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Post by pinky on Jul 21, 2012 15:44:05 GMT -5
Does anyone else feel that harsh noise works such as pulse demon are essentially jokes? like a commentary saying that all you have to do to make music is to say something is music? Or does anyone here actually listen to harsh noise seriously for enjoyment? I'm a fan of Harry Pussy, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Bill Orcutt so i can take a dose of noise rock but i find harsh noise just too much. Attachments:
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Post by jdizzle4 on Jul 22, 2012 13:38:23 GMT -5
if you can't handle the heat, bucko, get out of the kitchen. this is a merz fan site. we like merz here.
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Post by andypandy380 on Jul 22, 2012 14:24:06 GMT -5
I can actually see where you're coming from, I wouldnt say it was a joke but i think there is a sense with these kind of artists saying 'why not?, why shouldnt we make music like this, why shouldnt people listen to it...', if you know what i mean. I would still refer to noise artists as musicians to some degree... yes they're not orchestrating musical instruments and using actual notation or whatever, but i think there is definitely enough of a composition and a structure to what merzbow does to call it music. perhaps i would listen to it in a different way to a rock band etc... i suppose i have to be 'in the mood' so to speak. personally, whenever i listen to music of any kind, i tend to enjoy it more for the way things sound as a whole, just the texture of the sounds i'm hearing and the way it all flows etc is what gets me excited, rather than anything to do with lyrical content or any nitty gritty musicality. I kinda have a theory that noise music is that fascination for the sounds themselves but on the most basic level possible, so in that respect i would definitely call it enjoyable. Of course im not one of these people who would force this kind of stuff on anyone, i still listen to the same rock/pop music as everyone else... i do respect those who say 'oh its just noise' or whatever, but at the same time i'm glad there are artists like merzbow about simply challenging everything about music as an artform.
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Post by khante65 on Jul 23, 2012 20:22:24 GMT -5
Does anyone else feel that harsh noise works such as pulse demon are essentially jokes? like a commentary saying that all you have to do to make music is to say something is music? Or does anyone here actually listen to harsh noise seriously for enjoyment? I'm a fan of Harry Pussy, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Bill Orcutt so i can take a dose of noise rock but i find harsh noise just too much. If someone had told me I would be listening to harsh noise back in the day (my faves were Motorhead, Black Flag, Floyd, etc.) I would have laughed my ass off. Every thing changed when I bought Merzbow's Venereology when it was released. It was a blind buy. I've never turned back. Don't try to analyze it. (although there are academic studies on the subject which are very interesting) To me, melody is like life, it follows rules and patterns (get up, go to work, come home, go to bed etc.) It gets boring sometimes. Believe it or not, noise is actually soothing to me. It's also a great method of releasing anger. My friends think It's rubbish. That's why I'm glad I found this board. I totally respect your opinion. Give it a little bit more of a chance and you might dig it.
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Post by Bucketfel on Jul 23, 2012 23:17:00 GMT -5
I think that were that train of thought comes from derives from what is and what isnt music. Not everyone uses the same definition of what quilifies as music. To me everything is music and we just dont like some genres of it which is completly fine. Different genres require different approaches to hearing it like how someone would not enjoy a progressive rock epic of 20 minutes while others like shorter songs. In that same fashion, some like more structure in their music while others like the chaos, textures, ambience, or doom in the sound.
I ve heard noise for several years now and each year it increases in apreciation towards it but so far i listen to very little. I still rather hear Dream Theater, Nine Inch Nails, or Buckethead than Merzbow but when i want to hear some noise i just get the CD out of its case and let it sooth me for a while
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Post by ashessehsa on Jul 29, 2012 13:47:59 GMT -5
Merzbow, Merzbow, Merzbow. It's been a while since I've checked the forum, and now I've got something interesting to try to articulate.
I can see noise being done as a joke, but I genuinely enjoy it when in the right mood. There are many ways it could be used jokingly; it is, after all, a pretty absurd genre. Even if we view noise as a joke, that doesn't render it unenjoyable.
I see listening to noise as a kind of a zen experience, which on the surface might sound somewhat contradictory; noise in its various forms is an extreme, hardcore genre, while zen evokes ideas of peace and tranquility. Let me explain.
