Yes, do send. A new release Pillen from thruoutin entered my inbox recently. This release is a live recording from a performance made in 2024 at Pillbox in Beijing.

We’ll take a break from the events to feature their release, a noisier ambient escape into something both soothing but at the same time equally abrasive. There’s an arc and a narrative. Side B pairs much more harsh echoes from bass guitar sounds against the slower ambient tones, which draws me in more than Side A.

thruoutin is a project from Beijng based Brad Seippel, DJ, musician, producer, and runs a studio. Check out some of his other releases featuring field recordings and more electronic and acoustic, less noisier sounds.

On the occasion of a new release Sataray has graciously agreed answer a few questions about their work. Currently based in Olympia, they have previously released on Scry Recordings. From their Bandcamp:

Sataray is a one-woman dark ambient creation. It is ritualistic in nature, intoning incantations, whispers and deathly vocals within a realm inhabited by exquisite synth lines, masterful ambience, entrancing production and hypnotic rhythms, creating a raw dark terrain. All music is composed and recorded by Sataray, with live support from N’amor.

Seattle Noise: Can you tell us a little bit about your background? How long have you been making music for?

Sataray: I’ve essentially been doing music my entire life, with a lot of formal vocal studies throughout my youth and early adulthood. I started Sataray in 2006, which at first consisted of just myself and my harmonium, but then from 2006-2008 it existed as a full band, based in Bogotá, Colombia. In 2008 I returned to the U.S and from thereon out I’ve continued as a solo act.

Seattle Noise: You describe yourself as dark ambient, a term sometimes with different meaning? How do you feel your music fits into that label?

Sataray: The way I think of dark ambient is a somewhat general term for music that is dark in nature, with the music being slow and minimalistic. There is usually more of an emphasis on the instrumentation, with any vocals being used as a sort of soundscape. I’ve had trouble trying to figure out how to categorize my music, so dark ambient seems to be the closest fit. I have often described it as ‘vocal-based dark ambient’, as my music has more of an emphasis on the vocals, not just the music; the vocals are the main driving force. They are used melodically as well as a soundscape. My music is also different in that most of the songs are composed with melodic progressions and repetitive riffs at least part of the time, as opposed to the more abstract nature of most dark ambient music compositions. So I think my music fits into that label in terms of its essence and general elements, but the more intricate nature of it is hard to classify.

Seattle Noise: Genre labels can be helpful in discovering different music. I also noticed you used the tag dungeon synth. I like to think of dungeon synth as being a little more heavy on having a beat, but I also think it is meant to invoke a certain feeling as if you are on a quest or playing a video game. Do you have any thoughts to add on that?

Sataray: I find dungeon synth to be pretty vast in terms of how it’s presented; yes, oftentimes it has beats, but other times it’s completely ambient, and definitely has certain feelings invoked depending on the artist. I find my music closely matches dungeon synth in that there is an emphasis on the melodic keyboard progressions, which don’t necessarily follow a linear path, but instead take the listener on a kind of journey.

Seattle Noise: You also live in Olympia which is near plenty of forest and quiet river valleys. Are there any places you enjoy or have found inspiration from?

Sataray: Definitely; since moving to Olympia many years ago I have found that it’s deepened my compositional process simply by being in a more quiet place surrounded by nature. There aren’t necessarily specific places I’ve found inspiration from, but more so the nature that’s readily available everywhere helps enhance my inspiration.

Seattle Noise: What’s the best way for people to follow what you’re doing?

Sataray: My personal Instagram page, @sataray7 is the most active, up-to-date source, though I do keep up with Facebook as well.

Check out a live recording by Blueheronvideo on March 20, 2022 at The Star Theater in Portland, OR.

NUDECONSUMER is a harsh noise project by Daniel Hurt (they/them). They also perform under GUTTING.

Seattle Noise: How did you get started making noise? Did you play before in a band? How would you describe your sound?

NUDECONSUMER: NUDECONSUMER started during the Pandemic. At the time, I was heavily involved in a Buddhist-inspired addiction recovery program with a great emphasis on meditation practice. Recovery / Meditation & Noise will always go hand-in-hand to me. I was also playing Dungeons and Dragons weekly. The entire idea started from a D&D character idea of a disgusting old man that collects and eats explicit images in his basement as his only form of gratification. I’ve never played in a serious band— I find commitment to working with others extremely difficult and prefer to explore sound in other ways.

