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>> The extreme sounds of Alien 8 find appreciation out East Probably the truest makers of extreme noise in this year's Noisemaker's issue are local record label Alien 8. With releases that include everything from Kieji Haino's 70-minute drone on his amazing Black Is Myself CD to Brutal Truth's sonic blasts, noise merchants Gary Worsley and Sean O'Hara are shaking the fillings in people's teeth all over Europe, the United States and Japan. In fact, thanks to our Victoriaville festival and to Gary and Sean's label, Montreal is becoming central to the extreme noise movement. Alien 8 started their noise regime last year by releasing a CD by extreme Japanese artists Merzbow, Aube and Kieji Haino, Toronto's Knurl and local electronic experimenter David Kristian. Next year will be even busier, and they already have 12 releases planned, ranging from Japan's Masonna and Sian to a re-mix of Kristian's Cricklewood CD by Godflesh's Justin Broadrick. "We get stuff from noise artists all the time that we want to put out," explains Gary, "but we just don't have the time or resources. That's the really frustrating part."
As for the future of this music, Alien 8 say they could care less about remaining underground. "Right now noise is merging with electronic music and I think eventually noise will get exploited by electronic music," explains Gary. "I think it's really exciting that noise is getting out of the underground, because it will force people to push the boundaries and conceptions of what they think is music." Johnson Cummins
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Merchants of noise
While in Japan, Gary found out that his little "hobby" label was receiving more praise there than back on his native soil. It makes sense: Japan is the Mecca for noise artists and serves as homebase for the majority of Alien 8's signings at this point. "Tokyo is a very noisy city," says Gary. "When you just take a train you can hear the inspiration that these artists would hear."