Richard Ramirez is an American

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 ...

artist originally from

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, recording and performing both as a solo artist and as part of several groups, including Black Leather Jesus, Priest in Shit, An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter,

House of the Black Death ''House of the Black Death'' (also kmnown as ''Blood of the Man Devil'') is a 1965 American horror film directed by Harold Daniels, Reginald LeBorgRay, Fred Olen (1991). The New Poverty Row. McFarland and Co. Inc. p. 18. . and Jerry Warren, and s ...

, Martyr of Sores, Last Rape and the "static noise" solo project Werewolf Jerusalem. He is notable for being one of the earliest American

harsh noise Harsh noise wall, also known as wall noise, noise wall, or HNW, is an extreme subgenre of noise music, described by music journalist Russell Williams as "a literal consistent, unflinching and enveloping wall of monolithic noise". Harsh noise wall ...

artists. Ramirez draws a distinction between his relatively few professionally printed

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and LPs and the many

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s and tapes he produces for smaller record labels. He has done collaborations and split releases with many important figures in the noise field, including

Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita, best known for a style of harsh noise music. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and collaborated with numerous artists. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada a ...

Emil Beaulieau Emil Beaulieau, or more fully, “Emil Beaulieau: America’s Greatest Living Noise Artist” (born July 5, 1957) is the stage name of Ron Lessard, a prominent noise musician who primarily records for his own label: RRRecords. He has collaborat ...

Kommissar Hjuler Kommissar Hjuler (born Detlev Hjuler; 1967) works as a sound recordist in the field of Noise (music), Noise and Post-industrial music, visual artist, film maker and police officer at Flensburg, a town on the German border with Denmark. He often work ...

Mama Baer Mama Baer (born Andrea Katharina Ingeborg Göthling; 29 October 1981) is a German sound recordist of noise music and post-industrial music. She is a filmmaker and visual artist in Flensburg. She has had solo and group art exhibitions around the wor ...

, Skin Crime,

The Haters The Haters are a noise music and conceptual art troupe from the United States. Founded in 1979, they are one of the earliest acts in the modern noise scene. The group is primarily the work of the Hollywood, California-based musician, artist, ...

Prurient Ian Dominick Fernow is an American experimental music, experimental musician, poet and multimedia artist. He is best known for extreme music released under the stage name Prurient, as well as numerous other aliases including Vatican Shadow, Rain ...

, Smell & Quim, Macronympha, Stabat Mors, Kenji Siratori, Sudden Infant, and MSBR. Ramirez's work tends to consist of long, slowly changing or static tracks of heavily distorted low- to mid-range noise, with a gradual move over the last several years toward more

drone Drone or The Drones may refer to: Science and technology Vehicle * Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot ** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone *** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle ** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone ** Unma ...

-influenced sounds in addition to his harsh noise work. Parallel to this evolution has been a shift in thematic concerns, with album covers, titles, and general themes changing from more typical noise music concerns such as violence and war (largely borrowed from industrial culture) to a focus on homosexual themes and

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artwork. In addition to his musical work, Ramirez also runs the noise and

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

label Deadline Recordings. Ramirez is also an "avant-garde" fashion designer under the alias, Richard Saenz. He recently collaborated with Giovanni Mori, musician power noise, mind of the project L.C.B., his album ''Born'' (

Old Europa Cafe Old Europa Cafe is an Italian independent record label and mail order service specializing in ambient music, noise music, electronic music, and industrial music. It is based in Pordenone. Originating in the early 1980s Old Europa Cafe began as ...

in 2015) and has also made with L.C.B. an album on cassette entitled "Homo Sense" (Black Leather Jesus - Le Cose Bianche, Signora Ward Records).

References

External links

An interview with Richard Ramirez

Deadline Recordings official siteNext Halloween
American noise musicians Musicians from Houston Living people American gay musicians Year of birth missing (living people) LGBTQ people from Texas Power electronics musicians {{US-musician-stub