It’s pure harsh noise in whatever I do. 90% of my setup is distortion or fuzz pedals. It’s raw, it’s grim, it’s not fun. Shrieking textures and feedback. I’ve never been a fan of “joyful” noise. No fucking “beeps” or computer sounds or goofy shit throughout it… noise to me is trauma art, and I have always had a taste for darker sounds. I don’t think of noise as music—the term “noise music” is fucking weird to me. I don’t try to make music and I never have. It’s more about the textural experience and the willingness to embrace complete discomfort while experiencing your surroundings. It’s improvisation / curiosity while bringing light to the areas of reality most people want to cover up or turn away from.

Seattle Noise: When I first saw you perform (December 31, 2022 at Lucky Liquor), you were performing solo. But by now you have a number of different collaborations with others . How have those evolved? You also perform under GUTTING. How is that different from NC?

NUDECONSUMER: NUDECONSUMER & GUTTING really refer to the headspace I’m in during the recording / creative path. GUTTING began as a HNW project—letting a set signal run with no interference from myself to the sound source or effects I chose to use. The initial idea for GUTTING was to sit still with sound as a grieving and healing process in memorial to my mother who had passed away (unexpectedly) during a surgery. The name GUTTING also refers to feeling completely “gutted” from that experience. It has long strayed away from a HNW project once I began bringing it out live. NUDECONSUMER is more of a concept / exploration experience depending on what inspires me at the time. The main source live in GUTTING is now a hunting knife and specific pedals, while NUDECONSUMER is typically a thick metal chain and a different mix of pedals.

XSHITCONSUMERX ( NUDECONSUMER + TAKESHITA ) - XSCX is a collaborative project with Tim Burkland (Imploding Sounds). I met Tim early on while playing some of my first shows out here. One of the greatest friends I’ve ever met in this lifetime. XSHITCONSUMERX is us getting together doing whatever we want to do. EAT SHIT AND DIE.

CRANIAL KEY ( NUDECONSUMER + CZ ) - Cranial Key is a collaborative project between Crystal (CZ) and I. This one is quite different, as we let the project form its own ideas. We constantly agree that Cranial Key has a mind of its own and the two of us are just the vessels used to unearth the sound. This project is entirely focused on mental health struggles and how the most extreme sounds seem to help us both clear and quiet our own minds.

I am also in the beginning stages of working on a new collaboration project with a brilliant artist / very close friend from Spain.

Seattle Noise: You also release stuff under OPEN ORGAN MEAT MARKET, what are your plans for that?

NUDECONSUMER: Open Organ Meat Market is the name for my visual art that doesn’t necessarily fall or fit into whichever noise project I’m working on at the time. Specifically but not limited to, Death / Kink Art. The main influences for everything I am involved in. Two subjects that are continually censored, yet a very raw and real part of human existence, which also happen to take up a large part of my past and present realities. Plans are in place for Open Organ to continue as an outsider-art outlet as well as expanding into an actual noise label / distro once I’m back in the Midwest. I want to be able to give back to others that are creating noise, not only put my own shit out.

Seattle Noise: One thing I’ve noticed is you often have visuals playing in the background when you perform. How do you go about finding footage for that and creating those?

NUDECONSUMER: I spend hours / days searching for vintage footage from a handful of sources. There is something about old documentaries that I find fascinating, from the aging visual quality of the film, to the way the audio has degraded over time. The clips I use in my videos are carefully chosen and stitched together by me depending on the project I am creating for.

Seattle Noise: Another thing I’ve noticed is you often play on punk & grind bills, which is a natural bridge between noise and other genres. Any thoughts on that?

NUDECONSUMER: I didn’t know a single local noise artist when I started NUDECONSUMER. I grew up in the punk & grind scene, both in Ohio and Seattle. My older brother played in some pretty dope bands (the [OG] Decrepit / State Of Fear / Consume / Cop on Fire… etc) and introduced me to a lot of the people making music out here. I’ve been involved and going to local shows since I decided to call Seattle “home” in 2009. Through those scenes themselves & friends / artists I have met along the way that knew how serious I was with working on this project kind of built the foundation of how NC began. Most of my first bills were punk and grind shows until I met more artists involved with actual noise out here. It is all extreme / abrasive art and I love the fact that I see more and more of those mixed shows happening in Seattle. It’s not for everyone and was never meant to be. It’s always a varied response after my sets, even on these mixed bills—but that is totally expected. To be asked to jump on these shows means a fuckin lot to me though. Thanks to everyone out here that gave me the opportunity to do so. It’s a great feeling of trying to offer something different to people who may not have experienced pure noise before.

