MATTIN

"Proletarian of Noise"

Hibari Music
hibari-10

Reviews:

SandwichBubble April 1st 2017 at Sputnik Music
Better than Metal Machine Music

Marcelo Expósito (5th January 2006)
Una especie de Whitehouse postfordista
A kind of postfordist Whitehouse

VITAL WEEKLY

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number 556

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week 50

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MATTIN - PROLETARIAN OF NOISE (CD by Hibari Music)

With intervals of two or three weeks, Mattin produces a new work, and more and more released on 'real' CDs. I am a bit unclear what his new work has to do with 'King Of Noise' by Hijokaidan, but
besides using the title, he also uses the cover of that release. in 'Computer Music/Post-Fordism' he uses the sound of typing on a computer keyboard, which I thought was a great example of computer
music. In the next three pieces, Mattin plays his more usual barrage of noise music. Lots of feedback, but in 'Attitude Fetishist' there is also a rhythm machine banging. That is a new feature, but
also the fact that Mattin uses lyrics these days. He spits the words out like in a good ol' Steve Ignorant style type of singing. More than half the CD is taken up by 'Thesis On Noise', which is
mainly silence, interrupted by a female voice reading the thesis (also printed on the cover). By itself a strong statement (and with a difference to text which I won't spoil here), but perhaps also
not the newest thing to happen around noise and silence as a musical theme. And of course as a music piece a bit hard to listen to. But through Mattin makes a strong point in all five pieces. (FdW)

Address: http://www.hibarimusic.com

Blog Audiolab (Xabier Erkizia)

MATTIN: Proletarian of noise

December 18th, 2006

Gure lagun zahar mattinek, orain arte egindako adierazpen sendo (eta bere lan gehienak bezain eztabaidagarri eta polemikoa) aurkezten du Proletarian of noise lanarekin. Soinuzko eta idatzizko bi zatiz osaturiko lan honekin, mattinek zaratari, bere espektru zabalenean, eskainitako ia hamarkada bateko ibibidearen ondorio gisara, zaratak eta zarata sortzearen ekintzak, gaur egungo gizartean eta bere merkatuan dituen erlazioei errepaso bat egiten die.

Nuestro viejo conocido mattin presenta, el que probablemente es su declaración más sólida (y tan discutible o polémica como la mayoría de sus trabajos) hasta la fecha con Proletarian of noise. Un trabajo formado por una parte sonora y otra teórica en la que mattin hace una especie de repaso conceptual a casi una década dedicada al ruido en su más amplio espectro, sacando sus propias conclusiones y teorias respecto al significado que genera el ruido y la acción de generar rudio en las sociedades y sus respectivos mercados actuales.

Revue & Corrigee (France March 2007)

MATTIN

"Proletarian of Noise"

Hibari Music, hibari-10

"Proletarian of Noise" est un hommage explicite au "King of Noise" du groupe Hijokaïdan, groupe qui a porté, le premier, un assaut sonique contre l'industrie musicale japonaise dans les années 80, détruisant les critères consensuels de bon goût et d'harmonie. La musique japonaise devenait infréquentable. MATTIN reprend à son compte le détournement de pochettes et de titres d'albums de groupes cultes que les groupes noise, liés au label Alchemy, ont pour habitude de pratiquer. Même humour référencé, dédicace cryptée aux disques qui ont façonnés son écoute de la musique, une private joke. On y entend aussi l'écho de Whitehouse, par la voix hurlée de MATTIN. Pour autant ce n'est aucunement un exercice de style, une copie d'un original qu'il rejouerait naïvement dans le champ de la musique improvisée. Si l'idée du nouveau a fini par achopper dans le post-modernisme dominant, il s'agit pour MATTIN de détourner le noise et de le déplacer là où il peut encore faire sens : celui de l'art sonore et de son consumérisme. Les fréquences sont agressives, corrosives, douloureuses, rendant l'écoute de salon difficile, problématique. Quel plaisir trouble prenons nous dans ce bruit ? A l'auditeur de choisir entre accepter ce bruit libérateur ou couper net ce bruit parasite pour d'autres muzak plus paisibles.

"can you get your ears fucked? / can you get mentally raped? / can you become someone else? / fucking consumer / you are a fucking passive endless consumer"

L'insulte renvoie aux coups poings et aux cris des futuristes et des ultra-lettristes, on peut trouver çà immature comme les crachats punk en d'autres temps, derrière les manières brutales et provocantes, MATTIN tente seulement de questionner l'économie et les pratiques de ces musiques. Ses propres disques sont téléchargeables gratuitement sur son site. Reste qu'il participe à la réification sans précédent de la musique. A nulle autre époque la musique n'a été coupée à tel point de la vie.

