Waterloo’s Connor Kurtz explores avante-noise subgenre’s under the name Important Hair. Their latest effort, Natasha Ritchie I Love You Until the Sun Dies (2024), is a meditative collection that sets a course for an experiential ritual in the art of noise.
NRILYUTSD opens with an enchanting composition for melodica. Droning harmonies fold over each other, ebbing and flowing over a fantastical-sounding scale. This simple, yet inimitable introduction is quickly devoured by the feedback-filled track, “The Leak.” The tracks bleed into each other in a way that expels the child-like wonderment of our intro for a bleak and utterly chaotic soundscape.
Vocals nag rampantly over a maelstrom of noises. Synthesizers hiss and writhe in a panic-stricken agony. The artist implements effected vocals over this track, singing into a chain of manipulations that sound like ghostly voices transmitting from dead radio towers.
High pitched overtones scrape and claw over a terrific hell as “Inside” begins to churn. The word “inside” is shrieked and belched over bent notes and low hums. A cackling, yawp is buried under the discord of mutating cacophonies. The way this record is laid out makes me feel like I am being embraced yet confronted at the same time; the album keeps its initial playfulness at heart while its grinding, tormented feedback draws me into a dark meditation.
The sonic elements within this record are placed against conflicting tones that are wrangled into submission. The result is a cohesive work invoking dismay and piety in a most nonmaterial way. Using analogue synthesizers, voice melodica and samples, Important Hair delves into a profound and visceral discipline.
Genres: Noise, Harsh Noise, Experimental, Avant
Associated Acts: N/A