Harsh noise wall, also known as wall noise, noise wall, or HNW, is an extreme subgenre of
noise music
Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...
, described by music journalist Russell Williams as "a literal consistent, unflinching and enveloping wall of monolithic noise".
Harsh noise wall features noises layered together to form a static sound. Harsh noise wall musician Sam McKinlay, also known as The Rita, considered the genre as "the purification of the
Japanese harsh noise scene into a more refined crunch, which crystallizes the tonal qualities of
distortion
In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...
in a slow moving minimalistic texture."
[Novak (2013), p. 57]
Despite largely staying underground, harsh noise wall has enjoyed a cult following among the noise music scene.
See also
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Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elem ...
References
Further reading
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Noise music
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