A handful of albums on Release Entertainment, a sub label of Relapse Records, jump-started interest in the genre in the U.S. Although the musicians within this scene were spread across the country and had little to no contact with each other in the beginning, they shared a common approach to dissonance, overwhelming volume/dynamic shifts, electronics, and extremity.
The term “Japanoise” seems to have largely fallen out of use, but you can’t even begin to think about noise music without considering the Japanese noise scene of the late 80s and early 90s. Disagreeing in the comments is strongly encouraged. Here is my best attempt at documenting the contemporary noise scene.
I’ll start this guided tour by touching on a few of the historical roots of the genre, then try to show the subgenres and approaches that folks in the noise scene commonly recognize, and then finish by inventing a few categories for the misfits out there who I really enjoy. scene), but hopefully this primer can initiate a few folks who are interested in noise but have no idea where to start. There will be a lot of bias in terms of my own history with the genre (I’m far more interested in the aggressive/loud/harsh part of the noise music spectrum) and my specific circumstances (I live in the U.S., specifically Milwaukee, so I’m far more acquainted with the U.S. At this point, it should probably go without saying that this list is in absolutely no way exhaustive. The following is my attempt to sketch out the contemporary noise scene and (very briefly) link this cultural space to a few foundational historical scenes and moments. Both, by definition, are constantly and unendingly regenerating. And since that noise comes from an infinite number of contexts, it’s impossible to map the history of noise music, or even to document the entire contemporary noise scene. Noise music, therefore, comes from artists purposefully activating that noise. Vinyl pops and scratches, for example, become noisy if what you want to hear is the recordings on that record. According to Novak, noise comes from the circulation of cultural ideas and artifacts, emerging from the accumulated meaningless debris that accompanies all forms of communication. If you agree with David Novak, the author of Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation, then you probably believe that writing a history of noise music is inherently impossible.
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