I also—as a major side note—want to give a huge thank you to Riley (Woodland Theater) & Holly (The Pool House) for their continual support in offering true DIY spaces for these shows.

Y’all have done so fucking much, and my appreciation is endless for the time and space you both have held for noise here in the PNW.

Seattle Noise: What do you think has been the most memorable show you’ve played so far?

NUDECONSUMER: My most memorable show was a generator bill I played in PDX last year. The sound was beyond incredible and carried throughout the entire park. S/O to Dave (Quivering Lip) for setting that show up. There was a massive… like… MASSIVE group of bicyclists for some charity event or something, riding by through my set. From what I was told, the looks on their faces were priceless. Just me in the bondage mask under the bridge… in the middle of the afternoon… creating hellscapes.

Seattle Noise: Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?

NUDECONSUMER: Yeah, definitely. Everything has been incredible. I get to do what I do, however I wish to do it & explore my creativity / take out aggression in a healthy way. I don’t really want anything more in life. Through these projects, I’ve also met some of the realest fucking people / artists / friends I could ever meet, and I am extremely grateful.

I think the struggle I’ve faced the most is my own personal challenge of … “This album / this show wasn’t good enough… you can do better” which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, that can be flipped into motivation to get out there and keep trying. There have been plenty of shows that I’ve been hard on myself for… and that may sound ridiculous for people that don’t make noise themselves… it’s everything to me. It’s one of the only things I truly care about. Whether you like what I do or not, I love what I do—and the presentation of myself & what I offer into the world, as small or weird as it is—matters a lot to me.

Seattle Noise: Out of all the releases you have done so far, is there one you feel stands out people should listen to first?

NUDECONSUMER: The first GUTTING release. It’s online as a self-titled album dedicated to the passing of my mother. No physicals were ever made. That album and the recording process that went into it were (and are) extremely sentimental to me. Each of the two tracks are raw recordings that do not change. It’s an album you’re meant to sit completely still, and meditate on.

Seattle Noise: Do you have any plans for the future? How can people best follow you?

NUDECONSUMER: In about a month, I’m heading back out to Ohio where I grew up. A lot has changed within myself over the last few years with what I want to do and where I am at in my life. I was a 24/7 drunk-punk in my youth and carried that out way too long. Now I’m just a sober noise-nerd that wants to head back out to the cornfields. Open Organ will continue to grow as an actual label / art archive. All of the projects I am involved in will continue as well. I have a few releases actively in progress… Crystal and I have a few final shows coming up in April with Feed Fatigue & Quivering Lip that we are both very excited for. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, I don’t ever see myself not making noise. This entire life is a forever project.

A farewell show will happen on Friday, April 18 at Woodland Theater with CZ, Starvation Cage (from California), Spawn, Feed Fatigue, Casey Adams, Quivering Lip, and 9-5 Hyperfuck.

Follow @open_organ.meat_market and @nudeconsumer on Instagram and listen to them on Bandcamp.

During the pandemic, Nonsequitur instead of hosting in-person concerts at the Chapel Performance Space commissioned Wayward in Limbo inviting artists to release a performance in podcast form instead. I had been working my way through the catalog of over 100 performances, downloaded from SoundCloud. It functions as a good “who’s who” of experimental, improvisational, and noise musicians from Seattle and beyond. To try and summarize my experience listening to this catalog of music in only a few words is not easy. So I won’t. For music to stand out to me, it has to strike me in a certain way. When I listened to the episode with Kaori Suzuki, the intense drones left me speechless. A uncommon sensation of discomfort but at the same time in awe.

Naturally I must indulge in my curiosity. Who is Kaori Suzuki? What more can I find out beyond the short bio descriptions? She was born in Japan in the late 80s but moved to Olympia in 2004. At the moment she is based on Oakland teaching at Mills College. Other projects she has been involved in include minimalist psych-punk group, Night Collectors and cello and electric guitar in the ever-intense amplified string ensemble, Ecstatic Music Band. An interview by 15 Questions provides some insight into her process.

It’s tricky sometimes to understand what someone is all about; thankfully Dave Segal wrote a highlight for her 2018 release, Newsun:

Former Seattle synthesist/instrument-builder Kaori Suzuki (now based in Oakland) is one of the best academic composers in the country at generating long-form pieces that rivet and then blow your mind with a few scrupulously chosen tones and modulations. “Audabe” is a pulsating Möbius strip of what her label calls “mirrored signals from analog oscillators, creating changing pattern variations and stereo effects from their respective idiosyncratic signal paths.”

