As Loud As Possible magazine -- now available

[ALAP Magazine]

Hello all,

The first issue of As Loud As Possible magazine is now available. It's a 166 page, perfect bound, black and white magazine dedicated to noise and experimental music from the early '80s through the present, and features lots of in-depth historical coverage (and exclusive photos) of projects nearly lost to the sands of time. We also feature articles on modern acts, and the usual slew of record reviews.

Some highlights:

• Broken Flag: Steve Underwood rounds up just about everybody who ever recorded for Broken Flag to talk about their experiences, what the Industrial and Power Electronics movements were like in the early '80s, and how we got from there to here. Includes interviews with M.B., Gary Mundy, the Grey Wolves, AMK, Con-Dom, Matthew Bower (Skullflower), Tim Gane (Uncommunity, Stereolab), and many more.
  
  Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock: Alice Kemp's detailed academic study of Rudolf Eb.er and his aesthetic ties to Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty and the Vienna Aktionists. Includes artwork by Mr. Eb.er and an "Aktionography."
  
  30 Years of The Haters: GX Jupitter-Larsen discusses his decades-long commitment to entropy.
  
  Putrefier: A chronological trawl through the history of one Mark Durgan, one of the UK's more reclusive practitioners of noise.
  
  Climax Denial: Milwaukee power electronic submissive Alex Kmet poked and prodded.
  
  IDES Recordings: Tape label run by Nicole Chambers, interview and review of many releases.
  
  "Classic Albums": Features on three long-lost gems. Included are Lemon Kittens' "We Buy A Hammer For Daddy," RJF's "Greater Success In Apprehensions and Convictions" and XX Committee's "Network," which features an interview with Scott Foust
  
  Opinion Columns: Featuring C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core), John Olson (Wolf Eyes, American Tapes), Andy Ortmann (Panicsville), Hicham Chadly (Nashazphone label), GX Jupitter-Larsen, Steve Underwood, Mikko Aspa, and more. Everything from Vomir mini-interviews to Christian bluegrass.
  
  And of course, reviews for miles.

For more info, visit our website: http://www.asloudaspossible.org/

USA, Canada, Mexico/South America mailorder:

The following prices are for individual copies that will be shipped direct from our USA office:

USA $13.00 PPD.
Canada $15.35 PPD.
Mexico / South America $19.75 PPD.
Payable in USD - PayPal to : usa.alap@gmail.com

UK , Europe and World :

The magazine costs £6.00 GBP. The following prices are for individual copies that will be shipped direct from our UK office:

UK: £8.00 (including first class postage)
Europe: £10.50 (including airmail postage)
Rest Of World: £13.50 (including airmail postage)

Payable in GBP - PayPal to : world.alap@gmail.com

(Prices include PayPal charges).

Other methods of payment can be discussed. Please ensure your PayPal details include a valid mailing address.

Thanks for your interest,
Chris S.
As Loud As Possible

[mudd]

i read about half of this and the level of information is amazing and nearly overwhelming. just tons of detail, tons of effort, a great magazine.

m

[jon abbey]

I'm going to grab one of these with my next order from FE, looking forward!

[aldo]

Yes, a great magazine !

[ALAP Magazine]

Review of issue 1 by Andrew Nolan (of Joshua Norton Cabal, Endless Blockade, and others):

http://survivalist-deathcult.blogspot.c ... sible.html

[ALAP Magazine]

From this month's issue of The Wire:

As Loud As Possible Steve Underwood & Chris Sienko (Editors) As Loud As Possible Pbk 164pp

This is the kind of publishing enterprise the internet was supposed to have killed stone dead: a good old fashioned, all-black and white Noise magazine, whose debut issue is packed to bursting with interviews, reminiscences, opinion pieces and a chunky reviews section. Its mission, explains Editor Chris Sienko in his flag-planting introduction, is to “offer a contrast to the fumbling coverage of Noise and experimental music found in most glossy magazines”, as well as championing “underdogs, master craftsmen, brilliant one-offs, and dedicated recluses”, with a focus on “projects that started (or even ended) in the 80s or early 90s”, before the advent of the game-changing Japanese Noise artists associated with the Alchemy label.

It’s an editorial slant which gives As Loud As Possible an interestingly syncopated rhythm. Interviews of varying quality with contemporary Noise artists – Vomir, Sewer Election, Climax Denial, Cheapmachines, Mark Durgan, Carlos Giffoni – are interspersed with salvage pieces on historically overlooked albums (Lemon Kittens, The Black Phlegm, The XX Committee) and artists: Zone Nord, Nigel Jacklin of early 1980s collective Alien Brains, John Smith, publisher of 80s zine Interchange, and Patrick Barber of the long defunct US tape label Apraxia.

The quality of the writing fluctuates, at times wildly. An article on Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock reads like a bad university essay, and dogfart Aspa’s dreadful piece on ‘the dark side of Noise’ really should have been spiked. 36 pages of reviews, most of them penned by Sienko, are at worst embarrassing macho cheerleading (best sentence: “No words I can spill will properly delineate that damp feeling you’ll have in your shorts after this one”) and at best not particularly insightful. They may avoid the “one-dimensional audio ‘fuck you’ to the neighbours” cliche of Noise criticism which the editorial rightly bemoans, but fall foul of a couple of others, most obviously a puerile delighting in intensity and extremity (no real surprise, given the magazine’s title) and the threadbare tropes of Noise-as-catharsis or Noise-as-punishment. Whether intensity is a valid approach in and of itself, and why Noise artists and listeners are so drawn to catharsis and punishment, are questions that remain unaddressed.

But it would be churlish to be too negative – Sienko and Underwood have commissioned and written some excellent content, and As Loud As Possible’s opinionated stance, inquiring spirit and historical awareness all bode well for future issues. Highlights include John Olson’s hilariously stupid guided tour of Michigan Christian label Pathway’s back catalogue; a useful piece on the politics of ‘wall Noise’ by Sam McKinlay, aka Noise artist The Rita; an all too brief autobiographical account by GX Jupitter-Larsen of The Haters; and a lengthy, in-depth, release-by-release history of the Broken Flag label by Underwood himself, who runs the Harbinger Sound label, one of Noise’s more valuable and discerning imprints, and is by some distance the magazine’s most cogent and engaging writer.


Nick Cain

[jon abbey]

man, I miss Nick's Opprobrium.

will FE be getting more copies of this?

[ALAP Magazine]

As of right now, Jon, FE have not requested a re-stock.

[ALAP Magazine]

At this time, Forced Exposure is not restocking issue 1. Stores or distros wishing to restock can check Revolver, or contact me at usa.alap @ gmail . com for wholesale rates.

Individual mailorder copies are still available -- $13 ppd. US, $15.35 ppd. Canada, $19.25 ppd. Mexico/South America. Paypal to the address shown.

Check out the new issue of Zero Tolerance for a short article about us as well. Thanks, ZT!