Noisevember - static 0pen, Melbourne, Australia - November 5, 2022
Uboa / Marara / Serene Ailment / Scumwitch / Pathological Function / Robinson & Robertson / Lesbian Merzbow / Vi. A / Muddy Lawrence + Alloxylon / Justin Ashworth / Blood of a Pomegranate
Both the smallest and the longest show I've been to yet - there were eight hours between the first set and the end of the last, and there would have been sixty people there at the absolute maximum. All of the artists involved are parts of the Melbourne noise scene (Lesbian Merzbow was an outlier, playing techno and coming down from Brisbane), and with the exception of Uboa are unlikely to have been known by anyone outside of the little circle.
The acts were varying in content and quality, and the organisers did a good job of alternating between a few of them. I got dehydrated there and I'd been out protesting in the morning so I was exhausted, but some of the highlights for me were: Blood of a Pomegranate playing tribalesque dark ambient with live flute parts and bomb sounds (his music is influenced by his status in the Armenian diaspora, and the genocide his people have faced); Justin Ashworth with lots of squelchy and beepy noise; R+R were almost a comedy noise duo - the two of them alternated between taking control with a wide variety of sounds (one of them was more white noise, the other had a more instrumental feeling) before suddenly pausing and hitting a service bell with a
ding! to shift over to the other; Pathological Function (the organiser) performed a dark ambient set with looped vocals about drones in the shadows; Marara's set was oddly peaceful and almost ASMR-like, contact microphones and brushes; and Uboa's final set (starting at 12.30am) saw lots of harsh industrial-metal buzzes, crying samples, and an ending where she cut the noise and just screamed into the microphone with no backing (fucked me up, but was powerful).
There was lots of very nice people there to talk with me, including some of the performers. They were also pleased that I bootlegged the set, and I was asked to send in my tapes so some of them could be blended with the soundboard for a possible official release (the others may be coming out soon).