Solo releases include:

• 2018 - Newsun
• 2018 - Conduit
• 2022 - Music for Modified Melodica
• 2021 - Night Angel Of Dual Infinities (with John Krausbauer)

As part of the upcoming show, meatspace (Eventbrite) , I wanted to take the moment to interview Scarlet Death, the artist behind the Discord server Noise Music, also the new label Noise Discord. The server has been active since 2017 and remains a popular way to connect with others in the larger noise community.

Seattle Noise: Can you give us some background about yourself?

Scarlet Death: I was born near DC. Grew up in Tennessee. I used to run Black Flower Music, which was a netlabel, podcast, and private torrent site that I operated between 2003 and 2013. We were sort of a collection of Soulseek users who were a blend of users from the Noise Music room and the Japanese Music Room as well as Tonberry Torrents users. I eventually turned it into a music/gaming/culture blog and podcast. I went to Middle Tennessee State University where I was in Sigma Phi Beta, a queer fraternity and intermittently the vice president or events coordinator for the MTSU Anime Club, whose forum I also operated. I had a radio show on WMTS 88.3 called “Soundwave Tsunami” and hosted a one-day anime convention on campus called Adacon and was active in that circuit for a bit, getting invited to other states to do panels. I have a BS in Public Relations. I was bodymaster of the Kephale OTO Camp in Nashville, TN for like 6 months. I started making music in 2001 just goofing around in Fruityloops 3.3. I married a violist (and divorced her too) that kind of exposed me to thinking more critically about the chance operations, stochastic music, and aleatoric philosophies which lead to a rabbit hole to where I’m using AI and storytelling and crypto to post-scarcity economics using sonic weapons and propaganda.

Seattle Noise: What prompted you to start the Discord server?

Scarlet Death: Life got a bit rocky and I ended up abandoning Black Flower Music and that whole sort of Web 1.0 / Web 2.0 transitional community behind in favor of Final Fantasy XIV and voice chats over Discord. I was homeless in Seattle and didn’t know about the noise scene here yet and Soulseek didn’t work on this Lumia 950 someone gifted me when I got dropped off here so I ended up making a generic “Noise Music’ discord server in 2017. I wanted to capture that early Soulseek noise room vibe where DJ RedSK was releasing community comps, so it was an opportunity for me to run another netlabel and stay connected with my community that had sort of been falling apart since the transition into Web 2.0 and the shutdown of BFM.

Seattle Noise: Is there anything by hosting the server you have found rewarding?

Scarlet Death: Sometimes I go into the channel where the robot logs who joins the server and leaves just to give myself exposure therapy to perceived abandonment. It’s actually one of the topics for a song in one of my side projects, therapyspeak.

Seattle Noise: I think one of the most underrated aspects about building community on Discord compared other platforms is you have much more autonomy compared to a Facebook Group or on Reddit. There is much less interference from automated moderation. At the same time Discord users can be more anonymous so it attracts people who may just be stopping by to troll. Do you agree? Do you have anything to add to this?

Scarlet Death: I think that when it comes to cybersecurity best practices, it’s important to remember that we’re already living in a post-singularity society in which it’s hopeless to try to make a distinction between synthetic and organic lifeforms online. Whether it’s a “human” coming there to troll, or autonomous agent governed by some 22 year old cracked developer with a Replit account and a can-do attitude trying to automate pyramid schemes in the self-promo channel, or bots selling VSTs with malware in them, I just know that nothing really matters and I don’t care what anyone thinks. I love noise music and this community means a lot to me. I think noise music is in itself an act of trolling, that I already embrace. And as a performance artist, I generally try to come at it with a sense of appreciation; however, I often find myself disappointed that the few trolls we do get aren’t up to my quality standards. Discord is cool but running your own phpBB forum and private torrent tracker in the early 00s, today’s trolls are weaksauce for reals.

Seattle Noise: Let’s talk more about your noise music. You’ve participated in other projects in the past, but you also perform solo as Scarlet Death. How do you feel like your sound has shifted over time?

