"Noise Riot: Towards a New Sonic Futurism" (Preview with after-the-fact interjections) by Craig Reynolds On Saturday, May 13 at 9pm, Big Orbit Gallery once again spotlights Buffalo's experimental music scene with Noise Riot, an evening of orchestrated sound and noise performances. This textual concoction, at least the web of interjections woven throughout, serves to reflect upon the event it previews as well as the preview itself, which was originally published in the may 11, 2000 issue of Artvoice (in addition to the Noise Riot sub-event which took place several months later at Murder the Word 3). Alternating between individual/group sets and moments of collective cacophony, Noise Riot culminates in a simultaneous improvisation performed by random audience members given various soundmaking toys. This was not the case at the Noise Riot sub-event at Murder the Word, although people did take to smashing bottles in the empty frame of an installation that never materialized, but I’m not sure if these actions related in any way to the earlier show. The event is the second in Big Orbit’s “Soundlab” series (which intends to foster the development of new music experiments by local sound artists) and features 8 different groups pursuing the medium of abstract sound. Admission is $3, $2 for Big Orbit members. A full-on attack on what is traditionally considered “musical,” The music being made at Noise Riot, although often times deliberately abrasive, did not originate in negativity, as I had originally expected, but in a sincere desire to expand beyond music’s traditional limitations (of course, these limitations reveal society’s hidden machinery, so anything that veers from the obvious evokes some degree of confrontation). I would suggest that the event did not function as an “attack,” so much as a sweeping embrace of contrary, possibly more complex, alternatives. Only those with deeply ingrained notions of proper musical behavior would have experienced the event as an attack. Noise Riot answers those bored with the current state of music in Buffalo Some, but not all; satisfies devotees of strange and obscure sounds; and demonstrates unconventional means of generating original music (through the use of amplified toys, radios, rakes and railings, among other devices). As Craig Reynolds That’s me, Big Orbit Performance Curator says, “Noise Riot provides a space for traditional musicians to employ sound for sound’s sake, and gives visual and conceptual artists I think I was thinking mainly of Michael Baumann and myself here the opportunity to work with aural as opposed to visual materials--that is, to apply ‘artistic’ techniques to sound I haven’t thought about this way of perceiving noise music recently. You can play an electric guitar with a drill Nobody did, although I have seen Lee Renaldo do this, amplify toys or sheets of metal, play the railing of your stairway like it was a trumpet, put sandpaper on a turntable and set it on fire-–just to see what it sounds like when you do.” This fire thing didn’t happen either. It was, in fact, suggested by 444, who had imagined an orchestra of burning turntables, but nobody really knew how to make the idea work without shorting the electricity. Instead, he debuted an opera, although nothing existed to qualify it as an opera except for a maniquein head he held in one hand while performing. Halfway into the set, he blew out one of the stereo speakers he was using as a p.a. cabinet, so he tossed the now-useless object into the center of the courtyard, and lit it on fire. The audience stared in silence until he said, “okay, that’s it!” and they gave him a rousing ovation. That is not to say that everything at Noise Riot will be sonic madness Was anything sonic madness? Noise Riot was actually rather beautifully composed (even controlled, in a cacophonous way)––which was, after all, the goal. We were perhaps more on track when advertising it as an orchestrated noise event, because the quality of orchestration came through very powerfully. It wasn’t just chaos, Noise Riot amounted to something larger and more beautiful (as both a project and as a spontaneous composition demanding sensitive interaction between musicians). The idea for the project had its origins in Murder the Word 2, where we forced abstract bands to play simultaneously, although they weren’t necessarily asked (or expected) to play together. Sometimes it worked beautifully; at other times it was rather chaotic and troublesome for everyone involved. The point of Noise Riot, like Subspace before it, was to investigate new strategies by which to present simultaneous, discontinuous bursts of information without reproducing Murder the Word 2’s glorious mistakes. With roots at least as deep as the Futurist Luigi Russolo's early-20th Century manifesto “The Art of Noises” and the mid-century compositions of avant-gardists John Cage Whose ideas about “musicircus,” which tags multiple musical performances happening in a common space simultaneously, was a clear inspiration for Murder the Word, even as it set the trap from which the 3rd Murder the Word, Subspace/Basta! and Noise Riot were conceived to dismantle and Karlheinz Stockhausen (who employed "non-musical" elements such as electronic feedback, radio static and "found sounds" to break down and expand traditional musical arrangements), 21st century ‘noise’ music mines pop styles, including punk, techno and free jazz The only jazz at Noise Riot came via Steve Bazckowski, who blew drone madness through a hollow railing leading up to his apartment. At Murder the Word 3, however, I was wholly impressed with RivadeneIraWhitmanSack (a band which prominantly features free sax by Todd Whitman), as well as Whitman’s improvised free jazz/space bleep jam with Spacefly during the second set (both of which were highlights of the evening for me), which provide color and texture to performances built from the essential elements of “non-musical” sounds. I think I may have started to concentrate