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the reason i play noise is because most noise out there is utter bland crap.
i do think noise is a very purely understood genre (if it is, or branch of music perhaps) mostly by it's own creators. most people who are in noise bands don't listen to noise or if they do, it's just the big obvious names, how many of these people know of solmania? hell, how many have heard early throbbing gristle or early swans? even masonna hardly gets a mention. most people are like "merzbow, wolf eyes and..." sometimes hair police but mostly boredoms (the most cultured of the bunch mention hanatarsh), which leads to the boredoms not being noise artists but a chaotic rock band; sure, they can be taken as a stapping stone band to get into the really harsh stuff but the boredoms are not noise and yet they are the most mentioned "noise" band along with masami and w.e. and because people don't really listen to noise because it's easier and cheaper to make than to follow and support you get bands that are supposed to be "extreme" and crazy like 16 bitch pile up who are unimaginative, derivative and, the worst offense a noise artist can commit, bland.
even more, noise artists have started to settle and enjoy the spoils of it's new found popularity, which just means a hell of a lot of people adopting the name to make fast music in limited edition runs. merzbow has been mellowing out and playing thru the motions. savage and scott v mention noise peaked in the early nineties for them which might have more to do with the quality of the music made and the uniqueness of it all, unlike today which has to do with everything except the music.
scott v is right, if a noise artist isn't prolific then people don't take them seriously, unless you are already a legend and pioneer from back in the day. i know people who love doing eps and albums every week in order to exist; i blame merzbow for that.
the reason noise bands, regardless of their quality, have taken root and have been multiplying is because of the underground support system. in orther for a new noise artist to release his/her 784 hours of laptop garbage, they need a label or someone willing to put out the music, more than exclusively releasing it themselves because of the ridiculous amount of music they produce; also, they need other, liked minded bands to play with, release splits with, release on each other's labels, etc. it's not a listener's genre anymore, it's not even about the music.
noise is the new garage, easy to produce, anyone can do it.
i do believe, though, that because there's so much stuff, there's great stuff bound to come out, and the challenge is to find it, even if it might be very frustrating to go thru all the bullshit.
as for me, i do noise because i like listening to it; i have done 2 eps as I/C/O/C and one is in the making, and i have not released any of those yet; that's why it's probably never going to go anywhere.
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