Zen, among other things, is about viewing the world with one's eyes and not with one's mind, so to speak. We have cognitive models for the world around us. A lot of the time they do just fine and are realistic enough, but when things don't go the way we think they should go, we can have a number of different pleasant or unpleasant reactions. Zen is a practice which hones our ability to experience life as it comes without expectations about the way it should go, in order to handle life more easily, no matter what happens. Tension between one's expectations and reality; a lot of humor operates within this discrepancy, and suffering in a general sense originates from the same discrepancy. Noise can be and has been used to express both humor and suffering, sometimes simultaneously. Noise lies within the discrepancy between the expected and the received. It can both be taken seriously and taken as a joke, as can any manifestation of reality.
When we listen to music, we hear patterns and develop expectations about where the music is going, and consequentially about what music "is" and "ought to be." We construct cognitive models about what makes music "good" or "bad," "musical" and "non-musical." The more music diverges from our cognitive models for understanding it, the more unconventional and experimental it becomes. The experiments that succeed are accepted as musically worthwhile, and our cognitive models for music expand.
At the most basic, music is a series of energetic states--variations in pitch, melody, rhythm, tempo etc., arranged in a certain way in order to express any of the infinite range of experiences of life. Noise is also involves a series of energetic states, but without musical qualities in the conventional sense. In music as in noise, we are listening to a series of energetic states, but noise bends our expectations about music to its breaking point.
To enjoy noise involves letting go of our expectations about music. It requires us to let go of ideas about conventional rhythmic structure, composition, melody, etc, and to listen to sound (including conventional music, noise, and everything in between) at its most basic level--a series of energetic states. Instead of expecting a note here and a beat there, you just let the sound happen without imposing expectations on it. After listening to a lot of noise, you begin to hear with your ears rather than with your mind. Whatever sound comes your way, you register it, feel it, appreciate it, then let it go, without worrying about whether it belongs in the composition in any objective sense. All sound becomes an adventure, becomes worthy of attention and appreciation.
After listening to and appreciating a lot of noise, you begin to listen to all other music in a very different way; as I mentioned earlier, experiments that succeed expand one's cognitive model of music. Enjoying noise requires a person to let go of conventional expectations about music, instead appreciating whatever comes. That letting go can open up a lot of sonic possibilities and situations that one may have otherwise had their minds closed off to.
Similarly, enjoying life requires a person to let go of their expectations about the way life should go, instead appreciating whatever comes. Nirvana, after all, stems from a word which means "to exhale," or "to let go." Zen is the art of appreciating life, and appreciating life requires a person to let go. So, in a way, appreciating noise could be considered a practice in zen: it requires a person to let go.
I get a lot of enjoyment by just walking around town and listening to the ambiance of it all; the trees, the birds, the cars in the distance. Sound itself comprises a broad range of our experience of life, and yet we ignore so much beauty and fascination in the heard. I find sound itself really damn fascinating, composed or not. It can be exhilarating. So experimental genres, ambient music, noise, anything that breaks down or plays with the boundaries of conventional music, even things that are conventional, even things that are purely experimental, any sound at all; all of it has merit and can all be enjoyable by letting go of one's ideas about "good" or "bad" sounds, and by not getting hung up on whether or not something is or is not musical in a conventional sense.
If you want to enjoy life or noise, let go of your expectations about it and just take it as it comes.
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Post by qweasd on Feb 10, 2013 4:42:06 GMT -5
Does anyone else feel that harsh noise works such as pulse demon are essentially jokes? Or does anyone here actually listen to harsh noise seriously for enjoyment? Pulse Demon is no joke buddy. Perhaps others have made noise with that juvenile motivation, but not Merzbow. The last question asked in a Merzbow blog - seriously?!?! Yeah, it's all a big joke, glad someone finally articulated it..... geez, to think how many years I've been fooled... Silly us.
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Post by japanesebird on Feb 22, 2013 14:27:14 GMT -5
pulse demon sounds like house cats on acid hissing while psytrance pulses are mutilated in the backroom
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