a little too much on defining this music as being avant-garde. What really makes it breathe, and what gives it force, is the fact that many of Buffalo’s noise musicians moonlight in other bands that actually get real gigs. I think this is where this perceived antagonism is moot: noise is a rediscovered edge of the pallet, not just a tool for music’s dismantling, although of course it could function that way too. “Whereas you always used to want to get inside noise, to feel this tornado of distortion envelope you, now it’s possible to think about sound as equal to music . . . to use noises as opposed to notes in creating a piece of aural art that basically replaces song or sonata or whatever traditional unit you may be concerned with,” says Reynolds. I received a CD from a guy proposing a sound opera in which each character’s part is reduced to and expressed through sound––very interesting, I think, as a deconstruction of traditional opera mechanics. The composer was building on this idea that most audiences don’t actually understand the words they are hearing because those words are typically sung in a foreign language, so what’s the difference? Even without this basic insight, creating a kind of Structuralist surface-opera is really interesting and worthwhile, so keep an ear open for that show to occur at Big Orbit some time in the future. "Of course, ‘noise’ music is often harsh and clangorous, but it can also be excruciatingly beautiful, especially when you are inundated with these sparkling, giggling bursts of electronic sound." The Murder the Word Noise Riot sub-event was especially beautiful. Noise Riot has proven in its 2 incarnations to be the sincere pursuit of abstract beauty, even in harshness, and although the people involved tend in various ways toward outward aggression against society at large, the music itself is open rather than closed (closed as punk music tends to be), and the embrace of confusion and harshness mostly joyous, not particularly painful or implosive. Noise Riot provides a clear and comfortable means by which to embrace all possibilities, from all edges of the fragmented spectrum: the chaotic and the controlled, the ugly and the beautiful, the abrasive and the pleasing, etc. NoiseRiot is the closest I’ve come artistically to achieving Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Composing from noises as opposed to notes, the artists involved with Noise Riot employ a wide range of compositional and improvisational techniques, including amplifier feedback; the manipulation of found objects; the use of music transmission devices--such as turntables and radios--as music-generating instruments; and extreme manipulations of the human voice. In some cases, traditional band arrangements will be employed, but not necessarily in a normal fashion. For example, Knox Harrington will play a traditional drums, bass and guitar set except none of the group’s members will have ever played their instruments before. This statement was based on disinformation. Knox Harrington played guitars and bass to create a kind of flickering drone that propelled the event forward. Their sound was spectacular, generating the roughest, most rock-oriented piece in the whole event, although it had very little to do with rock in a conventional sense except in so far as “rock” might be used to reference the wrenching power of a Glenn Branca guitar-noise symphony. In its mixture of art and D.I.Y. punk aesthetics, Noise Riot reflects the barrier-smashing post-rock of the late ‘70s No Wave movement digression: is No Wave pre-post-rock? I understand this term “post-rock” as it relates specifically to the genre of genreless musicians making the most exciting music today, although post-rock here is clearly used in its loosest sense. but also gives venue to the most extreme reaches of recent electronica, where disembodied sounds, spacey ripples and trippy effects rise to the fore while dominant melody and catchy choruses fall away Once again, this prediction came true much more at the Noise Riot sub-event, which was built around electronic sounds to a larger degree than traditionally abrasive “rock” sounds. Slated to perform at the event are: • Lost Earth Lock, a 1-man noise orchestra featuring 444, former guitar player for the Global Village Idiots. It’s silly to reduce a person to his most accessible project but that’s what preview articles are all about. • Spacefly and Nebulous, a duo whose specialty includes heavily effect-laden sound bursts . . . drum and bass without the drum or the bass. The funny thing about this description is that Spacefly actually did play bass. • Syzygy, whose intense tape loops, drum machine deconstructions and found objects-playing are trademarks of guitarist Stu Fuchs, formerly of The Waz. Syzygy’s performance was really nice, I must say. It came at a point in the event where we needed to hear something less loud and droning, and Stu and Leif answered that call perfectly. To be sure, it was noisy, but it was also dynamic, which impressed me immensely. What’s more, I was exceptionally happy with the way Stu interacted with the other musicians. During Terry Klein’s performance, for example, he accentuated Terry’s guitar lines with sheet metal springs that sounded just wonderful. • Terry Klein, Buffalo noise godfather, whose performances are as stimulating as they are impossible to predict. This says nothing, of course, because we weren’t sure if Terry was going to play music or do spoken word or both or neither. We weren’t sure if he was going to appear in the guise of the devil, naked, or what, so little concrete information was given. Terry ended up playing a solo guitar-like-instrumental set that brought the event to a halt, initiating a rush of silence that allowed us all to breath and he to work his moody magic. The music had this piercing intensity as well as a kind of iconic serenity that perfectly complemented the other performances. He had to catch another gig mid-show but later