Is this noisy enough to be considered noise, or is it something else?

[Bitter Synth]

I'm quite new to the world of electronic music, so I'm still trying to grasp different genres. I really like distortion and noisy stuff, so I am very pleased with this little jam. But is it noise, or is it something else genre wise? Thanks for enlightening me.

[funeralcake]

I have an incredibly low threshold for what qualifies as music, but to me this sounds like "electronic music", which is the most generic descriptor I can come up with short of being able to classify this under a particular sub-genre (there are so many "scenes" and hyper-specific micro-genres, I wouldn't know where to begin).

To me, this sounds most similar to the exploratory "electronic music" of the Krautrock era (late 60's-early 80's). Hard to define. It was all very nebulous and not really codified into a particular "sound". We hardly even had non-experimental/non-academic applications of electronic music, let alone established "genres" of it, until the end of the 70's (Industrial, for instance), and a lot of the labels and groupings we have now were applied retroactively.

[grizzleb]

I think it's pretty good if you can stay away from thinking in genres really... Genre names and conventions often function to halt creativity and create stagnant conservative ways of thinking in stead. I don't think this would be called noise, but if you keep trying to make things that appeal to you and make them as good as you can then you will do something valuable and it doesn't really matter what genre it is... The less time one worries about that the better imo

[grizzleb]

Cool little jam BTW, keep at it

[3hands]

Who cares? Make music that you love, and to hell with anyone else.

Edit: I dig it man!!

[carbonhazard]

no, definitely not noise and i'd suggest you listen to some noise if you can't tell.

[100000bps]

Structure either rhythmic or melodic means it's not "noise" as in genre. It needs to be the other way around - a subset of rhythm floats up from the noise, sometimes and irregularly. And forget the melodic parts entirely.

[carbonhazard]

Structure either rhythmic or melodic means it's not "noise" as in genre. It needs to be the other way around - a subset of rhythm floats up from the noise, sometimes and irregularly. And forget the melodic parts entirely.

while that's often how melody or rhytmic elements are used in noise, i'd say there are examples where the there are clear rhytmic or melodic structures while the music still retains a certain characteristic that makes it "noise". for example prurient does this often & well.

in the op's case, the track is just vaguely berlin school-ish kosmic synth sequence with some distortion. it's maybe noisy for electronic music, but certainly not noise.

[Bitter Synth]

Thanks for your input, guys. Much appreciated. Will make sure to check out some proper noise by digging around in this subforum.

"Just vaguely berlin school-ish kosmic synth sequence with some distortion"

That sounds like a fun description, I'll hang on to it.

[carbonhazard]

Thanks for your input, guys. Much appreciated. Will make sure to check out some proper noise by digging around in this subforum.

"Just vaguely berlin school-ish kosmic synth sequence with some distortion"

That sounds like a fun description, I'll hang on to it.

I didn't mean it as a bad thing, I love berlin school & kosmische stuff in general. Your music sounds good, it's just not really noise.

if you incorporate more chaotic & noisy elements you could easily cross over to noise territory. here's prurient at his cheesiest, incorporating very berlin-esque synth arpeggios to classic noise elements and personally i think it works really well:

[acgenerator]

I'm quite new to the world of electronic music, so I'm still trying to grasp different genres. I really like distortion and noisy stuff, so I am very pleased with this little jam. But is it noise, or is it something else genre wise? Thanks for enlightening me.

Unlike most of the replies so far, I think there is value in classifying music into genres assuming the genres are based on the musical structures/theories/techniques. It certainly helps create playlists/set with a similar feel and variations on a theme. It's not stifling to anyone's creativity to have a common framework to describe styles of music.

I would not classify this as part of the "Noise" genre.

The lead strikes me a something you would see in the "techno" family but the underlying beat has more of a "trance" progression. I would classify as crossover between those genres. This would be a piece that would mix well with songs like Underworld's "Rez" which has a similar feel and structure.

[carbonhazard]

genres are both useful and completely irrelevant. if you want to know if a piece of music belongs into a genre, naturally there's merit in establishing genre boundaries within that discussion. also i don't think electronic music as we know it today would exist without extremely rigid genre rules.

that said, noise is a weird genre in that it's like porn. there's no set rules, no handbook to read on how to make noise but everyone into it can honestly tell quite fast if something is noise or not.

[Bitter Synth]

I didn't mean it as a bad thing, I love berlin school & kosmische stuff in general. Your music sounds good, it's just not really noise.

Oh, I didn't take as a bad thing. I thought it was a cool description.


The track you included was interesting. The super high pitch tone messed with my ears, but the rest of the soundscape was definitely interesting.

[Bitter Synth]

Unlike most of the replies so far, I think there is value in classifying music into genres assuming the genres are based on the musical structures/theories/techniques. It certainly helps create playlists/set with a similar feel and variations on a theme. It's not stifling to anyone's creativity to have a common framework to describe styles of music.

I would not classify this as part of the "Noise" genre.

The lead strikes me a something you would see in the "techno" family but the underlying beat has more of a "trance" progression. I would classify as crossover between those genres. This would be a piece that would mix well with songs like Underworld's "Rez" which has a similar feel and structure.

Cheers. I find them quite useful as well, kind of like a not too detailed map of the musical world, from which you can zoom in and discover a million subgenres that might appeal to you. Gotta check out Underworld then!

[MindMachine]

Your Mom might think it's noise, but it is just electronic music. 'Noise' tries real hard to make it sound like noise.

[GGW]

Alien Hoedown