Words: December 2007 Archives
For all you budding musicians, acoustic or electronic, for all those wishing to challenge people’s understanding of what constitutes music, for those at all interested in the history, influences and lineage of music today, Noise Music, by Paul Hegarty, is an absolute must. Its depth is remarkable. Indeed, it can be quite heavy going, each page requiring absolute concentration - a lighthearted trawl through avant-garde music this is not; a rewarding and fascinating examination of different musics, their place in cultural and historical context, and their use of ‘noise’ it is. But what is noise? This is the thread that binds 13 illuminating chapters, in particular the idea that what is one day deemed noise or unwanted sound the next day becomes acceptable as music. But around this thread dances Hegarty and his extraordinary knowledge of all strains of music, taking in everything from Satie to Cage, Russolo to the Sex Pistols, and Coil to Sonic Youth, all of them musicians unique in the singularity and imagination of their vision and their unerring commitment to their beliefs. Hegarty’s passion for his subject simmers and spits beneath every word as he takes you deeper and deeper into a world of dissonance, musique concrète, rarefied jazz, Japanese noise and contemporary electronic experimentalism.
The result, for me at least, was twofold: enlightenment and inspiration - no mean feat for any book.
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