Welcome our newest contributor: Rjyan Kidwell.  He is co-founder of Tigerbeat6 with Kid 606 and makes music under the moniker Cex (Wiki)

Photo credit: Amelia

Last night I went to The Bank— pretty much my favorite place to see bands play in Baltimore— to see a bunch of harsh noise bands I’d never seen before.  I experienced a wide range of feelings at this show, so I thought I might come home and try to compose a few haikus about each band I saw.  However, in the spirit of harsh noise, I am pretty much ignoring the syllable rules that make haikus haikus.  

LEGLESS
Dude’s shirt is off quick,
but those pudge layers look warm.
whoa, an ARP Odyssey!

hmm, Tomita riffs are not here.
it sounds like a giant blowing in a microphone.
I wonder what that huge sampler is for?

A Boss loop pedal, as well!
The red one, that stores loops in memory—-
all of this to make a big wind noise?

Good thing his bro is along.
Smashing the cymbal with contact mic and chain.
Roby turns, “Breaking instruments will never get old.”

Big Dude screams: “The truth! 
The truth is the only (something something) 
your fucking face!” Hmm.

It’s not that bad, though,
Smashing-friend got me amped, but all good will is squandered 
by the raging sexist outburst later back by the woodstove.

Real tall guy doing full-on 
tactless sexual harassment— maybe seems “noise” to him but it’s pathetic
proof you had more to purge during that set.

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Download live sets (MP3 or FLAC) for Skaters, Axolotl, DJ Dog Dick for a limited time, courtesy of Aural States and Jeff the Baltimore Taper. Just click on the artist name to goto the downloads!

Ah yes, an ambient noise show. I don’t want to make a protracted defense of the genre, so I will simply state that this is music; in many cases beautiful music.

But I will concede that musicians in this genre are often hit-or-miss. To be sure, turning knobs on FX pedals doesn’t require great musical chops, but you still better be inspired when performing. With an ambient music live performance, as with any musical performance really, it is immediately apparent when the musician is just going through the motions.

In the case of this genre, watching a person “go through the motions” twisting knobs can be pretty disappointing. But then again there are those absolutely sublime performances. Last night’s show at the Floristree saw both extremes.

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Excellent stuff, again courtesy of Jeff the Taper, exclusively on Aural States. Click through to find MP3s, or download the entire set in these formats: (MP3 or FLAC).

Other sets from the night: Axolotl, the Skaters, Kemialliset Ystavat

And be sure to read our show review.

DJ Dog Dick
Floristree
Baltimore, MD
May 25, 2008

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