Extreme Music: From Silence to Noise and Everything In between

by Michael Tau

Overview

Expand your aural and sensory experiences with Extreme Music. An exploration of tomorrow’s sounds (and silences) today.

Michael Tau had spent years obsessed by the extremes of musical expression. Extreme Music: Silence to Noise and Everything In Between is the culmination of decades of research into the sounds (and silences) that comprise the outer limits and conceptual expressions that stretch the definition of music. Tau defines and categorizes these recorded sounds into sections that allow fans and newcomers to explore the fascinating world of musicians who defy convention. He explores a wide range of extremes including volume, speed, and vulgarity to packaging, recording methods, unplayable media, outdated technologies, and digital pioneers. He asks and answers the questions: Are all sounds music? Is silence music? Is a plate of rotting food once cataloged, packaged and sold by a distributor qualify as music?

Extreme Music includes over 100 interviews with makers and musicians as Tau uses his background in psychiatry to help readers understand what motivates people to create and listen to non-mainstream music. As a fan of multiple avant-garde musical genres, Tau uncovers the pleasures (and sometimes pain and frustration) found at the outré fringes of music.

Extreme Music is the ideal guide for curious seekers, die-hard fans, and cultural investigators. Features images and curated links to samples of music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627311243
Publisher:	Feral House
Publication date:	10/04/2022
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Tau was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. As a teenager, he was introduced to bizarre and adventurous music via the after-hours CBC radio program, Brave New Waves, which he recorded onto cassette to listen to the next day. In university, he attended noise shows in lofts in Montreal’s quasi-industrial districts, to the detriment of his hearing. He has since written for numerous underground music publications and has authored several music zines. When he isn’t listening to the Merzbow boxset, he works as a physician.