"Computer music / post-fordism" est une pièce de musique concrète, on y entend les doigts de MATTIN frapper frénétiquement le clavier de son ordinateur, rien d'autre. Comme pour dire que derrière les programmes informatiques, il y a des techniciens qui entrent des données, que le travail n'est pas aboli par la technoculture. Une pièce qu'on pourrait ajouter au répertoire Fluxus, laissant les sons être eux-mêmes, dégagés de toute organisation structurelle pour une improvisation bruitiste minimale. Fait suite "Your attitude fetishist", drum beat monotone et fréquences blanches, techno minimale voulant moins la danse que forcer le corps à s'ouvrir aux hurlements de MATTIN. Vociférations punks sur la consommation de la marchandise culturelle, celle qui fait accepter toutes les autres. Quant à "Stuck as free human being" et "Desecration of silence" ce sont des barrages soniques, des assauts contre l'entendement et le réductionnisme dogmatique, proches des premiers Whitehouse, une même violence sonore jouée. Jouissance masochiste sous ce flux sonore sadien. L'album se clos sur ses "Thesis on noise", thèse énoncée par une voix de speakerine entre de longues plages de silence. Le disque s'achèvant sur cet extrême sonore; autre bruit plus radical pour celui qui paye sa camelote culturelle au prix fort.

To say “this is good Noise” or “that is bad Noise” is to miss the point. Un putain de disque !

* Les citations anglaises sont tirées du livret de Mattin.

Michel HENRITZI

Bagatellen

Mattin - Proletarian of Noise

Hibari
10

Why can’t Mattin play nice like the other kids?

“Proletarian of Noise” is the latest (I think this is number 184 this year) release from our Basque friend, striving its utmost to aggravate, baffle and generally piss off its listeners. It begins beguilingly enough. “Computer Music/Post-Fordism” is a fine little piece, all quiet, sandy ticks arrayed with captivating irregularity. “Ah,” thought I, “not the screech-fest I’d anticipated from the album’s title. How refreshing!” Nuh-uh. “Attitude Fetishist” is in the same general territory as his performance with Tim Barnes at this year’s ErstQuake, that is to say: Mattin screaming, erm, lyrics into his computer mic over a variety of extreme noise. The words are obligingly included in the CD sleeve. This song leads off:

how can you believe everything they tell you?
open your mouth and I’ll spit on you
keep listening and I’ll make you feel like a piece of shit

Forewarned is forearmed and all so I’d simply advise, for the next two tracks, turning your volume level to somewhere between 0 and 1. You’ll thank me. I actually like the pieces in a way, the latter helpfully titled, “Desecration of Silence”, it’s just that my ears don’t.

A bit more than half the disc, the closing 31 minutes, is given over to, “Thesis on Noise”. Whoa, you say, how can he possibly up the ante? Well, he does and doesn’t. The work consists of eleven Mattinesque aphorisms about the nature, social and political, of Noise, spoken by Lisa Rosendahl at intervals between several minutes of total silence. Some of them are provocatively interesting, especially to those of us writing or talking about the area, to wit:

IV To say “this is good noise” or “that is bad noise” is to miss the point.

Or,

VIII The identity process that occurs as people are making Noise must be constantly rejected. To be a “Noisician” is even more pathetic than to be a “musician”

The full deal, as always, is available for naught at Mattin’s site

Posted by Brian Olewnick on December 25, 2006 7:27 AM

Neural (Italy)

Mattin - Proletarian Of Noise

CD - Hibari
"How can you believe everything they tell you?", this is the first text line after the beats, tapped on the table, or a keyboard or whatever in 'Computer Music/Post Fordism', the 'Proletarian Of Noise' intro. This is the last project by Mattin, a controversial experimenter and activist from Bilbao, yet happily involved in the freeware and anti-copyright movement, beside being well known for his dissonant live concerts. Theories, radicalism and sound violence are being refracted with hard proposals, amongst extremely high and low volumes, feedback and improvisation. This work is irritating but at the same time brilliant, as when ideally the electronic research becomes simply the percussion of a computer case or the correlation between the 'noise', 'capitalism' and 'democracy' concepts with postulates as extreme as the their own sounds. This coherent structuring leads to making most of the author's artistic production freely available for download on the net. Finally it's worth to mention that the cover pictures is a plagiarism of the Hijokaidan's album 'King of Noise' (a Japanese combo that since the end of seventies integrated crude performing acts and noise), juxtaposing the dollar sign to an eye of the portraited child.
Aurelio Cianciotta

