This album was designed as a perverse kind of relaxation. The world outside seems increasingly cruel, increasingly blind, increasingly stupid. In the same week that scientists announced there is only a decade left to prevent catastrophic climate change (and later that the warming of the oceans was much worse than previously realised) the national conversation continued to be dominated by the government’s inability to negotiate a slightly worse trading arrangement with Europe. The Budget announced precisely zero measures to tackle a species level crisis but held duty on drinks in pubs so if we all try really hard we’ll probably be too pissed to notice the end of the world.
The five tracks that make up Noise is a Radical Form of Silence have been carefully designed to take the listener on a short emotional hiatus from the horrors of the world outside. Through hypnotic, slowly shifting rhythms, walls of static, and deeply buried chord progressions you can take a holiday from the ongoing nightmare. Treat yourself to a wall of noise that obliterates awareness of the nightmare dystopia just around the corner; you’ve earned it. The BPM of the songs gradually drops over the course of the album and indeed over the course of each song. The whole album is a form of audio tranquilliser. Swirling synths smother the pounding beats, smoothing out the rough edges to provide a sonic blanket conducive to a kind of bludgeoning peace. Let it wash over you. The beats are constantly changing, they were manipulated in real time which was great fun except for the many occasions I completely ballsed it up and had to start again from scratch. Everything you hear was produced in real time although some quantisation was used on certain elements of the sound to keep the rhythm from becoming too abstract. Also after 30 takes for some parts I was really starting to question my own commitment to authenticity so a few elements have been stitched together from several takes. It’s not cheating if you own up to it.
I spent a lot longer on the mixing of these tracks than I usually would. I had a very specific sound in mind and it required a great deal of tweaking levels to get the thick, enveloping sonic landscape I wanted. There are elements that are deliberately mixed to very low levels and sometimes when I’m listening on headphones it almost sounds like there are voices whispering just below conscious awareness. I rather like this but it may be an acquired taste. A lot of my music these days is expressed as a form of meditation. I am very bad at meditation, there is no inner peace that I’ve ever been able to access, so I use music to try and fulfill the same function.
In a world which openly refuses to engage with difficult but solvable problems self-care becomes ever more important. I don’t think I can get my carbon footprint down any further without killing myself and I don’t think I can make a meaningful improvement to the world’s chances of survival unless I take Jacob Rees-Mogg with me. I could theoretically go and live in yurt on the moors somewhere and survive off eating heather and backpackers but in world that shows an amazing ability to take collectively awful decisions it feels like too little too late. With the fate of the planet effectively sealed all I can do is try to create tools to alleviate the sheer horror of it all for as long as I can bear to inhabit this wretched, doomed orb. This album is one such tool. If you feel powerless in the face of global corporations, corrupt governments, and a vindictive media that’s because you are. Surrender, at least temporarily, is always a viable option.
As always the album is free to download but a small donation to the wildlife charity of your choice is always appreciated.
