The New Blockaders

 

The New Blockaders may sound like a hip Indie Rock band, and they may want you to believe such a thing to lure unsuspecting listeners. As merchants of 'anti-music,' they embrace Luigi Russolo's 1913 Art of Noise manifesto and although Russolo is widely credited as being the first major noise theorist and there was plenty of noisy music in the various Avant Gardes of the '60s and '70s, TNB brought noise to the fore like no other previously and were the first to progress from the use of noise as assault on tonality to the development of a rich, complex language capable of subtleties of shade and nuance without sacrificing any of its feral power or ability to unlock repressed personae in the listener. 

Ron Lessard, head of legendary US Noise label RRRecords, cites TNB's debut 'Changez Les Blockeurs' (1982) as, 'The first true Noise record of the modern era.' Their manifesto, which accompanies their debut, proclaims, 'Blockade is resistance. It is our duty to blockade and induce others to blockade: Anti-music, anti-art, anti-books, anti-films, anti-communications. We will make anti-statements about anything and everything. We will make a point of being pointless.' Everything about TNB entails refusal. The title of their collection 'Gesamtnichtswerk' is important here. It reminds of Wagner's dream of the total art work -the Gesamtkunstwerk-, but the art is replaced by nothing. 

 

Lazier souls would place TNB within the pantheon-lineage of UK Industrial, although they are seem as a free-standing unit with more in common with the Futurists and (maybe) Einsturzende Neubauten (without the 'songs'): Electrical tools, metal, ear-shredding static noise -the very definition of nihilism through sound. Superficial similarities exist to forebearers like AMM's free form music aesthetic, Throbbing Gristle's 'Second Annual Report' and Lou Reed's one-off decadent, noise-loop experimentation 'Metal Machine Music'. TNB differ in that they have never burdened themselves with writing excessive, sleazy Rock Pop put on, prone to current Pop culture sampling obsessions or attempts at confining unruly, nihilistic sounds. They create a true musical sound cluster of destruction to such an extent that their so-called 'anti-music' transcends nihilism into positivism/optimism suggesting new music. 

TNB always suggested more than a band or musical project. They are bent almost as much on philosophy and literary ambitions, issuing manifestos and texts and referencing the likes of Debussy and Nietzsche. TNB never set out to be part of a self-glorifying youth movement where pompous, romanticized bullshit dies hard in an endless, capitalistic magic show. Instead, they depict the emotional tonalities of an ambivalent, ambiguous new century with no form or direction. Their musical legacy offers respite from the fraudulent herd of co-opted streamlined sounds, which masquerade as experimental. 

TNB served as a major influence on legendary Noise pioneers such as Merzbow and made a lot of the ‘90s 'Noise-boom' artists look like charlatans. Their influence on the current crop of popular crossover Noise artists such as Prurient and Wolf Eyes is immeasurable. Collaborations in recent years with artists such as Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore have brought their anti-sound to a younger and diverse audience. The metal-bashing of K2, the awkwardness of Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, the density of Macronympha and the abrasiveness of Merzbow all owe something to the anti-music of TNB. They, more than any other, define the essence of true Noise music both in art and in act. [SOURCE: THE NEW BLOCKADERS]