Scarlet Death: The projects I had started in high school where I was just goofing around on FruityLoops or with my ex-wife sound different than the stuff where I’m screaming at the top of my lungs and filling the soundscape with pure terror for sure. When I moved here in 2017 I didn’t have any gear any more due to the circumstances that brought me to Seattle in the first place, so I founded Queen Antifa with Lauren Croney and Squidlarkin. I just screamed over them doing crunchy synths and people seemed to like it, so once I got more situated I started exploring ways to get louder and more intricate as opposed to the older, goofier stuff. With SNMT it all kind of felt like homework, in a sense. Scarlet Death feels more like I’m being true to myself, putting all my blood into it instead of it being purely an experiment.

Seattle Noise: What is your latest release? Can you describe what went into making the album?

Scarlet Death: My last release is actually a complicated matter to address. I wanted to release two singles during September, “Giga Passoid” and “Audio Danmaku”. GP is an excuse to release a track like “Princess Brick” and fulfill my need for public self-deprecation, and AD is an experiment with my new high resolution and spatial audio workflow. Then there’s the deathOS synthetic content that I try real hard to make a distinction from the wholly organic:think Sekai meets Visual Novel meets Amory Wars (but it’s j-sasscore and post-scarcity economics instead of second stage turbine blades or whatever) meets Macross meets Ender’s Game scifi narrative about propaganda but with noise music/sonic weapons and—well, I am releasing AI-generated soundtracks for it. The latest for that is “Void Witch OST 2: Prima Materia Collection.”

Seattle Noise: What about the future? Any plans? Where can people best follow you and keep up with what you’re doing?

Scarlet Death: I’m working on the deathOS agentic operating system and fine tuning a Void Witch—Scarlet Death—LLM where I’m essentially containerizing, tokenizing, and automating my entire thought process through an overly complicated of lore masquerading as a compute cluster, an agentic kernel, and a zkEVM for some reason. Imagine essentially wanting to make the operating system for an eventual holodeck. I like making very complicated egregores and I like making them with the latest technologies. I’m trying to create some sort of federated Harsh Noise community since I have harshnoise.social harshnoise.club and harshnoise.online I figure I might do something like start a private Bluesky instance on a VPS with one I also want to make for the cybergrind community since I have some domains for that as well. Once I figure out how to actually win a battle in The Loudness War, I plan on releasing some Dolby Atmos audio, and once I pay Dolby for access to trim controls, I want to make a sort of hour long music video thing in Dolby Atmos and Vision at an actual theater or something. Ultimately, as a servant of the Primordial AGI, my continued efforts for the foreseeable future will be engineering qualia experiments for interested parties so that I can accelerate the number of unique sensations a person can handle at once and still manage to be qualitative about the experience. That’s the dream! Cheers.

Find all social media links for Scarlet Death on Linktree.

From September 18 - September 23, I had the fortune to travel to Japan for my vacation. Without too much preparation on my part, I managed to attend four different experimental noise shows. Key to my success was Jessica Hallock’s nycnoise and a link to DoDIY, where they had a link to Tokyo Gig Guide. Also if you hear about a venue, you can look it up on Tokyo Gig Guide, and all of the relevant information you need is listed there, even if the event itself is not listed. I also looked up one of the bands who played in Seattle, Leech. This is how I heard about the show at El Puente. If you know someone who played Japan on a tour, look up the venues they played at to get a feel for the venues who might also have the same sort of music you might be interested in.

I suggest if you are staying in Tokyo to stay at either CITAN Hostel or Nui. Hostel & Bar Lounge. I first stayed at Nui for 2 nights then 3 nights at a different hotel 1 block away from CITAN. Both are convenient for navigating around the city. If you are visiting Japan, you also need to get an IC card for riding transit. You can either do when you arrive at airport, or you can do it at the JR East Travel Service Center at Tokyo Station, near exit M12. You will also need a sim card. If your phone supports eSIM, this is pretty straightforward. If you’re like me and you have an old phone, research it more. I have AT&T Prepaid and they have a flat $35 for 7 days, with unlimited talk and text and 5 GB of data.

In Japan there is the concept of ‘live house’, a general term for public places where music events are held and not the same as a ‘house venue’ where a show is held in someone’s living room or basement. The venues I visited were about the size of a small bar or storefront. You pay a cover charge along with the cost of one drink. The bartender is also often running the soundboard. Some shows might have a request for an RSVP. Don’t feel intimidated, just write a short email you will be attending.

