International Noise Conference

International Noise Conference

From Thursday through Saturday, Churchill's Pub hosts this year's International Noise Conference, spotlighting bands that specialize in experimental musical forms.

Beyond the cacophony of no wave is noise, a no man's land of anything-goes art. To most ears it sounds like random, amateurish banging and clanging, but its purveyors live and breathe it, creating performance and visual art to complement their soundscapes. As you'd guess, there are no rules dictating instrumental setups; Turmoiled Functions, from Tampa, sculpts its aural assault from simple synthesizers, while, for example, New York's Talibam comprises keyboards, drums, and sax.

Tampa's burgeoning noise scene will be well represented over the weekend. Along with Turmoiled Functions, Tampa acts include Then & Than and Odem Press, noise bands that have been recording and touring for several years.

Miami's Otto von Schirach will play Thursday night at 1:30. More structured than traditional free-form noise, von Schirach's sound calls to mind cyber-industrial noise artists like Combichrist (picture an ultraheavy Skinny Puppy rhythm played through an old AM radio, add some malevolent lyrics, and you're there). But listener beware: Don't expect much of the conference to be devoted to coherent hard-dance, as most of the artists on the docket are firmly rooted in pure, well, noise. — Eric W. Saeger