Noise music is a special breed; it takes the ‘negative’ characteristics associated with traditional music and uses them as a positive function within its sonic assault. Dissonant resonance and often a-tonal, distorted vocals bleed static upon the plague soundscapes that are often appealing, always intense and rarely boring...well, the last part isn’t entirely true.
Noise music these days has unfortunately begun to sound stagnant. Cookie cutter artists bastardise the work of Justin Pearson, Jason Broadrick, William Bennett, Stephen O’Malley and Thurston Moore. It is rare to find a genuinely exciting bunch of lads and ladies that not only pay homage to what came before them, but have the talent to carve out their own identity as well. American noise bands continue to thrive with labels like Ipecac, Relapse, Southern Lord and Three One G whilst the British scene remains consistently unnurtured and unappreciated. Apart from the much adorned Bristonian duo, Fuck Buttons and the painfully inconsistent Sheffield brats, Rolo Tomassi, there is very little support for Britain’s noise artists.
Divorce is one such band, only magazines like Rock a Rolla and Plan B have taken notice of this destructive, Glaswegian five piece. Divorce have a cracked, piercing musical style comparable to bands like Aids Wolf, Bellini and All Leather. The aggression which dominates their sound is both intense and seductive. Like the 2nd wave punk of the late seventies/early eighties, their songs are brutally succinct and admirably uncompromising. I had the pleasure of witnessing a Divorce show earlier this year and thankfully, they delivered the goods with expert proficiency. Even along side the hipster brilliance of Health they appeared quietly confident, astoundingly triumphant in their overall product.
With British talent like this it’s quite disheartening to experience the general apathy that the alternative scene feels towards such music. Granted, this is a very specific musical spectrum, it would be quite belligerent of me to expect the great British public to flock to noise shows in their droves, but still, it would be nice to see a bit more support for such experimentation. If these artists were given the time and support to create these blistering, audio assaults then maybe we would have a few more interesting groups on our hands instead of the paint by numbers electro/indie garbage that seems so prominent in our current pop climate.
Divorce are playing several dates in England throughout the month of October.
Yours faithfully,
Ben Harding. Peace x
P.S. If you haven’t already then check out Tawny Owl & the Birds of Prey in their first video for the brilliant song, Ghost Writer