Mattin - Proletarian Of Noise

CD - Hibari
'Come puoi credere a qualsiasi cosa essi ti dicano?', questa la prima riga di testo dopo i battiti, tamburellati su di un tavolo, su una tastiera o cos'altro, nelle registrazioni di 'Computer Music/Post Fordism', intro di 'Proletarian Of Noise', nuovo progetto di Mattin, controverso sperimentatore ed attivista di base a Bilbao, già  in passato positivamente coinvolto nel movimento freeware ed anti-copyright, oltre ad esser ben noto per le sue dissonanti apparizioni live. Aspro nelle proposte il rifrangersi di teorie, radicalità  e violenza sonora, nel contrasto tra volumi estremamente alti ed estremamente bassi, feedback ed improvvisazione, urtante ma allo stesso tempo geniale quando idealmente la ricerca elettronica diventa la semplice percussione d'un case di computer o la correlazione dei concetti di 'rumore', 'capitalismo' e 'democrazia' in postulati estremi almeno quanto i suoi stessi suoni. Impostazione coerente che lo vede on line rendere liberamente disponibile gran parte della propria produzione artistica. Utilizzata sovrapponendo il simbolo del dollaro ad un occhio del bambino lଠritratto è da segnalare anche l'immagine di copertina, plagio dell'album 'King of Noise' di Hijokaidan, combo giapponese che già  dalla fine degli anni settanta integrava crude forme di performing art e rumorismo.
Aurelio Cianciotta

Diskunion (Japan)

2006年の来日 でジュンコ (非常階段) と壮絶なフィードバック、絶叫対決をしたバスクのインプロヴァイザー、マッティンの 新作。キーボードを打つ軽快なタイプ音が、強烈なフィードバック・ノイ ズに変わった時、このアルバムはスタートします。ジャケットのオマージュからもわかるように (非常階段公認) これは、完全なノイズ・アルバムです。とにかくうるさくて、耳が痛くなるような強烈 なノイズを放出しています。来日時、サングラスをかけて直立不動で演奏 するマッティンは、ウィリアム・ベネットのようでもあり大変雰囲気がありました。大推薦盤!!!!

Paris Transatlantic (Paris)

Mattin
PROLETARIAN OF NOISE
Hibari

You won't feel like an idiot or an "attitude fetishist" (despite what the lyrics of the track of that name might imply), and you can even manage to listen to it all without pressing the stop button. Just watch your ears and keep that volume knob to hand. Proletarian Of Noise is a good collection of compositions, richer in ideas and more fun than any of the various chapters of Mattin's Songbook to date. There are five pieces, beginning with "Computer Music/Post Fordism", five minutes of soft tapping, like finger drumming. "Attitude Fetishist" and "You Are Stuck As A Free Human Being" find Mattin screaming anti-capitalist abuse in some kind of self-exorcism. If you don't read the lyrics you probably won't be able to make out what he's saying, but that's OK because I don’t give a damn about the words as long as the music is great (I still like Hall & Oates too), and these two tracks are. Have a good laugh at the indecipherable lowest-of-the-lo-fi rant of "You Are Stuck..", a "song" that makes two nerds of Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious. "Desecration Of Silence" is the kind of fantastic, brutal carnage of squealing distortion that should be transcribed and executed live by Zeitkratzer. The final track is 31 minutes of total silence, punctuated at long intervals by Lisa Rosendahl reading the eleven "chapters" of "Thesis On Noise." Cage would have loved this one, but if he'd heard "Desecration Of Silence" instead he would have probably sent this proletarian off to the same gulag as Glenn Branca.–MR

Phosphor Magazine

Is this a political pamphlet on noise? The booklet features ten thesisses

on noise and two texts.

The CD offers an hour of noise, divided in five tracks. The opening track

is an undefinable, constant crackling. As of there things get rougher.

Extreme feedback and occasional vocals have been combined. The third track

is a ten minutes long combination of distorted, furious screaming vocals

larded with feedback. Things don't get calmer after this. Another seven

minutes of harsh, screaming noise can be found on Mattin's ten commands of

noise, divided over 31 minutes of playing time.

This is an album for the conceptual die-hards.

The Sound Projector (London)