wrote that Bad Ronald had been asked to leave the stage at Broadway Joes, and that sometimes it pays to appreciate playing where you’re appreciated. • Steve Baczkowski, Hallwalls music director, who will be performing "Opus for Railing #1," which involves a thread of effected saxophone loops and Steve blowing savagely through the longest digeridoo in history: a hollow railing leading up to his loft apartment (at the gallery's entrance) one great thing about Steve is that everything in his life is an instrument always; he’s like John Cage’s evil twin, seeing possibilities for the conscious generation of sounds everywhere. • Knox Harrington, the deconstructed drum, bass and guitar trio whose members have never played those particular 3 instruments before. • Koji Tambata, whose "MusicWorks" films include soundtracks generated in the editing suite through the layering of elements from abstract film footage. It was unfortunate that Koji’s involvement didn’t pan out as planned. Initially, he was going to project his footage on the wall outside the gallery but his films also have this intense sound element, so it would have been the perfect piece by which to greet the audience on their way in (what’s more, it provided a bridge between Steve Bazckowski’s performance and the actual Noise Riot orchestration happening in the courtyard). Unfortunately, rain conspired to delete the wall projection, but Koji ended up doing live video manipulation of Steve’s performance, which was as cool as it always is. • Michael Baumann, whose amplified children's toys have provided aural textures for Mark Freeland's Electroman and the David Kane Quartet Electric. Michael didn’t do his own set, he only participated in the collective bridges, although he managed to forge a solo moment anyway. Here’s the story (which I think is hilarious because for one moment it seemed as if everyone’s awareness of what was supposed to be going on at this event had completely imploded): I had to more or less act as a conductor to insure proper orchestration--but at one point I had to go to the bathroom. When I came back, there was this strange Chinese Pop Music playing, but nobody else was doing anything except standing around talking. I ran up to Michael and said, “what the hell’s going on here? Why isn’t anybody playing? Where the hell is this music coming from?” and he’s like, “oh, that’s Chinese Pop music. I got it in Toronto. It’s funny the way that it kinda has a conventional pop sensibility but it . . .” “Wait, that’s you?!” “Yeah . . .” “Well Jesus Christ, turn it the fuck off! This whole event has just completely stalled! I gotta get everybody playing again before they pack up their gear and go home!” Listening to the tapes later, the 1-minute Chinese Pop interruption actually sounded really great and surreal, although not as surreal as my experience of nipping it in the bud before it got out of hand that night. • Craig Reynolds, whose "Slide Show Score for Improvised Noise Performance" will provide the basis for collective improvisation at the evening's conclusion. This is funny because I’m not actually a performer. I just try to create an outline and let others fill in the particulars. Basically what I was trying to do with this piece was to allow the audience an opportunity to participate in the collective moments, although it was also a way to use this set of slide show scores I’ve been trying to make work for years now (they consist of visual and verbal directions that in no specific way prescribe a performers’ actions). Unfortunately, it was supposed to utilize 3 projectors but only 1 worked, although it didn’t work well enough to actually illuminate the slide on the wall, so that aspect of the performance fell flat. It didn’t matter though because people scattered around the courtyard still seemed to be having fun smashing the bags of Christmas ornaments and other assorted sound goodies we had passed out beforehand for that very purpose. And: • Co/Dev.Space, an ambient noise duo from Rochester who mix ambient electronic snyth sweeps and echo effects with harsh noise drones approaching industrial textures. I really loved their performance at Noise Riot. It was the last individual set and seemed to be the triumphant conclusion. Although everybody contributed something amazing, Co/Dev. seemed to simultaneously summarize what had been done that night and push it in new directions. Out of each group’s 10-20 minute performance, a 4 minute improvised bridge into the next act will be provided by all the bands playing simultaneously, culminating in the all-out improvised free-for-all at the night’s conclusion. I don’t believe this for a second, but that’s okay . . . Equally aware of Arto Lindsay and DJ Spooky, Stockhausen and Ornette Coleman, Skinny Puppy and Glenn Branca, noise music is “post–” everything, from genre definitions such as rock, electronica or New Music, to songwriting conventions such as rhythm, melody, harmony, and lyrical meaning. This is kind of interesting, although I’m not sure that everyone who played really meets this definition. The interesting thing is that Therefore, who played an 8 hour show 1 month later, actually does fit that billing, in so far as they manage to splay music in all directions at once. It’s weird and disconcerting to be listening to music that deliberately gives you nothing on which to focus your response: no rhythmically solid repetition, no unmangled melody, no harmonic continuity . . . nothing. Updating Luigi Russolo’s call for the development of a music that reflects the clangorous sounds of modern industrial life so as to include the aural landscape of the post-industrial, electronic present, Noise Riot first reduces modern music to its bare essentials, and then builds forward in the service of a new sonic futurism. At Big Orbit’s Noise Riot, witness the sonic pioneers of the new millennium. 30 Essex St., 1/2 block west of Richmond between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 883-3209