Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Indeed. I have sampled it on MySpace. Very cool.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

I think the difference is more the mentality. While both intended to create musically a sort of Neo-Dadaist experience, Suicide went for the mutated Pop Art approach while Cabaret Voltaire were set more in literature such as Burroughs and Ballard. So, on a level, you're right.

I really have a warm place in my heart for distorted, low-fidelity home recordings. It's a completely different experience to listening to polished studio work, but, I feel, just as rewarding.

P.S. Something I've noticed: Noise music, however abraisive or overwhelming it attempts to be, can be accidently tuneful. Or subconsciously...

The first given example is Whitehouse, who aren't really my cup of tea. However hard they try at times, without being played at ear-bleeding volumes, feedback and sine wave drone is... curious humming noises, vaguely irritating, somewhat eerie, but not really appalling.

Secondly, Merzbow. Now this is the stuff 80% of the time I cannot listen to. However, that other 20% of the time his music can be quite hypnotic, even soothing, and although Venerology I shall never really "get", I've grown rather fond of Cycle. However relentless, if you listen carefully to this album, you'll notice that there are actually tunes there, layer ad infinitum, producing a wash (or wall, however unoriginal) of textured sound.

P.P.S. Speaking of which: Sonic Youth are not noise rock. They have some noisy songs. They even have a few noisy albums. But overall, not at all. Really, can't people think of better ways to pigeon-hole this band (if they must)?

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

On a totally different note, I just purchased several This Heat reissues. Great little band, and thoroughly overlooked.

Ditto Final. Since leaving Godflesh, I think Justin Broadrick has been on the creative upswing. Then again, Final was actually started in 1983...

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

I'm equally impressed with both Godflesh and Jesu...both are great projects

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Swans, Voivod, Celtic Frost, Amebix, Articles of Faith, Dissecting Table, Dolorian, Test Dpt, SPK, IRM, Black Sabbath, Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord... really too numerous to name.
Also classical composers: Luigi Nono, Helmut Lachenmann, George Crumb, Gloria Coates, Xenakis.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

yay another metalhead

what do you think of DSO's latest album, Fas...? I haven't listened to all of it, but it seems pretty darn good. Also, BaN's Odinist should be an interesting album

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

That's a good way of putting it. It seems to me as if these are two general ways of marrying the highbrow and the lowbrow, one in which the highbrow is more obscured by lowbrow posturing and irony (the Pop Art approach) and one in which the two coexist on a more even playing field (the literary tradition of Burroughs, Ballard, et al elevating campy genre conventions to a "serious" artistic level.)

It also strikes me that Joy Division (well, more Ian Curtis) cited WSB & JGB as primary influences. I'd stick them in the same sonic universe as Suicide and the Cabs. (Gotta love that dark, lo-fi '70s sound....)

Does it seem like fewer rock bands these days take that level of inspiration from the worlds of literature and visual art? Listening to a lot of aught-rock (to coin a phrase) I can definitely hear the influence of '70s and '80s music, but that's about it.

Re: Merzbow, I recently saw that someone was selling the Merzbox online. I'm not a big Merzbow fan but I would love to have that! It's just a cool work of art. The graphics on the CDs themselves are beautiful.

Anyhoo, I've been on a big Skinny Puppy kick lately, revisiting stuff like Mind: TPI. I'll never tire of their '80s stuff, the perfect combo of industrial madness and synthy goodness. :) I think they toured recently but I passed it up... no Dwayne + new music... I would rather stay at home and watch Ain't It Dead Yet? again. :o

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

On both counts I agree.

I can reason that literature is less an influence on music because people in general are coaxed less to read, be it by environment or due to their flickering-screen addictions. The latter (I speak now of the computer) allows access to a vast back-catalogue of oft-obscure music... Made by the same folks who we before spoke of!

Even if only for the musicians, I think I would've liked '70s Sheffield. Really, however bleak, the idea of being on the edge or at the heart of something so wonderful would just be thrilling. Even only half-knowing it...

And yes, I want that box, especially considering that I've heard early Merzbow compared to Nurse with Wound. And it's, oh, so pretty...

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Some of the old Shub Niggurath albums like Les Morts Vont Vite are pretty cool. John Zorn is one composer whose does not fill their usual stereotypes. He has played with some of the most violent jazz bands out their. Considering some of the bands I've seen listed here, I would say IAO or Absinthe are the best to try out. Sleep Chamber's old stuff like SexMagick Ritual is pretty damn good.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Due to this modification being a trite bit problematic, I have removed it from the site. I may opt to integrate it once again if the code is updated suitably.