Smooth Assailing

mattin's in germany and he runs the excellent w.m.o./recordings label as well as the 'net label desetxea. he's written essays on aspects of music as well as the industry and he also dabbles in some visual art (animation). in regards to his music, aside from his solo work, there's sakada, with eddie prévost and rosy parlane, billy bao, la grieta, josetxo grieta, nmm, belaska (mattin & mark wastell) and deflag haemorrhage/haien kontra . one of the more interesting aspects of mattin's musical personage is his philosophies. for instance, all of his w.m.o./r releases are available for free to download. granted, those downloads are only available in .ogg format, but that's a minor detail when you consider what he's offering. here's some of the artists whose albums are available: bruce russell (the dead c), maurizio bianchi, tomas korber, taku unami, julien ottavi and mark wastell. additionally, mattin opposes copyrights and intellectual properties and supports copying/file sharing/downloading. it's always nice to come across artists whose views on the free exchange of music coincide with my addiction to downloading music for free. this way everyone's happy!
proletarian's title, as well as its cover, pay homage to hijokaidan's 1985 release king of noise. in fact, the cover is essentially the same. while the nods towards the japanese legends seem playful, the music itself is anything but. two of the three songs with vocals are venomous rants against consumerism and capitalism. attitude fetishist is first and opens up with some nice feedback over static with some repetitious percussion. soon the feedback dies down as mattin breaks into his diatribe. lines like "keep listening and i'll make you feel like a piece of shit" and "you are a fucking passive endless consumer" do manage to come off being less reprimanding and more aggressive due to the multi-tracking and manipulation of the vocals in combination with the rawness of the music. mattin's choice of a static-filled base and the single loop of percussion work great in relation to his biting lyrics. the next track, you are stuck as a free human being is my favorite, though. a lot noisier and musically overpowering. screams from mattin, feedback, vocal manipulation...you really need the lyric sheet in front of you for this one as there's clearly a lot on his mind, but you won't understand a word of it without reading this. "your mind is nothing but the cunt of capitalism" and my favorite "your careful listen is fully appreciated, thanks to you i feel like the best whore in this brothel." beautiful. his lyrics are damn good, vulgar, yes, but there's a great deal of intelligent thought amongst the resentment and frustration. on you are stuck the vocals themselves become part of the noise, preventing the whole thing from being a soapboxesque preaching session. i've oft wondered why people who have thought provoking socially-aware, or political, lyrics bury them under noise or by screaming unintelligibly. it seems like the point would get lost in doing so, but i imagine, that's why the lyrics are printed. the last piece with lyrics is the thirty-one minute closer, thesis on noise. thesis is what it says it is, a spoken word dissertation on what noise is and what it should be. it's definitely interesting as there's some embraceable or alienating ideas on the subject such as: "the identity process that occurs as people are making noise must be constantly rejected. to be a "noisician" is even more pathetic than to be a "musician"". with thesis, which was spoken by lisa rosendahl, mattin's clearly drawn a line in the sand. as for me, i've got one foot in each side, but i can respect where he's coming from. the most curious thing about this track is that it's so long. each 'section', of which there are ten (correction, ten listed in the cd notes, but eleven being said), is spread out over the duration, but if you were to just read them, they wouldn't take more than two minutes or so to go over. there's around a three minute pause between each part, maybe for you and your friends to discuss each point amongst yourselves, who knows?

as for the non-vocal tracks, first would be the opener computer music/post-fordism and it sounds like someone typing away on a keyboard that, judging by what i hear, is a hell of a lot nicer than mine. maybe it's an apple. the seven minute desecration of silence keeps the noise going. this one's loaded with shrill piercing sounds that'll probably have the dogs in your neighborhood going crazy if you turn this up too loudly. i'd have to say that the title is extremely appropriate.

i like this cd quite a bit, the only real qualm i have is with it's running time. yes, it's an hour long, but only a half hour of it is actually music or should i say "music". while that might be a sticking point for some people, thankfully the music is worth it. should you not have the money to shell out for this one, mattin's got you covered, just click here and start downloading.

if you're looking for other noisy explorations by mattin i would strongly recommend his collaborations with tim barnes as well as his one with junko (of hijokaidan). that pairing is easily my favorite album that she's done outside of hijokaidan. both are also freely available to download from w.m.o./recordings.

this is the first cd in a package of two that mattin sent me, i'm sending the second disc to blackandgold, so look for that review..sometime soon.

Attitude Fetishist

:: posted by avant gardening, 7:19 PM | link | 0 comments |

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/omay_yad/20070128

2007-01-28 ”Proletarian of Noise” Mattin

タイトル：Proletarian of Noise

アー ティスト：Mattin

レーベル/ 番号：hibari music/hibari-10

制作情報：ＣＤ/2006年/日本

マッティンはア ナーキストだ。彼の思想がどのように形成されたかは判らないが、バスク生まれであること と関係があるかも知れない。国籍はスペインだ が自らをスパニッシュと称すことはない。破天荒な作品が眼を引くマッティンだが美学の博士号を持っており、実験的 な音楽だけでなくメッセージ性の高い映像作品も発表している。このアルバムは資本主義、 とりわけ芸術の貨幣価値への挑発を行っている。音楽制作に関してはフ リーソフトのみを使い、一貫して著 作権への反対を表明し ている。英 国長期滞在時には、空き家に不法占拠し警察当局から逃げ回っていたという。激しいフィー ドバックとホワイトノイズと 空白で構成さ れ、ラッ プトップ付属のマイクに叫ぶこのアルバムは、英のハーシュ・ノイズ、Whitenoiseを確信的に流用しているようである。これまでの彼の作品 と比べものにならぬほど激しくパンキッシュである。彼は芸術という非生産的な 場所に身を置き、そこから純粋な価値、貨幣交換になり得ないものを創造しようとしているのだろうか。生き様を売り物にしようとする胡散臭い輩ではない。彼 は数回来日しているが、自己矛盾など微塵もない自然体のパフォーマンスを繰り広げ、現在の在住地、ベルリンに 飄々と消えていった。今後の展開に眼が離せない。

