Contortionist Jazz Exotica (2012)

Some noise artists have attempted to elevate the genre to a new level of sophistication and subtlety. Aube creates entire albums out of a single, sometimes surprising, source. Merzbow has theme albums that utilize bird songs and prog rock samples. In general, there has been a gradual development of noise music from anarchic racket to cultured sound manipulation.

Contortionist Jazz Exotica resists this evolution with every fiber of their being. The band refuse to provide any  information about themselves or their music, and the tape they sent me (not CD, tape! I had to go out and specifically acquire the hardware necessary to listen to it!) contains no track titles or any other text at all.

Don't let the name fool you. There is no jazz, much less exotica to be found here. It's a chaotic, sometimes terrifying listen that sounds like a wild, drug and alcohol fueled Saturday night gone horribly wrong. It's very, very noisy, with few identifiable sources for the sounds. There's a lot of feedback, much screaming and a few repeated loops. The only time the wall of sound breaks down is to make way for a few vocal samples that are no less incomprehensible and disturbing.

 It's kind of refreshing to hear modern experimental music stripped of the glitzy Pro-Tools trappings and bared down to pure DIY noisemaking. In a way I am reminded of early Einstürzende Neubauten or Foetus. Still, Contortionist Jazz Exotica is a harrowing, though never boring, experience. Fans of the underground noise scene will surely find much to appreciate about the band.

Aube - Howling Obsession (Revised) (2002)

Nakajima Akifumi is a Japanese noise artist who specializes in drawing a wide variety of sounds from a single original source. In this case, that source is a small speaker, from which he has managed to craft an entire album of diverse sounds. As the title indicates, this is a reworking of an earlier release and adds a twenty-three minute live performance to the original tracklist.

The title track begins with the low drone of speaker hum, fading slowly up from silence until it approaches a roar. This is actually a very atmospheric recording, and almost gives the impression of an audio landscape. The persistant hum is intruded upon by slashing crackles of static and low rumbloing feedback, resulting in a rather moody and mysterious sound enviroment. Considering the limited nature of the inputs, it's a very well composed track, and the highlight of the album. After seventeen minutes of this, a short piece cnsiting mainly of clicking provides a nice intermisson before the album's other lengthy piece, "M.O.L."

"M.O.L." is much more aggressive in its approach, consisting mainly of blistering noise broken up by high pitched shrieks and squeals. The beleagured speaker is pushed to its breaking point, growling like an angry Harley Davidson in need of an oil change. It's enjoyable, but perhaps less artful in its execution that what came before. The final track of the original release lasts a mere fve minutes and employs filters to create a slow sweeping effect up and down the frequency range. It's uneventful, but a nice comedown after the intensity of the preceeding track.

Finally, the bonus live track, also titled "Howling Obsession" bears little overt resemblence to its namesake. It uses the same sound source, and slowly evolves over its twenty-three minute length from quiet drones and whines to more intense fare. There are even a few basic rhythms subtly included from time to time. The piece is sprawling and impressive in its dversity, but it is improvised and it shows. The carefully crafted compositions on the album proper differ markedly from this freewheeling exploration of the speaker.

For fans of noise, Aube certainly offers some interesting moments. His single source approach is fascinating, but the result of such self-imposed limitations are at times less consistant than comparable works of other noise artists, such as Merzbow.

AMM - AMMMusic (1966)

Even by my standards, this is weird one. It was recorded live in 1966, and consists mainly of very high pitched violin drones, bolstered with feedback, occasional piano stabs and percussion. At least it starts that way. After what seems like a very long time, you begin to realize that development is happening. More sounds begin to enter the mix and the music becomes more complex. You can hear guitars, saxophone, clarinet, cellos and (perhaps most interestingly) snatches of "found" sound coming from a radio.

The cool thing is that all this happens so gradually that you don't even realize it's happening. Suddenly you just notice it. In its own way, the album can be trance inducing, lulling you into subconsciousness with its incessant hum, noisy humming.

AMMMusic probably bears more relation to free jazz than it does to psychedelia or space rock, and it's at times reminiscent of some of Sun Ra's more extreme outings. It should also be noted that in 1966, nothing like this was being done. Even John Cage's contemporary pieces seem tame by comparison. One can only imagine the impact it must have had on its release.

The CD version offers extended performances that were too long to fit on the LP, as well as the original versions, giving us a nice set of listening options. As I said, the music is very high pitched and brittle, but if you can get past that I think you'll find multiple listens to be quite rewarding. Definitely not for beginners, though.

Merzbow - Sphere (2005)

Merzbow, also known as Masami Akita, has dominated the market for Japanese noise music for decades. His discography spans hundreds of releases, many of which have obtained astronomically high prices due to their extremely limited editions, and the fanatical nature of some of his fans. Sphere is yet another example of why Merzbow has proved so persistantly successful in a genre that can be easily aped by anyone with a laptop.

While he has certainly turned out some hastily constructed trash in his day, here Merzbow is at the top of his game, somehow managing to find new and interesting ways of producing horrible noise even after all this time. The three part "Sphere" suite begins with acoustic, distinctly Asian sounding drums, which in itself is noteworthy, as the presence of any acoustic instruments in Merzbow's work is extremely rare. Of course, the feedback and distortion quickly emerges as the dominant sonic feature, but not without its share of twists and turns.

Part two is built around a slow, quiet, unobtrusive bass line that repeats, holding down a tempo even as it is slowly consumed by swirling static. The third section is the most overtly electronic, but even so there is a lot going on underneath the surface. Low pitched murmurings fade in and out, creating an atmosphere that is mysterious and slightly sinister. I can imagine some of this music as the soundtrack to a film noir movie... from the future.... made by robots.

The half hour "Untitled for Vesteras" closes the album, but despite its length it almost feels like a bonus track. I for one would have been perfectly satisfied whith the 38 minutes that comprise the "Sphere" suite, so the rest is really gravy. The track is typical of Merzbow's earlier, less subtle work, and is frankly anticlimactic, given that the rest of the album is so strong.

If you're new to noise music, this might be a good place to start, as it offers a broader pallette of sound and a more subdued approach than the work of other artists and indeed, many other albums by Merzbow himself.