30 years after the release of this classic and we still have not managed to kill everyone who doesn't play fast, but we can at least discuss it
Why do you like music that sounds like it's trying to kill you? Do you like a variety of extreme music? If so, what are the commonalities between those styles that you enjoy? And lastly, if a style was "too much" for you when you first tried to get into it, why did you persist?
Posted Jul 23, 2019, 9:17 PM UTC
I think it's kind of like an acquired taste. You taste a certain beer or liquor for the first time, and it's terrible, but something about it intrigues you and compels you to try it again. Before you know it, you actually like the taste and seek even stronger or weirder stuff.
At least, that's the way it is with me. I never liked "screamo" music (which is what everyone calls any music with screamed vocals) as a kid or even a teenager. But then I just pushed myself to try. I guess I just found out that I liked it somewhere along the way.
not entirely sure what you consider ‘extreme’ but harsh noise and similar efforts actually help me focus a lot. whenever i have an artists block i put on a good noise album and it just de-clogs me, so to speak. theres also a certain level of musicianship involved too, it can be strange genre to dive into.
The things I listen to that could be considered under the umbrella of 'extreme' music are things like SWANS and Nile; works that, aside from simply being extreme, carry a very unique spark of artistry that not everyone can put into their work.
In the case of Swans, it's almost a meditative, hypnotic experience to just sit there, headphones on, and listen to whatever realms of surreality and raw emotion that Michael Gira & Co. can create. I can think of very few other musicians who are so willing to go wherever their muse takes them.
When it comes to Nile, the balls-out extremity of their work is tempered and made even more appealing by their attention to melody, in stark contrast to the stereotypical unintelligible grinding noise we think of when we think extreme metal. It's fast, it's heavy, and it's in-your-face, but it's also smoothly executed and melodic, like velvet coated razorblades.
Extreme music can feel like its trying to save me...saying there are other people who have experienced similar insights in the world...feels like an empathetic friend saying let me bring you out of numbness and back to yourself with this audio transmission that can get at emotions that words cannot...it helps to normalize and make sense of rage, injustice, grief, regret etc and tap into other people as wisdom of how they made sense of their rough experiences.
So I really enjoy Death Grips, along with every other 14-year-old pretentious music snob. Regardless, I seem to enjoy both their lighter and harder cuts. I think, at least for me, what I enjoy about DG is just how, initially, it sounds like a chaotic-clusterfuck of synths and screams, but when you dig deep into it, the tracks have very catchy hooks. MC Ride's vocals, although insane and cryptic, are very interesting to listen to, to say the least. When I first tried to listen to The Money Store, I could barely sit through it. However, I persisted, mainly because Daddy Fantano likes them, and the whole experience was incredibly rewarding. I had the same experience with Primus, albeit not as intense, because I listened to rock already.
I enjoy that the horrible horrible music is dear to my friend's heart, and I enjoy listening through his collection as a one-off experience. To familiarize myself with music so unlike what's in my own collection is in itself a treat. I don't like stuff like The New Blockaders and never will, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy the one-off experience of listening to them [in the form of a project] (https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Zhanteimi/well-ill-be-hog-tied/).
It keeps my senses so occupied that I feel like I'm in some kind of meditative state. Nkondi's Popfailure is the the most extreme and harsh sounding music I ever listened to, but it forces itself upon the ears so hard that I essentially don't have any choice but to relax and let it happen. as weird as it sounds, harsh oise and raw black metal really calms me.
For me the best is the descent into madness aspect of it. Bands that are literally just a wall of noise I have never quite understood (Merzbow for example, or Metal Machine Music) aside from being a curiosity but when a song starts off melodic and ends up by the end of the track as being a wall of chaos, that is so cathartic in iteslf, then the release when it finally stops. Live performances of My Bloody Valentine is a good example
I've idly searched for extreme metal (thrash and death mainly) and haven't been able to find any that doesn't sound absolutely ridiculous to me. As a result, I've stuck with the one song that made me go searching in the first place:
MUST DIE - Bliss 2K
This song begins with a glitched voice saying "I only ever wanted you to suffer." From there, it goes to an arpeggio and then a buildup that makes use of what sounds like a battering ram hitting a snare drum (which somehow doesn't sound ridiculous in the song). The buildup ends with the incomplete sentence "you a fucking racket with the," an eight-bit vibrato and then "y-y-yo listen." Then there's an electronic scream that can only be described as acidic. It's quite an experience and I recommend it if you want to feel like someone hates you to the point of insanity. Or, in my case, if you're in the mood for an adrenaline rush.
I think everyone has a different idea of what is extreme.
For me, I guess I identify noise as being an extreme form of music. At first, as I'm sure is the case with a lot of people, I saw noise music as an endurance test: can I summit this inhospitable music? As I got to listen to more of it, it has a similar effect to ambient - you can completely zone out inside the squall of sound and it takes you somewhere else, I can't even describe where that is. This past week I listened to my 19th Merzbow album and his music still takes me to some indescribable inner space.
I think there is also an aspect that extremes fit my personality. I have always felt like all rules should be questioned: laws, religion, social norms. Experiencing extreme music has a secondary role: examining what music is.
I really want to get into Merzbow. What do you recommend?
Listen to the entire Merzbox, back to back to back. It's on YouTube, only takes about 50 hours.
If you want to ease yourself into it then I suggest his collaborations, they invoke harsh noise but still have structure enough to be called good old "music" by most people. His collab with Xiu Xiu is a good place to start.
Otherwise, just go ahead with Pulse Demon. It has a lot of the elements of harsh noise I find so endearing when I first started listening to it.
That's the thing with Merzbow; he has released more music than entire genres have done combined. It's hard to recommend a line to follow, and you'll probably not go through all of it, or even a dent of it, anyway. I'd just start with Pulse Demon and then pick albums at random from there on.
Dope, thanks
As other commenters have said, if you want to throw yourself into the wild: Pulse Demon is seen as a good jumping off point. I personally enjoy this early live show recording because you can kind of hear how the music is being constructed and deconstructed in real time:
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/life-performance-csr218cd