アルバム・ジャケットは当人の希望で日本のノイズ・バンド、非常階段の 「King of Noise」の画像をJOJO広重氏の許諾を得て 使用している。

Outer Space Gamelan

Mattin - Proletarian of Noise (Hibari Music CD)

Mattin's stayed off my radar for the longest of times no matter how often his name pops up on Bagatellen/I Hate Music or in the Wire (through no actual intention of my own - I just never got around to hearing anything), but he's getting pretty hard to ignore lately. I think it was either last year or the year before where he decided to go full-on anti-copyright, making all of his music available online, a practice still in place to this day. In fact you can head on over to Mattin.org right now and download this very album, no charge. Of course this raised lots of questions (did all of the other artists featured on those recordings agree to having work they participated in made available for free?) and ire (what about the stores stuck with Mattin titles in their inventory that nobody really has anymore incentive to purchase?) and discussion. And just this year he participated in Michel Henritzi's "Keith Rowe Serves Imperialism" album which seems to have succeeded in annoying just about everybody, although that's more Henritzi's heat and not Mattin's (but I got that one too - tune in next week!). Somewhere in between those came "Proletarian of Noise", not quite as talked-about but still curious enough to warrant a couple of double-takes. First of those curiosities would have to be the use of the cover image from Hijokaidan's 1985 pasting "King of Noise", only with a dollar sign in the baby's eye and Mattin's title emblazoned across. Fold out the oversized glossy sleeve to reveal the lyrics to the tracks "Attitude Fetishist", "You Are Stuck as a Free Human Being" and "Thesis on Noise". The words are as crucial (you could argue more so in fact) as the music that appears on the album because they convey the questions about "noise" that Mattin has made it his business to investigate. A sampling of the questions raised: "Can you get your ears fucked? Can you get mentally raped? Can you become someone else? Fucking consumer / you are a fucking passive endless consumer / just to feel a little bit above average" and "You gracious creature full of talent / your careful listening is fully appreciated / thanks to you I feel like the best whore in this brothel / I get so much pleasure out of your attention / a transaction that only you and me know is only cultural prostitution". You can read the rest on Mattin's website. The conclusions one can draw from those lyrics alone are pretty self-evident and it's safe to say Mattin does have a point (at least I myself enjoy and bask the irony of the flagrant materialistic/consumerist nature of those who listen to a so-called non-genre of music like noise - a point seemingly backed up by the dollar sign in the baby's eye, e.g. the fact that an album full of trashy noise is now a revered classic and, essentially, a "brand"). So before you really even drop "Proletarian" into the CD player it's already hitting pretty hard, and the first track "Computer Music/Post-Fordism" piles on the sarcasm even further - the "computer music" here is nothing more than the sound of somebody hitting the keys of a laptop for five minutes - the commentary there isn't exactly cutting edge, but I did enjoy the relaxing sounds of a keyboard sprinkling. That is until "Attitude Fetishist" cuts through and blitzes your ears with an acid rain of computer-generated static and noise, over which Mattin says/shouts his manifestos with an incessant snare hit keeping time for no real reason. "You Are Stuck as a Free Human Being" follows and the inclusion of lyrics was all but essential because Mattin's voice is so wholly mangled that it's impossible to make anything out. The backing noise (again, all computer generated - using Linux no less!) varies quite a bit more than the previous track with virtual knobs twisted and tweaked and wrenched to alternating degrees of intensity. An all-too-easy sonic reference point would be Whitehouse, especially their most recent works, and even Jojo Hiroshige's solo work outside Hijokaidan bears similarities. "Desecration of Silence" is an instrumental, despite the absence of actual instruments, and is cut from the same cloth as the previous two tracks in terms of abrasive attack, and the final 30 minutes of the disc are dedicated to Mattin's "Thesis on Noise" which doesn't actually feature Mattin at all but instead one Lisa Rosendahl reading the "Thesis of Noise" itself in a pleasing English monotone. To say it's drawn out would be a colossal understatement, as you could probably blow through the "Thesis" in about a minute reading aloud, so strap yourself in for a lot of Cageian silence.
I think anybody listening to "Proletarian" will eventually have to ask themselves if the words are serving the music (no pun intended) or if the noise is just a backdrop for Mattin to expound his current views on the "state of noise" if you will. I also think those questions are justified, because musically (again, no pun intended) there isn't a whole lot of meat to be found here. But then on the other hand I wonder if that was even the point in the first place? Or what the point even was? I suppose at the end of the day if Mattin has stirred the pot or started some conversation he can consider his album to be a success, although a lot of people will undeniably dismiss it as someone looking for another angle and just using controversy as a means to further their own agendas - but we can talk about that at greater length when I listen to the Henritzi album. It may not be his greatest aural feat to date and it may not contain bulletproof notions and musings, but a lot of what's written and spoken on "Proletarian" is worthy of being given a second thought...even if you don't want to give the album a second playthrough.

