Harsh Noise Wall... I have questions

[MartinH.]

Through a parody video on youtube I stumbled over an obscure music genre, that I hadn't heard of before: Harsh Noise Wall. It's exactly what you think it is, a distorted wall of loud noise where you can barely hear hints that the original audio source has ever been anything other than a white noise generator. Here is an example (I recommend turning down your volume first, I wouldn't want to listen to that at high volume, although that's probably the intended way to enjoy this):



A comment says this is "pretty dynamic" by this artists standards.

I would say I can enjoy some fairly abrasive music by normal standards, but noise genres have always been a no go for me. So I expected I'd strongly dislike this as well. But to my surprise, I'm actually kind of enjoying it. And there definitely is some variation in it, I like some parts a lot less than others. Since this seems to be a proper genre, I assume there to be many different artists, and fans that have favorite albums and clear preferences - while every album seems to be just a "wall of harsh noise", literally.

So, I have to ask: why? With the removal of pitch, rythm and clearly distinguishable timbres, what's left? Is anyone here unironically liking or even making music of that genre? What does set a "good" wall of harsh noise apart from a "bad" wall of harsh noise. There must be some criteria for this, right? I'm thinking maybe such an extreme genre of music offers a chance to learn something from it, that holds true in other genres of music as well?

I've listened to the entire album start to finish, with one break for lunch. And I find it has a weirdly relaxing quality to it. Wouldn't surprise me if I could fall asleep to this.

Is there a genre specifically for that too? Like "ambient noise wall" or "chill noise"? I know there is a market for "white noise"-ish sounds that help people with sleeping or drowning out unwanted less monotone noises, but those are more like found sounds and seem less "engineered". I'm more interested in things that can be controlled in the noise shaping process when making such an album that is an hour of "just noise".

Click to read more...

 

[LudovicVDP]

Not entering the debate now but if you want to experiment:

https://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=Harsh_Digital_Nose&id=703

 

[MartinH.]

Not entering the debate now but if you want to experiment:

https://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=Harsh_Digital_Nose&id=703

Thanks, I'll check it out!

I experimented a bit with my boss hm-2 pedal and it's fun to get some analog static noises out of it and focus on shaping the character of the buzzing just with the dials on the pedal or moving the connected cable around. It wasn't pluged into anything and I got different sounds depending on where I moved it, like picking up electromagnetic emissions from computer hardware on my desk etc..

 

[halfwalk]

Totally tangential, but for some reason I'm reminded of the short story of Candle Cove.

As for the... music... it kind of takes me back to my noise rock days, listening to bands like Mainliner, but even that seems relatively sanitary compared to stuff like in the OP. At least with Mainliner, you can hear the individual instruments, even though the mix is so heavily distorted. The content in the OP also takes me back to half my life ago, gobbling Psilocybe cubensis and playing with the radio dial to call the mothership or something.



Fun album, but warning, it's loud af. Good for drowning out the roommate's weird sex noises. Or just for some random catharsis.

 

[timprebble]

I wondered the same about Pachinko in Japan - if you dont know of it, its a form of legal gambling where you buy a bucket of ball bearings and go use them in a kind of slot machine... But the really strange thing is that the pachinko parlours are so LOUD!! Below is an example, from outside of one...
I asked a Japanese friend WTF - why so loud, and his theory was that the sound was purposefully overwhelming, so people get totally absorbed and lose themselves in it, like some kind of opposite of zen... maybe it is the same with 'harsh wall of noise' and black MIDI etc

 

[MartinH.]

but even that seems relatively sanitary compared to stuff like in the OP.

One of the funny noise related quotes I read on youtube was "Blackmetal is the Brittney Spears of Noise music". x]

But the really strange thing is that the pachinko parlours are so LOUD!! Below is an example, from outside of one...
I asked a Japanese friend WTF - why so loud, and his theory was that the sound was purposefully overwhelming, so people get totally absorbed and lose themselves in it, like some kind of opposite of zen... maybe it is the same with 'harsh wall of noise' and black MIDI etc

I think that might be right. Reminds me that I was in a metal bar once and wondered why it's so ridiculously loud that you could barely talk to each other. You had to scream into each others ears to have a chance to be heard. When I looked around and imagined the same scene without the music, I thought it would be a really sad and depressing atmosphere with lots of lonely people that don't really have much to say to each other. If you read it like that, that would probably apply to the Pachinko parlour as well. Also while people have conversations and have a good time, they're not pulling the lever on their skinner box Pachinko machine as much as they could, or chugging down one beer after another.