confirm can I get over the low-bit-rate sampling, bit crushing noises etc... and got to say there is challenges for that, haha.. At the same time, I like it, but there are challenges. It is something what has traumatized my brain on what "digital noises" can sound like.. hah.

Mental Descruction are a sleeper, both in the CMI catalogue and in general.  I revisited them after the episode, and all their albums, and even comp tracks, are pretty darn great.  I remember Straw receiving some good talk and acclaim when it came out.  Recommended.

Mental Destruction was a fantastic live band. Headbanging jesus folk delux and the bit-rate wasn't a problem when you had crushing sound levels. The one I always go back to is the Sound Source tape. Those recordings are the closes to the live experience but still not close.