posted by Outer Space Gamelan at 11:30 PM 1 comments  

The Wire (UK #276 February 2007)

By Keith Moliné

Mattin's solo albums have been getting wilder and wilder, by this latest release (the title and cover releate to Hijokaidan's 1985 album King of Noise) takes things so far out that it gives the impression of being some kind of final statement of this particular phase in his activities. Here he revels in tying himslef up in theoretical knots as he ilustrates the paradoxes of his burgeoning status as an internationally respected noisician. The 'radical' noise consumer is derided for believening that the product can be anything more than another market commodity. Mattin achieves this by using his ranting voice to create the huge swathes of distortion and feedback he imagines his audience to be believe to be revolutionary. “You are validating the whole structure that this work is part of, ie, capital!” he shrieks. The album's conceptual transparency and willingness to lay its own absurdity bare is laudable, and all makes for an intermittently entertaining experience. Unfortunatly, Mattin's pronouncements are frequently inane and riddle with bathos, especially when recited unaccompanied by Lisa Rosendahl between long passages of silence over the last 30 minutes of the disc.

Tranzistor (Greece, February 2007, by Nicolas Absurd)

δεν ξέρω κατά πόσο είναι προλετάριος, τσαρλατάνος, καλλιτέχνης, προβοκάτορας, ή οτιδήποτε άλλο. σίγουρα σαν περσόνα ο mattin έχει να δώσει αρκετά πράγματα και ήδη μας έχει δώσει αρκετά ως σήμερα, είτε μέσα από τις συνεργασίες του και κυκλοφορίες του σε διάφορες εταιρείες ή μέσω κυκλοφοριών από την εταιρεία του w.mor και διάφορες άλλες. ειλικρινά κουφάθηκα όταν μου είπε ότι το proletarian of noise στην ιαπωνική hibari είναι στην ουσία το πρώτο σόλο cd του. μπορώ να ξεχωρίσω διάφορες δουλειές του που μ' αρέσουν τρελά, το cd συνεργασία του με το rosy parlance, παραμένει μια από τις μεγάλες μου αγάπες ή τα πρώτα cd των sakada (αρχικά τρίο μαζί με rosy parlance και eddie prevost) που πραγματικά σκότωναν! και τώρα εδώ... το μισό cd ηχητικά φέρνει ή σε industrialιζοντες ρυθμούς (computer music/post-fordism) ή θυμίζει έντονα whitehouse. εξάλλου ένα αρκετά μεγάλο μέρος κατά τη γνώμη μου των δράσεων/παραστάσεων του πλέον νομίζω ότι φέρνει στο μυαλό τις τακτικές που ακολουθούσαν οι whitehouse/come org στις αρχές των 80'ς. έξυπνα μεταφερμένες στα σημερινά δεδομένα όμως. το τελευταίο κομμάτι thesis on noise, ίσως να ακούγεται βαρετό, παθητικό, ηλίθιο, άχρηστο, εμπνευσμένο, ανάλογα πως το πάρει κανείς. είναι απλά 30λεπτά όπου κάποια lisa rosendahl διαβάζει ανάμεσα από 7λεπτες περίπου σιωπές το ομώνυμο κείμενο του mattin (μπορείτε να το διαβάσετε στο site του). και είναι επίσης ένα οξύμωρο παιχνίδι το εξώφυλλο του... τροποποιημένο το εξώφυλλο του king of noise των hijo kaidan, ένα από τα κλασσικότερα guitar noise lp... σ' αφήνει με την απορία... 'βασιλιάς'; 'προλετάριος';  γελωτοποιός; www.hibarimusic.com , www.mattin.org  

δε μπορώ να αναφέρομαι στο king of noise και να μην το βάλω να το ακούσω ξανά & ξανά... κυκλοφόρησε το '85 από την εταιρεία του jojo των hijo kaidan και ήταν ντουέτο ηχογράφηση των jojo (κιθάρα) και toshiyi mikawa (ντραμς, ηλεκτρονικά, κλπ). αν μέχρι τότε οι hijokaidan είχαν δημιουργήσει ένα (κακόφημο, καλό όπως το θέλει το παίρνει κανείς) τρελό όνομα λόγω των ακροτήτων που έκαναν στα live τους και μια ηχητική ιδέα (και οπτική) μπορεί κανείς να πάρει απ' το zοuroku no kibyou (ή 2nd to damascus, κυκλοφορεί και σε cd και πέρσι το έβγαλε η γερμανική vinyl on demand επανέκδοση). θα μπορούσε κανείς να απαριθμεί με τις ώρες τα κατορθώματα των πρώτων ημερών, από το κλαμπ που έπαιζαν διασκευή το 'it's a rainy day, sunshine girl' των faust καίγοντας λάστιχα (και όχι μόνο) με αποτέλεσμα το κλαμπ να ξαναλειτουργήσει σχεδόν μετά από 1-2 βδομάδες, κλπ. ο συγκεκριμένος δίσκος όμως είναι πυροβολημένος από την άποψη ότι έχουμε ένα ντουέτο να τα σπάει όλα μέσα από κομμάτια που είτε no wave τα πει κανείς, guitar noise ή οτιδήποτε άλλο μέσα θα είναι στην αισθητική. παραμένει αγαπημένο μου το tod dem marxismus και φυσικά το εξώφυλλο του... (που φέρνει στο νου ώρες ώρες εξώφυλλα των psychic tv και εδώ συγκεκριμένα το pagan day, αλλά σ' αυτούς θα έρθουμε άλλη στιγμή...)  

