That's right, the dates, times and line-ups for the 3 Brooklyn days and nights off the 2005 No Fun Fest have been announced. I will have to reserve any fist-pumping re: the particulars of noise bacchanalia, as with few exceptions -- Hair Police, Chris Corsano, Nate Young (DJing), Alan Licht (ditto), SUNN O))), Sightings/Tom Smith, Hive Mind -- I know little about these acts.
But it is worth noting that this is (at least?) the second of these gatherings, and that, again, it looks as if the organizers have managed to invite a diverse area of underground musicians from across North America. (The DFW folks I used to know who were heavily into cassette-trading, amp detonation and the pursuit of the ugliest "Om", the "brown sound" -- Wheatboy Dave where are you now? -- do not seem to have received an invite, though.) The Bagatellen. piece explaining just how and why this North American scene thrives differently, aligned with but not necessarily allied to somewhat higher-profile noise happenings in Europe and Asia. That piece can wait; the fact remains "ours" is an entity in and of itself, internally quite diverse, and ultimately a significant expression of global concerns about brutality, both in the arts and in those communities in which each of us make our homes.
It also should be said that several of these artists are not simply kids who have stumbled into what it is they do. Some have been mangling waveforms and outraging the senses since the 1980's. So, while Rolling Stone and Spin were hyping the godawful Prodigy and their ilk as rock and roll saviors who were going to make the clanging and beeping of automata palatable to the masses, artists like these were, by disdaining the mainstrean, scouring second-hand stores for obscure No Wave and M.E.V. records, and basically just fucking around, doing as much as anyone to keep electronic music vital and, I submit, true to its "roots".
In closing, I would say enjoy, but...
~ Joe Milazzo
Posted by joe on January 14, 2005 10:59 AMreally I should just wait for Nirav to comment on this in more depth, but in the meantime, a few things:
yes, this is the second of these, they're curated and organized by Carlos Giffoni.
many of the main attractions for this one are from outside North America, Whitehouse, Runzelstirn and Girgelstock, Hecker, Pita, Sudden Infant, Richard Rupenus, etc.
Posted by: jon abbey at January 14, 2005 4:01 PM[Tim] Hecker, or another artist?
INteresting. Hopefully Nirav can chmie in and give us some precentages re: North American vs. non-N.A artists represented here...
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at January 15, 2005 10:01 AMFlorian Hecker, from Vienna, well represented on Mego.
Posted by: jon abbey at January 15, 2005 11:31 AMOk, so No Fun.
It's no secret that I'm as excited about this as I am about any musical event that I've had a chance to come across. I'll take back a comment I made on Jazzcorner, that anyone that's interested in experimental music should take note of this festival. Because No Fun is for noise, and to pulling out so many of the diverse forms in which noise been expressed. If you're not interested in noise, then it's not for you.
What's significant is not how many non-Americans are in the fest, but rather, what rankings they've been assigned. Schimpfluch-gruppe (Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Sudden Infant and Dave Phillips) and Whitehouse are the two basic organizational motifs, in that they’re spread over all three nights. And Lasse Marhaug, who is both in Jazzakammer, and in the expanded SUNN O)). And while the fest is mostly Americans, one interesting thread in which they have exclusive provenance is in the noise rock of Mouthus, Sightings, etc.
Part too, of what so special about this festival is how it incorporates so much of the history of noise. The Nihilist Assault Group is made up of Dominick of Prurient, Ron Lessard and Richard Rupens of The New Blockaders. Damion Romero is Speculum Fight, who are an important of the West Coast noise community (AMK, The Haters, etc.) And The Hototogisu have Matthew Bower, who is related to the Broken Flag scene (Ramleh, Skullflower, Total, etc.) And then newer communities that are important, like Chondritic, who pull strains from Cold Meat Industry, Industrial Records, and Slaugher Productions.
So, yeah, while it ought be brutal and ear cleaning, it ought be thoroughly instructive. Seeing Prurient with half of the New Blockaders and the scion of American noise will be a beautiful synthesis of what noise has been over the last 25 odd years.
"I'll take back a comment I made on Jazzcorner, that anyone that's interested in experimental music should take note of this festival. Because No Fun is for noise, and to pulling out so many of the diverse forms in which noise been expressed. If you're not interested in noise, then it's not for you."
yes, this statement I can get behind much more than your earlier ones. I'm not too interested in noise anymore, but I'll be going to this anyway just to make sure that's the case.
following on from your post, it's interesting/unfortunate that no one from the Japanese noise scene is represented (right?), I'm sure due to expense more than anything else. mixing in the Incapacitants (as an example) somewhere there would have been pretty cool, though...
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