No wave

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No wave

Development phase: Late 1970s
Place of origin: New York City
Stylistic precursors
Punk rock , avant-garde , post-punk , noise
Pioneers
Mars , Swans , Brian Eno
Instruments typical of the genre
Electric guitar - electric bass - drums - guitar synthesizer
Stylistic successor
Noiserock , dance punk
Mainstream success
Low
Groundbreaking publications
No New York (1978)

No Wave describes a short-lived, influential, avant-garde style of music that was almost exclusively at home in the Lower East Side of New York City from around 1977 to 1982 . The most famous no-wave musicians include Lydia Lunch , James Chance and Glenn Branca . Although No Wave later influenced music through the 1980s to the present day, none of its representatives made it to mainstream success (Lydia Lunch and Sonic Youth , however, came very close). The most important no-wave album is the sampler No New York produced by Brian Eno .

Origin of the name

The name No Wave was originally intended as a parody counter to the New Wave movement that emerged in the 1970s . The name should also make it clear that No Wave considered itself to be completely independent musically and could not be classified in any previously known grid.

features

No Wave can generally be described as a branch of post-punk and art rock . The focus is on atmosphere, unconventional guitar noises, open musical structures, which, however, often include a repetitive theme, and atonal structure. Melody or technical talent to be able to play an instrument were considered subordinate. This went so far that groups such as DNA even consisted of musicians with no musical experience who developed their own way of playing their instruments and who also achieved success.

Chronological sequence and subordination

James White aka Chance, 1981, Berlin, SO 36

The beginning of about 1977-1981 made among others Mars, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (Lydia Lunch & James Chance), Glenn Branca, DNA and many more. James Chance left TJ&TJ back in 1977 because Lydia Lunch wanted to achieve a more minimalist sound. He then founded The Contortions and went more in a jazz- oriented direction. Glenn Branca played in various no wave bands such as The Static and Theoretical Girls. In 1977 he performed with Rhys Chatham in his Guitar Trio.

In 1978 Brian Eno recorded the most important no-wave album No New York with James Chance and the Contortions , Teenage Jesus and the Jerks , Mars and DNA. Each artist was entitled to contribute four pieces. Instead of containing as many bands as possible, as is usual with a sampler, No Wave has been reduced to four groups. Critics accused Brian Eno of trying to exploit the artists, but this is not correct - his aim was rather to save this style of music and to give the musicians a chance at a recording deal that they would not have gotten so easily without him can.

A few months later, Mars broke up as they were no longer posted. Her two albums 78+ and 1977–1978 - the Complete Studio Recordings were only released posthumously. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks also broke up in 1978. Lydia Lunch then went to 8-Eyed Spy and began releasing solo albums.

In 1980 the musicians from Mars and DNA recorded the only no-wave opera John Gavanti - a cover version of Mozart's Don Giovanni - and published it in 1981.

In 1981 most of the bands had split up and No Wave went on the one hand in a danceable direction with bands like Bush Tetras, the Dance, ESG , Liquid Liquid , and on the other hand a path to more abstract, more atonal music with bands like Sonic Youth and Swans .

In 1982 No Wave collapsed. The few remaining took other directions (Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth, James Chance, Swans). Today groups are referred to as belonging to No Wave if they are assigned directly to No Wave, otherwise as experimental if they have a similar musical direction.

No-wave bands

Compilations

  • All Guitars (1985) Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine # 10, Harvestworks.org
  • Just Another Asshole # 5 (1981) compilation LP (CD reissue 1995 on Atavistic # ALP39CD), producers: Barbara Ess & Glenn Branca
  • NY No Wave (2003) ZE France B00009OKOP
  • New York Noise (2003) Soul Jazz B00009OYSE
  • New York Noise, Vol. 2 (2006) Soul Jazz B000CHYHOG
  • New York Noise, Vol. 3 (2006) Soul Jazz B000HEZ5CC
  • Noise Fest Tape (1982) TSoWC, White Columns
  • No New York (1978) Antilles , (2006) Lilith, B000B63ISE
  • Speed ​​Trials (1984) Homestead Records HMS-011

Documentaries

  • Kill Your Idols - Scott Crary, 2004
  • Blank City - Celine Danhier, 2010

literature

  • Simon Reynolds : Rip It Up and Start Again - Throw it all down and start over: Postpunk 1978–1984 . Translated from the English by Conny Lösch. Koch International / Hannibal, Höfen 2007. ISBN 978-3-85445-270-6
  • Joachim E. Berendt. The Jazz Book: From Ragtime to Fusion and Beyond . Revised by Günther Huesmann, translated by H. and B. Bredigkeit with Dan Morgenstern. Brooklyn: Lawrence Hill Books, 1992. "The Styles of Jazz: From the Eighties to the Nineties," pp. 57-59. ISBN 1-55652-098-0
  • Marc Masters. No wave . London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-906155-02-5
  • Alan Moore and Marc Miller (eds.), ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery . New York: Collaborative Projects, 1985
  • Marvin J. Taylor (ed.). The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984 , foreword by Lynn Gumpert. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-691-12286-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reynolds: Contort Yourself: No Wave New York - in: Rip it up and Start Again , page 80 et seq.
  2. ↑ Life on Mars, Twenty-Five Years Later on fakejazz.com ( Memento from April 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Web links