NOISE

Happy Solstice, blog readers. My last entry was two months ago. In the meantime, what has happened, transpired, come to pass? Radio Free Random is on hiatus, still. I've gone somewhat whole or at least 75% hog into making "noise music" and learning about the history of the Noise scenes around the world, going back to the early 1980's. I mean, I've been a noisician for decades, to be honest. FRANTIC! is a "noiz-improv" band, and we started in 1998. I even bought a Merzbow CD around the turn of the century (Venereology, 1994). But I never really had dived into the culture of Noise and makers of Noise. A couple of books and lots of Youtube videos and Bandcamp pages and the r/noisemusic subreddit have brought me up to speed on the general outlines of Noise-making over the years and have given me a feeling for how pervasive and complex this underground/DIY phenomenon is—very similar to punk rock in its early days, with hyperlocal focus, international reach, and self-produced recordings and art. Color me fascinated and maybe even hooked.

So, during the last month I've made four noise albums for my Bandcamp page. Two are of the Harsh Noise Wall variety. HNW is basically what it sounds like: an relatively unvarying wall of noise lasting an hour or more, typically. The other two consist of shorter more varied tracks. I had a blast making these albums, and I've got ideas for more.

"Why would you want to listen to and make noise music, and can you really call it music??" You might ask. If you're really curious, the internet has lots of prose for you to peruse. Suffice it to say, many people love Noise. I couldn't really add much to what's already been said. There are lots of "extreme" music genres, and they wouldn't exist if there weren't people passionate about them. Nobody else needs to understand, frankly.

I have thought about bringing Radio Free Random back as a much more experimental and "noisy" station. I do realize that many my regular listeners, some of whom are friends, would not really like such a direction-shift. But RFR is something I do for me, to be honest. It's like, you're welcome to come along but I want to do stuff I'm personally passionate about. Pleasing listeners is secondary. I'd rather attract listeners who enjoy what I'm going, not adjust what I'm doing to attract listeners. Know what I'm saying?

I sold my Freewrite Smart Typewriter, so I'm down to this Traveler I'm typing on now, and the Alpha. The Typewriter is definitely a very cool machine, but I found it to be overkill for me. And the friend I sold it to was very happy to get it.

If you want to check out my new albums, go to https://mrrandom.bandcamp.com. Cheers!