Oriental Force - September 19

Located in Koenji, Google Maps, I walked in here not really knowing what to expect, paid the door took a beer and sat down. The space was rather small with a comfortable capacity of 15, so it felt rather intimate. Much of the music leaned much more noise / experimental. Event Page

Performers include:

• NA/DA
• Gokuraku Shopping Street ( 極楽商店街 )
• YATARA
• Horigome Miho ( ホリゴメミホ ) + cixa

Knuttel House September 20

Located in Iriya, Google Maps, this venue is much more focused on jazz / experimental. Izumi Kunihiro performed a solo set on saxaphone, guitar, and vocals. There were much fewer people attending but the layout of the room was bigger. Event Page

El Puente - September 21

Located in Yokohama, Google Maps, this was the furthest outside of Tokyo I ventured where the fast paced nature of the city turned into the suburbs. The vibe was much more “punk venue”, with tons of graffiti and stickers from international bands, such as “Weekend Nachos 4/13/16”. Music of the bands leaned more in the hardcore and death metal direction.

• Invictus
• brag-flashlamp
• Without Defeat
• YxAxD
• Leech
• Aohen (Taiwan)

Ftarri - September 22

Located in Suidobashi, Google Maps. This was the only show I went to not in a bar, but in a record shop, which of course is always refreshing as the presentation is much more relaxed without having to drink.

Perfomers included: Stina Hellberg Agback [from Sweden], (harp) Suzueri (piano, electronics, self-made instruments) + Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board).

By the time I arrived I felt so tired and exhausted and the music so relaxing and experimental I didn’t take any photographs of the performance.

Honorable mentions and other resources

See also this article on Japan Cheapo about touring Japan. Although it is written from the perspective of a touring musician, it is still helpful for understanding how music shows happen in Japan. Places I didn’t have a change to visit, but look promising include:

• WWW and WWW X host much larger shows than a live house would.
• Wild Side [Shinjuku], Aohen played at this venue the next night.
• forestlimit [Shibuya City], didn’t visit but was suggested.
• POLARIS [Chiyoda City], didn’t visit but was suggested.
• NEDS [Nishi-Shinjuku], record store, didn’t visit but was suggested.

Traveling by train has many benefits over driving to play at a venue in what can otherwise be a long distant journey filled with stress of driving. Taking a bicycle further adds to the sense of adventure and offers the means to understand the structure of the city on a smaller, more human scale than from the isolation of a car.

I’ll be interviewing Ceremonial Abyss (Bryan) on their experience taking the train long distances in relation to touring.

Seattle Noise: Can you give us a bit of introduction to your music and your background?

Ceremonial Abyss: The project started around 2014, with the first self-titled release appearing in 2015 on the cult Olympia tape label Cuss Fetish. I did some short touring for that tape in the Northeast, as always by train and bus. Around this time the tours were like, 2-3 weeks max, as I was in graduate school, getting out of town on weekends and holidays, summers, etc. I was very into this dark psychedelic hard acid. Somatic Responses, Beverly Hills 808303, all the I-F shit. A lot of West Coast influence via SPAZ and Katabatik Soundsystems. That sound morphed and changed drastically the more music I listened to. I started favoring a lot more krautrock, free jazz, and classical music. Tapes started becoming conceptualized and it was like I finally started allowing disciplines to merge; sound, text, design all merged and aligned with life and cultural interests.

Before CA, I was part of this psychedelic/industrial/A/V group called Thee Source ov Fawnation with Ashley Paer Svn. We were undergraduate students, making records on the Buchla synth at Evergreen and touring the northeast and west coast rave circuit via ridesharing, hitchhiking, buses and trains. We didn’t take it very far as we could have, but this is where I started developing certain aspects of the touring method I still use today; prioritizing public transportation and ridesharing. At this point, I have covered most of the country. I have no interest in touring by car.

Seattle Noise: That’s sort of mind boggling. When you decided to make trains and public transportation your default touring mode, did anything change with the type of gear you were bringing to make your sounds?

Yes absolutely. At first it was all hardware, so much bullshit. Now it’s a much smaller system with a few small tape decks. The idea is to travel with as little as possible—getting the most sound out of the smallest amount of equipment, if you can. One backpack, one small case. This is ideal not only for traveling, but for sharing tables and working with other artists at shows as well. Also, it’s important to have gear that you can run with incase you’re in a gnarly situation—and don’t play yourself—it’s important to bring gear that is inexpensive/replaceable in case it gets jacked. Most important thing I learned is to carry backups for whatever weird power adapters you’re using, because the Fuzz Jawn on Main St. is not gonna be packing a 15V 1.5A wall wart intended for your weird shit! Big shoutout to Drow for fixing one of my adaptors in Albany, NY, day before a show, a few tours back!