Bad Achemy (Deutschland February 2007 by Rigobert Dittmann)

MATTIN Proletarian of Noise (Hibari, hibari-10): Mattin zeigte sich in BA bisher von seiner diskreten Seite, ob mit Axel Dörner (Berlin), Radu Malfatti (Going Fragile) oder Dion Workman (S3, Via Vespucci). Seine anderen Gesichter zeigt er etwa mit Billy Baos annihilatorischem After-Trash, mit No More Music at the service of capital (w/ Lucio Capece) oder hier bei der ‚Vertonung‘ seiner 11 Theses on Noise: I) What the fuck is Noise? Precisely because of its indeterminacy noise is the most sensuous human activity / practice. To try to fix it or to make it a genre is as fucked up as believing in democracy. - II) If you make noise it is likely that somebody else is going to hear you, this means Noise is a social activity. - III) The capacity to make Noise is available to all, but its revolutionary potential comes from those who want to disturb the commodification of Noise - IV) To say “this is good Noise” or “that is bad Noise” is to miss the point. - V) Noise without meaning nor finality is revolutionary as long as it does not support anything or anybody. - VI) This is not to say that Noise under capitalism can be an autonomous activity. But if neither language nor bombs help you to destroy our reality, Noise helps us to get rid of our anxiety. - VII) It is more important to fuck the minds of the audience than to fuck your ears - and vice versa. - VIII) The identity process that occurs as people are making Noise must be constantly rejec ted. To be a “Noisician” is even more pathetic than to be a “musician”. - IX) Factory workers in the previous centuries have indirectly been the most sustained and brutal players of Noise. Recognition of our past should always be present. - X) Economic exploitation still occurs, even if now the production of Noise does not produce an object. The process of Noise making has in itself become the object of financial and symbolic market value. - XI) The old conception of noise was to believe in freedom, the new conception of Noise is to achieve freedom. [Mattin, 25th May 2006, London - Anti-Copyright - www.mattin.org] These IX expliziert den Titel und verankert Mattins mind-fucking Noise in einem geschichtsbewussten Makrokontext, das von den Nippon-Harsh-Noisern Hijokaidan übernommene Coverfoto im post-industrialen Mikrokontext. Mattin bewegt sich als Partisan in einem unerklärten Krieg um die Köpfe. Freiheit ist das erklärte Ziel und Freiheit ist nur die, die man sich nimmt oder, als Minimaldefinition, die Freiheit von Angst. Leif Elggrens Diktum Die Waffe des Proletariats ist der Pflasterstein würde er wohl zustimmen. Nur dass es beiden schwer fallen dürfte, unter ihrem bionadebohemistischen Publikum einen Proletarier zu finden. Sozialromantik oder Radical Chic überspielt Mattin durch die ungenießbare Giftigkeit seiner Klangkonstrukte - patschende oder automatenmonotone Perkussion, tinnitusgefährliches Zischen, Parolen und übersteuertes Gebrüll (you are a fucking passive endless consumer / just to feel a little bit above average), schrill bohrende Hirndriller und diskante Sägezahnmassaker. Gipfelnd im Vorwurf: In accepting to continue to listen to this work / you are validating the whole structure that this work is part of, i.e. capital. Was ungefähr so witzig ist wie Wer das liest ist doof. In der zweiten halben Stunde verliest eine Frauenstimme die 11 Thesen, jeweils unterbrochen durch minutenlange Stille. Der Knackpunkt scheint zu sein, dass der, der sich Freiheiten nimmt, sie in diesem Moment auch hat. Ob man sie, um sie zu haben, anderen wegnehmen muss, sei dahin gestellt. Manchmal halte ich Freiheit für ein überschätztes Phantasma. Jemanden die Angst zu nehmen (wie es Mattins nicht ganz einfache These VI impliziert), dürfte dagegen zu jenen ganz seltenen Fälle zählen, in denen der Beraubte reicher wird.

