2006-10-02
The genre of music I find most difficult to write about is noise; be it ambient, harsh, industrial, drone, power electronics, glitch, experimental or any other sub-genre out there. It's as hard to write about as it is hard to listen to, it's mostly a type of music you'll get into late (after experiencing various different kinds, and mostly if you started off with Hardcore or Metal) and for a pretty good reason too… noise (in general) is as experimental as it gets, there are no rules or boundaries within this genre and as a direct result of this it can be very unpleasant to most people - having said that I can now try to tackle this collection on noise.
Israel has a growing noise scene with a growing number of artists, who from time to time organize noise nights/shows – such as the one recorded here on "Noise.IL", sometime in the summer of 2005.
While not as large as the Japanese or anywhere near as large as the American noise scene, the Israeli scene is alive and kicking in various styles. Each one of the six artists on this nine-track album shows a different part of the spectrum, from easy-listening tracks such as the bizarrely dramatic opening track,
MortalManifest's "Fear establishment for Lucifer Jupiter", or the foggy closing track, Barzel's "Rebuild the temple now" (who weren't a part of the live show), to harsh and complex tracks such as
Gedem's "My Bleeding Ears" or
Wreck & Drool's "Idle Petitions".
There is no place to actually describe each of the nine tracks, for each is a separate experience and can be described in numerous ways; surprisingly enough, the album does manage to flow from one track to another despite the differences.
Highlights in my opinion are
Gaop and
Aboolele's "Telemarketing the temple of hatred 2005" due to the combination between the buzzing background, low-pitch electronic drones and the high-pitched squeals, glitch, and narration which create an overall apocalyptic feeling, as well as Drone Lebanon's "Zionistzermatism" where the religiously-connected speech is swallowed by a wave of electronics – as if the world itself is saying how insignificant one being (or on opinion) is, as if zooming in and out of earth.
Many interpretations can be come with this kind of music; each track is a combination of ideas, repetitions and variation, stripping down to minimalist primal beats and building up effects and layers to a wall of noise. One way or another, this is a fine representation of the noise scene here in Israel, and certainly pins the aforementioned artists on the map. A small proof for this is the reviews worldwide, a larger (and much more important) one is the existence of more and more noise artists, albums and events such as the one that resulted with this collection.
Ofer Vayner