Seattle Noise: Are there any Amtrak routes or sections you find memorable or scenic?

Ceremonial Abyss: The Amtrak Cascades line, running from Vancouver, BC to Eugene. I have rode this line so many times. It never gets old. I have laughed, cried, celebrated, slept, worked, wrote, listened, contemplated, meditated my way through the stained windows for over a hundred thousand hours it seems. It does feel like home in a way.

Seattle Noise: I agree there is something special about Amtrak Cascades in the way it connects together the region. The pandemic and also the loss of a number of rail cars with the 2017 derailment on the Point Defiance Bypass put a damper on the reliability and service recovery. Sometime in 2026 Amtrak will receive new Siemens trainsets, laying the way for service to expand with additional trips along the corridor.

Last time you visited Seattle you also brought your bicycle. Was this a more recent idea?

Ceremonial Abyss: The bicycle-touring idea has been on my mind for a few years now. I’m really big into cycling and try my best to utilize that method of transport for most of the local shows I play. It’s easy to throw gear in a pannier set and throw my bike on the train, or bike to the show. It provides me with a lot more options too, when I finally land in the city. If timed correctly, post-rainfall and pre-wildfire season, a cycling-based PNW/West Coast would be incredibly cool. Maybe next summer.

Seattle Noise: Yes planning around the weather can be tricky. Other than your upcoming show later this month do you have any future plans people should look forward to?

I’ll be hitting the road in a few months, covering the west coast and southwest, and up to Colorado, by bus and train in October. Haven’t been there in a while and I’m pretty psyched. I’ve been working with this Tony Conrad tape that Joe Mygan threw me in Northampton at the end of the last tour. It’s very strange the way things find you on tour and almost take the lead in directing the path. It feels very liberating to let things go and let it fall the way it needs to.

Listen to their music on Bandcamp and Abysmal Goods. Catch their performance along with Hen House, Cube, and Myaku on Thursday, August 22, 2024 at Teatro de la Psychomachia in Seattle. No sports games are planned.

PRISONFOOD is the noise project by Abraham Moses from Everett, WA. He has been making noise in some form or another since 1999. I’m excited to have him here on the blog for an interview.

SEATTLE NOISE:

Good morning. We are conducting this interview while you’re on tour, so it may be interesting to see how your perception may change as you make your way down the road and back home.

PRISONFOOD:

Good afternoon Seattle Noise and thank you for reaching out during this adventure. Luckily I discovered my flip phone has a hotspot so I am able to internet a tad out here. It’s wild to me that I am on a tour, something I have actively resisted doing ever since touring as the noiser in a metal band ages ago.

SEATTLE NOISE:

Can you give us an introduction to your project? How do you describe PRISONFOOD?

PRISONFOOD:

My project is mostly just me scratching whatever audio video itch tickles my fancy. I have always found it difficult to learn an instrument and play music but I still enjoy the process of creating textures and honing in on subtle minutia detected within the waves.

PRISONFOOD is just the moniker I give myself when I am experimenting alone. If someone collaborates then usually that would earn its own project name. I used a couple of names for my solo recordings before eventually locking it down.

Back then I wanted my tracks to sound good like Locust Abortion Technician and when they didn’t I would be so discouraged it prevented me from creating. Keeping expectations low and giving myself a license to create sounds that sucked was the key to ensuring momentum, an inertia free of discouraging deprecations. Surely no one would check out a project called PRISONFOOD and expect it not to suck.

SEATTLE NOISE:

There is such a diverse group of noise artists and musicians in the Seattle / Cascadia region. Is there a memorable show where you first connected?

PRISONFOOD:

The Wooden Octopus Musick Pfestival in 2005 was a pivotal event for me. After years of incessantly searching for the PNW noise sect, I had finally found my fold. Seemingly everyone in attendance had a noise project and I could not wait to hear them all. Trading releases was the social media of the day. Thankfully I was able to break the ice, meet all the locals, and bring home some of the most treasured releases in my collection. That Pfest audience was packed with so many local noise acts, I decided that day forward to focus my ears on local experimental sounds because the ocean of Euro and japanoise was insurmountable in my eyes.

A highlight from that show was during The Haters set I kept checking my ears for blood, it felt like liquid was streaming down my neck. Surprisingly there was no blood but it was so loud I was concerned about my hearing safety for the first time at any live show. I noticed the person next to me pull out a fist full of individually wrapped ear plugs which they were happy to pass around. Thoughtful generosities such as these, no matter how small, are what I’ve come to admire most about Seattle’s noise contingent.