Table of Contents

SECTION I: EXTREME SCENES
I.1 LOUD ............................................................................................15
I.1.1 The Loudness War.............................................................15
I.1.2 Noise Music.......................................................................18
I.1.3 Harsh Noise Wall..............................................................22
I.2 QUIET ............................................................................................33
I.2.1 Drone..................................................................................34
I.2.2 New Age Music.................................................................34
I.2.3 Ambient..............................................................................37
I.2.4 Homemade Drone............................................................39
I.2.5 Lowercase..........................................................................40
I.2.6 Onkyô................................................................................44
I.3 VULGAR..........................................................................................47
I.3.1 Blood and Guts.................................................................47
I.3.2 Pornogrind.........................................................................54
I.4 FAST ............................................................................................61
I.4.1 Speedcore..........................................................................62
I.4.2 Splittercore........................................................................69
I.4.3 Extratone...........................................................................71
I.4.4 Flashcore............................................................................73
I.5 FOUND...........................................................................................77
SECTION II: EXTREME DURATIONS
II.1 LONG ............................................................................................97
II.2 SHORT ...........................................................................................111
SECTION III: EXTREME RECORDS
III.1 LATHE-CUT....................................................................................127
III.2 LARGE .......................................................................................... 131
III.3 SMALL ..........................................................................................135
III.4 SHAPES.........................................................................................141
III.4.1 Places...............................................................................142
III.4.2 Sawblades.......................................................................143
III.4.3 Beyond.............................................................................146
III.5 PICTURES......................................................................................149
III.5.1 Picture Disc Prehistory...................................................149
III.5.2 Vogue Records................................................................150
III.5.3 Red Raven Records’ Zoetrope Discs............................. 151
III.5.4 Picture Discs in the Rock Era..........................................152
III.6 ADULTERATED .............................................................................159
III.7 NON-VINYL .................................................................................165
III.7.1 Records That Melt...........................................................165
III.7.2 Project Dark.....................................................................168
III.7.3 Other Unusual Materials................................................ 171
SECTION IV: TECHNOLOGICAL QUIRKS
IV.1 CHIPTUNE ....................................................................................177
IV.2 LOBIT ..........................................................................................183
IV.3 FLOPPIES ..................................................................................... 191
IV.3.1 Early Floppy History....................................................... 191
IV.3.2 Floppies as Subculture....................................................193
IV.4 MICROCASSETTES .......................................................................199
IV.4.1 Microcassettor.................................................................199
IV.4.2 One-Touch Recordings....................................................200
IV.4.3 dirgefunk’s microcassettes............................................201
IV.4.4 Dictaphonia......................................................................202
IV.4.5 Dictafawn.........................................................................203
IV.4.6 Lavender Sweep.............................................................204
IV.5 8-TRACKS .....................................................................................207
IV.5.1 Malcolm Tent’s 8-Track Obsession................................208
IV.5.2 8-Tracks in the Nineties.................................................. 210
IV.5.3 The 21st Century............................................................. 210
IV.6 CYLINDERS................................................................................... 215
IV.7 NON-TRADITIONAL FORMATS................................................... 219
IV.7.1 USB & SD.......................................................................... 219
IV.7.2 Self-Reliant Formats........................................................220
SECTION V: EXTREME PACKAGING
V.1 ELABORATE..................................................................................227
V.1.1 History of Elaborate Packaging....................................228
V.1.2 American Tapes...............................................................229
V.1.3 MSBR Records.................................................................233
V.1.4 Toxic Industries / Very Toxic.........................................235
V.1.5 Others...............................................................................239
V.2 DISGUSTING ...............................................................................243
V.2.1 Disgusting Accoutrements .............................................247
V.2.2 Packs................................................................................247
V.2.3 Body Fluids......................................................................248
V.2.4 Perishables......................................................................252
V.2.5 A Final Anecdote.............................................................255
SECTION VI: RECORDINGS?
VI.1 SILENT ..........................................................................................261
VI.1.1 Silent Pioneers.................................................................261
VI.1.2 Silent Recordings.............................................................263
VI.2 DAMAGED ...................................................................................273
VI.3 UNPLAYABLE ...............................................................................281
VI.3.1 Anti-Records & Underground Music.............................283
VI.3.2 RRRecords’ Anti-Records................................................284
VI.3.3 The Haters........................................................................286
VI.3.4 Major Ego Produkt Objekts & Aktions.........................289
VI.3.5 One-Off Anti-Records in the Nineties............................292
VI.3.6 Anti-Recordings in Other Formats.................................295
VI.3.7 Contemporary Anti-Recordings: NONE Records,
Michael Ridge, and Auris Apothecary.........................298
VI.3.9 Anti-Recordings: Tying It All Together..........................304
SECTION VII: THE DIGITAL AGE
VII.1 WAVES.......................................................................................... 313
VII.1.1 Mallsoft............................................................................ 313
VII.1.2 Broken Transmission.......................................................321
VII.1.3 Late Night Lo-Fi...............................................................324
VII.2 RINGTONES.................................................................................327
VII.3 BLACK MIDI ................................................................................331
VII.4 OUTSIDERS...................................................................................333
VII.4.1 R.A.E.D.............................................................................333
VII.4.2 Viper.................................................................................335
VII.4.3 Farrah Abraham.............................................................336
VII.4.4 Al Walser.........................................................................337
VII.4.5 Chief Kooffreh.................................................................338
VII.4.6 Fallen Vengeance............................................................338
VII.4.7 Girls With Attitude..........................................................339
VII.4.8 Ornaments of Agony......................................................340
VII.4.9 Hekaloth Records............................................................340
VII.4.10 Tonetta.............................................................................341

Editorial Reviews

"Extreme Music deserves extreme documentation, and Michael Tau is more than up to the task. There's so much to confront–and be confronted by–in the nearly 350 pages he's written, a dizzying compendium of wild sounds, strange sights, radical concepts, and hidden histories. Oh, and also bodily fluids. If you're into any art that pushes limits until they shatter, you'll be into Extreme Music."
Marc Masters (No Wave (Black Dog, 2007) and Hi Bias: A Distorted History of the Cassette Tape (University of North Carolina Press, 2023)


"Having spent 15 years seeking out, soliciting, and publishing about bizarre, odd, and extremely unusual music, Extreme Music nevertheless is a portal to an incredible metaverse that I knew had to exist and which I had yet to plumb. Owing to the ease of further research via the Web, this seemingly small tome is sure to send you — as it did me — into googles of wormholes to learn more about the overwhelming aural discoveries disclosed in this must-have music reference."
Randall Fleming, MetroHop Books

"Just finished reading Extreme Music, and found it to be very entertaining and informative—there were a number of topics addressed that are near and dear to my heart: the Noise stuff (I'm actually friends with a few of the folks interviewed), and the obscure/obsolete recording formats. The extreme metal stuff I'm not that familiar with, so it was interesting to learn how far it has splintered into subgenres  The Black Midi stuff was fascinating, I was completely unaware of its existence—I was intrigued that someone had formulated "rules" for what makes a good black midi composition...it brought to mind Conlon Nancarrow's compositions for player pianos! There’s enough topic breadth to replace a whole bookshelf of academic works! Would definitely recommend!"

Dan of Earth, infamous Milwaukee noiser

From the Publisher