Is it just me or are we constantly bombarded by sounds/noises?

I do believe that more than ever before (except maybe during times of unrest and war), our modern western society(ies) is getting much louder. Between the impossibly over-loud station announcements in the métros (subways) to the blarring of floors/levels in elevators, it seems everywhere we go, we are constantly assaulted by noises and sounds, something which a mere 10-15 years ago wasn't as intense (although the metro/Subway example has been going on for over 2 décades, the new AZUR métros PA levels are absolutely maddening loud). Maybe this is something most humans don't notice due to most humans not being as sensitive to their senses as I am (a design flaw, especially in today's day and age, and Something I did not have any say in during my inception), and perhaps people are more easily subdued to being slowly compliant by the noise pressures/pollutants, but I noticed this obvious elevation in sound level allienation (much like I am old enough to have seen the world change between the pre-internet age to the post Y2K censorship loving internet), Anyway....

I think for me it all started décades ago when I noticed I could easily hear my neighbours due to the newer sound systems becoming increasingly bass-loudness heavy, while the sound insulation in apartment walls was far from adequate to sheild us from other's music, stompings, construction work, talking, etc. When I realized my hearing seemed much more sensitive/developped than anyone I ever known or communicated with, I knew I would have to take steps to try to drown out the increasing levels of noises around me. Then of course I noticed that society decided to bombard us everywhere we went. It wasn't just forced music in public places, but now we had automated voice announcements everywhere we went: we are greated by robot voices when we go to the super market, robot voices blurt out announcement on PA systems almost everywhere, robot voices in elevators, robot voices in public transit, etc... Soon enough, I noticed you simply could not go anywhere at all for some peace and quiet! No quiet at home (neighbours, city contruction, traffic, etc.), no quiet outside (obviously), no quiet in the métros (obviously, but the STM do have a not-so-secret agenda to allianate their users, as I explained elsewhere on this blog), no quiet in retail stores, etc... The only real peace and quiet I noticed I was getting was when I leave for work before 05h30am in the morning... And even then, I have noticed over the last couple of years that ever since I started getting to work early, more and more people seem to be doing similarly.

And yes, add to this all those fucking iphones and shit, where people these days not only scream into their cell phones on speaker phone, but also force others to listen to their so-called music on these portal phone devices. We're back to the old days of teens walking with their ghetto blasters in the Streets, only now it's the kids with their iPhone listening to that rap crap. So yeah, call me an old fart or an ancient geezer if you will, but just because it's 2019 and you've never known a world without the internet or cell phones doesn't mean that the world hasn't become louder. I do however doubt that many other people of my or older générations will remember that there was a time when elevators and the metro (Subway) didn't scream at you two time per minute.

review: Vromb "Noize Mélodia"

Montréal’s Vromb has returned with a new selection of sonic challenges for us to sort throught, and once again, his manifested machinations almost command a most serious attention from the listener. Noize Mélodia, released by Ant-Zen, continues the one-man project’s complex and intriguing audio explorations, this time around somewhat departing from what some of us can only describe as his “trademark” sound developed over the last few albums, although one would be a fool to proclaim that Vromb’s sound in any era was anything but self-repetitive and reliant on past techniques. In fact, Noize Mélodia is indeed unmistakingly Vromb, as each track builds on itself, morphs and evolves into unchartered and yet self-exploratative areas, not unlike allowing the song’s own “vibration” or “tone” to shape it’s own self, with only slight nudges from the human operator behind the unique and un-imitable sounds. Strangely hypnotic while constantly keeping us on our toes, each individual song also works as part of the whole, and one could easily just enjoy the whole album as a single entity which never stagnates nor lingers on any surface or territory for too long. Complex yet simple without ever becoming too minimal, textures rich in density but fluid in motion, Vromb’s alien and yet vaguely familiar audio excursions feel more like a fevered dream or hallucinatory state of consciousness rather than a nightmarish trip through strange lands (one possible exception could be the track “tempête solaire suivie de: écho d’une terre sans hommes”, which starts off more abrasive than one would expect from a more recent Vromb release, but does subside into a moderately less off-putting state). If anything, this time around the work seems as though it is always at the cusp of losing control, but Vromb seems perfectly at ease to fend off the possible chaos and remain in total control of the self-evolving audioscapes. Like much of all of Vromb’s oeuvre, it is best to enter without any preconceived expectations and allow the sounds to take the helm of the piloting while the listener should be both attentive of the happenings but remain an appreciative passenger.  

I have known Vromb's mastermind ever since the mid-90s when I discovered his debut album, and have remained a dedicated fan ever since (with only a slight absence during a part of the 2000s where I was virtually absent from pretty much everyone and everything). He had warned me that his latest album was anything but an easy listening experience and that I should indeed be warned before going in, expecting something more akin to his last record "Chorégraphie" or some of his more recent offerings. Yet with this in mind, I did not find "Noize Mélodia" as much of an anomaly as I would have expected after Hugo's warnings. In fact I was pleasantly surprised for the most part, and find this album another fantastic entry in the Vromb catalogue.

The origins of NOISE: Luigi Russolo

OK so I won't go too overly long winded with everyone even though a post such as this one would deserve to be much more detailed and worked upon instead of this quickly done drive-by style splat upon the virtual wall. Maybe some people think noise (non-anti)music comes from Japan with the Japanoise movement but it actually comes from end of 19th century/early 20th century Futurist movement. Painter Luigi Russolo designed the intonarumori which is essentially the first anti-instrument, relying more on analogue pre-electronic technology than anything, and resenbles a wooden box with a horn as an amplifier on it. None of the original intonarumori survived since their creation but many have been built by those who actually celebrate the "art of noise" developped by Russolo.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3KMbSkYNI


Anyway this is quite interesting considering where noise when since the advent of recording technologies and electronic music, even before computers became an integral part of making electronic music. In fact I can say that "local" independant noise artist Knurl was a true noise artist since he essentially actually constructed set-ups to generate noises which he would over-amplify to the extreme, instead of working with already established walls of noise re-processed through electronics and computers. Granted, Russolo's intonarumori weren't supposed to be amplified, which is quite impressive considering how today's noise scene seems to predominantly support the over-amplification of noise in order for anything to fit in their genre. The intonarumori therefore could maybe be considered the first non-instrument, or the first noise instrument. In any case, this is the origins of noise and something Worth investigating if you are into that kind of stuff.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYPXAo1cOA4

Art of Noises classification of noise types

The Art of Noises classified "noise-sound" into six groups:

1. Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing roars, Bangs, Booms
2. Whistling, Hissing, Puffing
3. Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering, Gurgling
4. Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery, etc.
5. Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death rattles, Sobs
6. Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Buzzing, Crackling, Scraping