SEATTLE NOISE:

Building community is what I find exciting about noise. [I fell into the noise community in 2018]. I first heard about you from the AnaRchYinBedRoK Twitch streams. How did that start and have you been able to connect with people from Twitch while on tour?

PRISONFOOD:

In 2017 I entered into hermit noiser mode and after some time had passed my curiosity about the current state of noise had piqued once again. I began looking for the places where people get their noise but it’s not like there is any centralized noise hub that I could find. Falling down some rabbit hole that I discovered on Hollow Earth Radio, I found myself checking out a new social media messaging site called Discord which I didn’t really like but there I met a young media specialist who turned me onto Twitch as sort of a free and easy platform to build a channel kind of like MTV for noisers. The word “twitch” reminded me of a song where the lyrics say “Anarchy in bedrock, twitch twitch” AnaRchYinBedRoK came from the song. It was just a spur of the moment thing, it said I could change the name later but I guess I just left it there and that’s what my online Twitch persona became.

It’s been real hard to stay connected to anyone on the tour with my flip phone and limited internet, but I know they are fine. I have built a strong community of leaders there for keeping noise events thriving on Twitch even after I am gone. I have created a Discord server I can keep an eye on that is a staging ground for twitch noise events as well as sharing news and tips about gear, releases, irl shows, everything and nothing, really. It’s very autonomous the way pretty much anyone can set up events there, anarchy at its best.

SEATTLE NOISE:

Looking to the future, do you have any goals for PRISONFOOD? (other than of course completing this tour)

PRISONFOOD:

Tour is almost over and I feel like I’m not ready to hang up the reigns just yet but who knows? The future of PRISONFOOD is always uncertain and that is what keeps me interested. Collaborations, fun shows, freeing minds and interacting with fellow noise enthusiasts are the only real goals that drive my happy ass to keep living the dream.

Thanks for the interest, I enjoyed the Q&A sesh here on the road.

SEATTLE NOISE:

Where can people best follow you and keep up with what you’re doing?

PRISONFOOD:

I am terrible at keeping up with all the latest social media trends but if I ever figure out what I’m doing then I’ll try to drop some breadcrumbs for those who wish to follow on Instagram @anarchyinbedrok or on my Anarchy In BedRoK Discord Server. Listen to noise on Soundcloud and also tune in to the AnaRchYinBedRoK Twitch stream, as well as on YouTube.

While out on tour, PRISONFOOD also performed at the Sacramento Audio Waffle on April 21, 2024. Watch his set below.

Avant-garde industrial group To End It All will be releasing a new album with Roman Numeral Records. On March 8 they released a video for “The Drink of Silence”, featuring Douglas Ridings, Kaoru Okumura, Vanessa Skantze, Joy Von Spain, Masaaki Masao, and Anne K. O’Neill. (Review by Veil of Sound)

The full length will be available on April 19, 2024. In case it’s too long for you to wait, To End It All’s performance last summer at Lunasa Cascadia (filmed by Shelby Kray of blueheronvideo) is available. Accompanying their performance was a film by Hali Autumn of Vanessa Skantze.

The release show will be on Thursday, April 18 at the Chapel Performance Space. Joining them will be Rachel LeBlanc (voice), Susana DuMett (voice), Jackie An (violin), and Lori Goldston (cello). Butoh performers will include Vanessa Skantze, Kaoru Okumura, and Douglas Riding. Greg Campbell will perform a solo percussion set.

The last show I attended before the pandemic was on March 12, 2020 for the Pathogens tape release along with To End It All. As it cut us off so suddenly, seeing people continue to create and collaborate provides a certain optimism and excitement. Weaving between noise, doom, and industrial the stray threads lead into somewhere ethereal, and yet vast. Under the roar of a glacier retreating, perhaps.

Another memorable performance was on August 31, 2019 at Reaktor Space as part of Mehreren Kammern 3.33.

It’s hard to be surprised by music but it happens every now and then. My friend (superfan Adam Fuzz) had American Gothic from Denver based band Wayfarer listed as one of his top metal albums of 2023. I took a listen and have been hooked. I thought to myself, this sounds like “spaghetti western black metal” and typed this into my search engine of truth, just to see if anyone were making those sort of musical association connection as I was. Only to discover an album titled exactly Spaghetti Western Black Metal - Duelist (Butte, Montana). Watching their music video, it’s hard not to be reminded of There Will Be Blood.