Monochrome Vision (Russia)   

Альбомы Маттина становятся всё более и более дикими. Его последний опус явно отсылает к классике японского нойза - альбому Hijokaidan ”King of Noise” (и по названию, и по обложке). Концептуальная прозрачность и желание довести его абсурдность до слушателя всеми способами подчас просто умиляет - всем любителям радикального шумотворчества представляется ещё один шанс доказать самим себе, что CD может стать чем-то большим чем просто рыночный продукт. И действительно, трудно себе представить, как соотнести этот альбом с чем-то приемлемым для музыкального рынка. Первый трек ”Computer Music/Post-Fordism” тут же ставит всё на место - компьютерная музыка, оказывается, есть ни что иное как звук печатания на клавиатуре в течение пяти минут. ”Attitude Fetishist” - компьютерный нойз (естественно, сгенерированный только на платформе Linux), сквозь который Маттин кричит свои антипотребительские манифесты (кстати, все они приведены тут же, в роскошном буклете к альбому). ”Desecration of Silence” - фантастически брутальная пьеса из скрипов, визгов и прочих искажённых шумов, которая хорошо бы смотрелась в концертном исполнении группой Zeitkratzer. Ну а последний трек - 31 минута тишины, время от времени прерывающаяся голосом Лиз Розендейл, читающей 11 глав ”Тезисов шума”. Кейдж наверняка оценил бы эту пьесу, но если бы он услышал ”Desecration of Silence”, то немедленно сослал бы в ГУЛАГ этого ”пролетария нойза”, вместе с Гленном Бранка за компанию.

Sputnik Music (24th June 2012)

Emboldened across the front of this album is the face some will recognize as the baby featured on Hijokaidan's “King of Noise,” along with a solitary dollar sign in the baby's right eye, and clearly across “Proletarian of Noise.” It speaks directly to Mattin's political views, which are somewhat unconventional and somewhat radical, but always present, even in his music; all of his records have recently gone “anti-copyright” and are free for download. In addition, a record label of his, Free Software Series, is a collection of releases by rather out-there performers, who have made these selected works off entirely free software. Most of these releases are tagged as “anti-copyright” or “copyleft,” which idealistically are interesting ideas, but in the real world I doubt musicians who gain their living off their art will follow Mattin's lead. Now it's been a question lately if there's an inherent validity behind this non-conformist, non-profit method; not necessarily regarding Mattin's extreme views but more so regarding if musicians who realistically don't mind laying on the outskirts of profitable media should receive some sort of inherent praise or not. On this release, Mattin speaks his mind quite a bit about this issue, screams it really, and unbeknownst to him, he screams out a prophetic “no” to this question. *** Proletarian of Noise.

It's not as though I disrespect Mattin for his ambition or really just find him abrasive. Ignorance is possible. Atop the fact that he's making some of the most abrasive noise out there, he seems to be taking it all very seriously; he feels responsible for an impact, a psychological and philosophical one with his music. Really imagine white noise phased across the stereo channels, while a snare crunches between that and computer noise, keeping time for no reason. On top are Mattin's indecipherable vocals, which really doesn't support the concept of anti-consumerism so evident behind the 'music.' But if you must venture you can find such tidbits as “can you become someone else? ***ing consumer, you are a ***ing passive endless consumer, just to feel a little bit above average...” and “what's so funny? Your ***ing face? Ha! You want me to split your mind and I can't. You know why? There is no mind. Ha!” Strangely enough the lyrics are not the worst vocals on this album, because Mattin is magic. Lisa Rosendahl reads his “Thesis on Noise,” as the finale. The thesis is actually alarmingly short, thankfully. But, it had to be yawned out to just over thirty-one minutes in order to make the album exactly an hour long. Realistically, I appreciate silence in music quite a bit when it serves a purpose. However the British yawn of a woman sparsely reading syllables against Cage-ian inactivity serves little purpose to the “Proletarian of Noise,” but, that's probably the point.

Mattin enjoys the title that he's given himself, now, and will make with it what he pleases. He uses the internal microphone of his computer to create feedback soundscapes in order to truly be such a proletarian. Sensory conduction is his main source of material, and his recording methods are absurd. It's not to say that high-tech production methods are needed to produce a successful sound work, but working with a proletarian method in a proletarian context in an attempt to be a proletarian leads to a proletarian result. The material here is obtuse, of course, and arcane – not as if the material is obtuse because it's arcane or vice versa, but both obtuse and arcane, thus being extremely boring and low-class. I urge you then, not to listen to Proletarian of Noise. Do not listen to it to figure out just how bad it can be (I've heard stories of people being in tears because of this album). Do not listen to it because you are curious. Do not listen to it because you want something to ironically appreciate. Do not listen to it with your eyes closed, as if Mattin is some computerized boogeyman and you can wish him away. Mattin is very real, and, on this album at least, very, very dangerous.

SandwichBubble
April 1st 2017