Noise
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the noise music genre. Combine with tags for subgenres, e.g. “noise+pop.”
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Big Black – “Sound of Impact”
There’s actually two versions of the Sound of Impact live album. Though the second one—which is the album rereleased a year later—is barely documented anywhere, it seems. The rerelease is the same album except Steve Albini‘s banter is separated into their own tracks, making it 18 tracks instead of the original 15. Also, all the… (read more)
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Astrobrite – “Crush”
Crush by Astrobite is by-the-numbers shoegaze. It’s too same-y and mediocre to be worth your time. Good luck telling the tracks here apart. Sure you’ve got your fuzzy, noisy crunchers and ethereal, cyclical, slow songs, but those are your only two modes. Also, the vocalist thinks he’s Kevin Shields—but no one is! I don’t know… (read more)
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Big Black – “Songs About Fucking”
If someone told me there was such a thing as “industrial rock” before I had ever heard of any, I would assume the genre would sound like Big Black’s 1987 album, Songs About Fucking. A graceful introduction to an album with nothing graceful about it—this is pure punk. Lead by the now famous Steve Albini,… (read more)
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Akira Yamaoka – “Silent Hill: Original Soundtrack” (1999)
For better or worse, the first Silent Hill soundtrack is quite different from its successors. While the soundtracks after this one showcased great haunting dark ambient melodies and trip hop influences that made them pleasant even outside of the game, the first Silent Hill game’s soundtrack focuses on lumbering, reverberating industrial noise that frequently features… (read more)
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Boris – “Attention Please”
Minimal shoegaze Attention Please is as far away as you can get from shoegaze while still being shoegaze. It’s actually a pretty unique-sounding album for the genre and I never gave it enough credit for that before. I have to say though: Wata may be a good guitarist, but she is a terrible vocalist, and I’m not… (read more)
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My Bloody Valentine – “Loveless” (1991)
2/5/2026: Man, I should probably have something written for my favorite album of all time. But hopefully you can empathize with having to write about something you connect to on such a deeply emotional level. Sure, I could go through Loveless track-by-track and describe why I think every composition choice works using adjectives yanked out… (read more)
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Sonic Youth – “Daydream Nation” (1988)
The youthful energy pervading much of Sonic Youth’s music spoke a lot to me in my early adulthood. Detached, rebellious, and a yearning to express some kind of stronger emotion that you’re not yet quite sure of. The noise sections have a reckless abandonment to them, but also seem calculated, fitting in with the songs… (read more)
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Fugazi – “Red Medicine”
There was a hot minute when Red Medicine was my favorite Fugazi album. I was probably (and reasonably) overexcited about hearing them take such a stronger direction towards the noise rock they always flirted with. Indeed, there are some Sonic Youth-esque jams here. When they get it on, the results are a Fugazi unlike all… (read more)
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Lilys – “A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns” (1994)
Excellent ’90s alternative rock that retains a fair amount of the noise from the first album, which was heavily inspired by the early ’90s shoegazing scene. On the A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns EP, Lilys breaks away from that a little with a more aggressive sound that still sounds very melodic. Lilys went from… (read more)
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My Bloody Valentine – “Lost Tracks and Rare Cuts” (2010)
Lost Tracks and Rare Cuts is an unauthorized collection of My Bloody Valentine (MBV) rarities. Among these are “Sugar,” one of the B-sides to the Only Shallow single and a longer version of the track “Glider” from the Glider EP. “Cowboy Song,” “Good for You,” “Just Like Us” (more commonly known as “Kevin Song”) and… (read more)