Whether under the Crawl Unit moniker or his own name, Joe Colley has created his own unique strain of noise since the late ’80s. We were elated to have Colley join us for an in depth conversation about his work—both sonically and visually—his early experimentation, and the feeling of the boundary-free era of ’90s noise. Let the speakers crack and the floorboards creek.
Juan Mendez (Silent Servant) joins us to discuss a major root in industrial sound — Cabaret Voltaire’s “The Voice of America.” Juan talks about the importance of this record in relation to his work as well as the entire landscape of industrial and experimental music. We also get into his history as Silent Servant, his work with Sandwell District and more. The damage is done and the messages have been received.
To say we had a blast talking to Richard Ramirez-Matzus Sean Ramirez-Matzus, the core of Black Leather Jesus, would be a criminal understatement. This 2 hour talk could have easily been 10 hours. We get into the early days of Black Leather Jesus and Deadline Recordings, how Richard and Sean got together, our favorite horror movies, and so much more. Time to sharpen your pencils like a knife in a giallo; another noise history lesson is in session.
Japanese industrial psychosis plows through the wastelands in the form of Dissecting Table’s “Between Life and Death.” We are fully on board for Ichiro Tsuji’s unique industrial art and have a blast digging into his post apocalyptic sounds. Hop into a flamethrower-equipped car and crank this dystopian masterpiece. Everyday is one more day of insanity.
Damion Romero’s project Speculum Fight rides the American noise railways as we discuss 1997’s “Highball” CD on WIN Records. Damion gave us some background information on this album as well as his equipment and inspiration around this time. Put on your engineer’s cap and enjoy the scenery thru the lens of Speculum Fight.
As nearly every classic Japanese noise artist has sited Tangerine Dream as a huge influence, we thought it was time to cover them and their “Zeit” double album from 1972. One of the very first full on experimental ambient records, “Zeit” sends us all on an abstract sonic path while we dig up the roots of what makes up everyone from Aube to Merzbow to Nord and countless other noise legends. Touch the haunting heavens with this masterpiece of experimental art.
Are we in the cosmos? Underwater? The jungle? It’s possible we are in all three at the same time with Nord “Electronic Initiation.” Nord is one of the earliest Japanese noise projects, and this brain buster of a CD came almost 20 years into Nord’s existence. Midway through the episode, we got messages from Kimihide Kusafuka, aka K2, aka owner of Kinky Musik Institute, the label that put this CD out. Kusafuka gave us some behind the scenes info on “Electronic Initiation” including one bit of information that changed our whole perception of the album.
Aaron Dilloway takes us on a time traveling journey, as far back as the 1920s, to get into some of the earliest roots of experimental music with “Sounds of New Music” on the legendary Folkways Records. This compilation features works from avant garde composers like John Cage and Edgar Varese, as well as some strange instructional tracks and other primitive sonic experiments. Hear the sounds of the distant past and understand the sounds of the future.
Shredding down the sun-drenched modified noise guitar highway we go with Solmania’s “Trembling Tongues.” A very unique Japanese noise project, Solmania delivers some psychedelic overdrive noise. We go through an interview with Masahiko Ohno from Bananafish #9 and and get into his own noise world. Greh pronounces Solmania one way, Tara pronounces it another way, and Mike bounces between the two, which is only fitting when discussing this wild CD of noise madness.
Pete Swanson joins us to melt icebergs and flood alleyways with “Cities in Fog” by Jeff Greinke. Swanson recommended this strange ’80s muted atmospheric haze for us to cover and we couldn’t have been happier to swim in this watery abyss. Pete brings his deep knowledge of obscure experimental scenes and sounds as we discuss where this album comes from and where it takes us. Let the dark tides roll in.