 John Wiese's name is becoming as recognizable as Merzbow's. His output, though not as insane as Masami
Akita's, is constant and nearly impossible to keep up with. He has worked with a number of musicians and
noise-makers including Sunn 0))), Wolf Eyes, The Haters, Panicsville, and Daniel Menche. Teenage
Hallucination: 1992-1999 is an attempt to consolidate much of Wiese's earliest output (some of it
recorded at the age of 14) on to one disc and catch everyone up with this prolific destroyer of
sound.
Troniks
First things first: unless I am mistaken, much of what appears on this disc is entirely out of print or
otherwise very difficult to get a hold of. Even if neither of those is the case, there is a lot material
compiled on this release from Troniks and other prolific noise musicians and their labels would do well
to follow suit. So often noise records are released in severely limited editions and become impossible
to find very, very quickly. Not only do compilations like this one make it easier to get the material,
they also make it easier for more people to appreciate an artist's work. It's always very difficult to
decide whether or not I'd want to buy a special edition, expensive vinyl from an artist I barely know, especially if the tracks
included are less than ten seconds long. Having tracks like that compiled onto one disc is a
great thing and no other genre of music could possibly benefit from compilations like this one more than noise.
In the smooth and perhaps best looking booklet from Troniks that I've seen, Toshiji Mikawa of Hijokaidan
and Incapacitants remarks that even at the age of 14, John Wiese seemed to know what he wanted to do
with noise. As evidence for this statement, Mikawa remarks that the final two tracks on the album, both
recorded in 1992, foreshadow much of the material Wiese would record throughout his now long career.
It's an interesting statement because harsh noise is a fairly homogenous approach to sound, many albums
sounding too similar for some. In addition, a 14 year old making noise isn't all that unusual, why
should Wiese's consistency and, later, his innovation be considered remarkable at all? Mikawa's answer
has something to do with noise as spirituality, but my answer sits in the heart of what Wiese does best:
change.
Consistency is one thing, but to move from that concept to bland repetition is a mistake. Yes, Wiese has
remained almost unfalteringly harsh throughout his career, especially during his formative years as a
noise-maker and a performer, but many of his pieces exhibit a depth of sounds and influences. I'll admit
that I don't know quite how to take the four-second-a-piece "Lock" series or the multitude of sub-
twenty-second tracks, but one thing is for sure: Wiese never really sounds the same at all. His attacks
are always modified, buffered, sharpened, or mutated by different approaches to constant static and
total feedback. The "Catwoman" tracks could be tagged as nightmare soundscapes. They are two completely
different tracks belonging to one release, presumably: one of them is a mash up of video game sound
assaults, pure noise, cut up voices, and other unpleasant sources and the other is a rolling, bubbling
drone with no sudden surprises or igneous outbursts. Then there is the "Selectric" series. Four tracks,
each over two minutes in length, play out as recordings of pure, unhinged anger as heard from inside a
wind tunnel. There are other tracks on the compilation like them, but their unity and high-pitched fury
are unmatched.
As the noise continues, Wiese becomes younger and younger. "Untitled (Sissy Spacek) CS" provides a
glimpse of Wiese employing his mad and spastic editing techniques to great effect: the garbled, possibly
vocal, sounds jumping around on this track are almost rhythmic, but subtle enough to keep the noise
assault pure. "Static Whale" is a gorgeous bit of droning noise and another example of Wiese
experimenting with his sound early in his recording career. On and on, as the songs move backwards
through time, more and more intriguing tracks pop up. They make clear the progress Wiese has made and
almost write out in detail some of the ways Wiese has modified and tinkered with his sound.
I'm not sure if that means Wiese has always had a consistent, but ever-changing vision, though. Noise
might just lend itself to consistency, creating an illusion of vision. I also don't think that whether or not
he's ever had a vision matters at all. I don't care if Wiese is a genius, a king, or any of the other
things he's been described as because his noise is often entertaining. Sometimes it is outright
captivating. I do wish he'd explore that "Static Whale" sound a bit more, but then he'd just be
revisiting old ground and that wouldn't be any fun at all.
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