Ghost, Devils, and the Spectre of the Music Industry

Sorry for my lack of activity on this here blog. I've been distracted by a number of things, not the least of which being Guitar Hero, one of the last things I'd imagine I'd fall prey to (as anybody who knows my feelings on the deification of the guitar can attest). It really is rather addicting. I'm late to the game on this one and I may never be able to play it on "hard", but it's enjoyable nonetheless.

I've got a few new things for you to read if you're so inclined though/

Over at Edge, I've got a review of Cut Copy's new disc In Ghost Colours, which I was surprisingly smitten with. The review is admittedly a tad hyperbolic, which is grounds for crucifixion in the critical complex, but I felt it the only way (or perhaps just the easiest) to express the pure glee encoded within the polypantoned synths. If Interpol are today's Joy Division, Cut Copy are today's New Order, except more pristine and shiny that N.O. even at their poppiest.

You'll notice I neglected to use the word Blog House in the bulk of the review. This is no accident. I accept neologism and sub-stratification as part of the process of dancing about architecture, but can't we come up with a term less...ugly? It's the 21st Century and the only options for the kids are Blog House and Funky House? Aren't we in the music community supposed to be the exception to the Orwellian sociolingual assault perpetrated by the mass media/ culture industry? Come on, guys. At least call it Cosmic House or Discotech or some other clever portmonteau I'm too miffed right now to think of?

And while we're at it, why haven't they invented a genre with a curse word in it? That'd be true defiance. Sure, call your band Fuck Buttons or The Fucking Champs or what have you. It'll only guarantee you perpetual undergroundness. But start a movement with a swear word, and they have to acknowledge you (like when the music press refused to print the Sex Pistols's name when their album went to number one on the UK charts). Why not rename the scumtronics of RRR, Hospital, Groundfault, etc. "Shithouse" instead the dated and somewhat irrelevant tag "Noise"? It's what patron godfather Merzbow's name literally translates to anyhow.


Kurt Schwitter's Merzbau

Getting even further off-track, I was browsing through the DVD of The Signal for an upcoming article for PopMatters and noticed something interesting in the bonus features. During the 20 minute or so psychedelic visual presentation of the standalone signal broadcast used in the film, there's an uncredited noise track playing in the background (likely performed by the film's composer Ben Lovett). It got me thinking; has there ever been a narrative film that truly incorporates noise music into its soundtrack? The Boredoms did Ichi the Killer, but it was far from noise. There's been abrasive, atonal, or free-jazz work like Ligeti in 2001, Ornette Coleman in Naked Lunch, and the various artists who've score old avant-silents like Page of Madness. But has there ever been just pure feedback-addled, tone-shifting, fuzzed-out noise on the soundtrack? I understand how composers and music coordinators generally try not to have music audio compete with the action on screen (except in big Hollywood flicks or Elfman-orchestrated scores), making it a difficult genre of music to incorporate. But imagine the possibilities of that kind of sonic device, especially within a horror context? With killer cell phones and internet snuff sites and such, is death by audio such a far-fetched conceit for a skilled horror director to take on? Imagine how fun and atmospheric the potential Lynch/Splet-like sonic universe as a whole would be adopting a POV of the deafened and defenseless subjects?

Perhaps this is the closest example of noise being incorporated into a mainstream flick:


Back to the future, or rather forward to the rewind, I've also got a review of the newest by Black Devil Disco Club, the weakest in his canon but by no means a bad album. In my research, I discovered a few things:

1) Though Italo-Disco is all the rage these days, it's earliest influence did not exactly produce the most stellar material. Though the sound samples on this page have long since passed into the Internet cemetery, do a preliminary search through Youtube of the songs mentioned and you'll find a host of cringe-worthy arpeggiated Limburger. It's not all bad, but you have to wade through a pride day's parade worth of crap to find the glorious pink flag material.



2) Bernard Fevre's pre-Black Devil output, no longer available commercially (save for a lone track on one of Luke Vibert's Nuggets comps), is phenomenal and rivals the Disco Club album in terms of quality and significance (especially with regards to a Radiophonic obsessed Mordant Music/Ghost Box aesthetic). These OOP discs can be attained relatively easily on Soulseek. Perhaps the best is Cosmos 2043, a spacey blast of textural electronics which precedes early records by Cluster and Deuter (who put out a couple great albums in his pre-New Age, post Krautrock phase). It also includes "Earth Message", the track which comprises the bulk of The Chemical Brothers's "Got Glint?". There are still those who doubt the Black Devil album's chronological authenticity, but listening to these albums it's not hard to bridge the technological gap. Many of the Fevre solo tunes could be dance smashes of today by simply adding a disco beat to them (don't get any ideas Norman Cook), which would seem the logical link for a saavy Frenchman getting on in the late 70's.


Lastly, I published the first part of a mini-essay (a little hastily written I apologize) on the music industry's obliviousness at PopMatters on the Sound Affects. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this or anything else.

-Timh