My New Blog: Isolationist Noise

Today I am launching my new blog devoted to my exploration of experimental music and art, entitled Isolationist Noise. As with most people, I'm obsessed with music, amongst other medias of art. But, music and writing are my two main passions. In recent years, however, the desire for creative fulfillment disappeared over time, replaced with disillusionment. With the introduction of The Artist's Way into my consciousness, the desire is making a comeback. The drive is in me to become creatively fulfilled. Isolationist Noise is meant to document the recovery process by way of exploring the music I love, along with the desire to finally bring the miscellaneous attempts at creative output to fruition. Without further ado, Isolationist Noise can be found at:

http://isolationist-noise.net/noiseblog

Have no fear! Bring D.A. Noise is not going away, not in the least bit. Since D.A. Noise focuses on my thoughts with respect to popular culture, politics, and religion, I figured that Isolationist Noise is not really the conduit by which I want to discuss them. Unless these topics are discussed as related to experimental music or my creative output, pop culture, politics, and religion won't be discussed here. So, please continue to read Bring D.A. Noise.

As already mentioned, Isolationist Noise focuses on two areas:

1. Creative Recovery/Creative Exploration: Isolationist Noise will document the process of recovering from the creative blockage. I'm using the book The Artist's Way as a guide for getting through the frustration of blockage and reinvigorating my creative growth. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a writer. However, up to this point, physical circumstances and inner turmoils have drained me of any creative motivation. The motivation and confidence is now slowly coming back, but still needs a lot of nurturing. That is one of the main focuses of The Artist's Way, in that part of the creative recovery process requires the nurturing of the inner artist. Your inner artist, just a physical human being, starts out as a baby and grows as time passes. The lack of creative nurturing as a young artist-to-be grows by either family members or friends instigates the creative blockage. With the proper nurturing of the artist child, the artist's creativity grows over time, awarding the artist for their hard work later down the road. So, with Isolationist Noise, I plan to document creative works in progress.

2. Exploration of Experimental Music: Music has always inspired my creative endeavors. I wrote poems which were influenced by sounds, particularly the music of SWANS, Coil, and Throbbing Gristle, amongst others. With respect to the blog's name, the term Isolationist came from "Isolationism," which was used as a term to describe a subgenre of Ambient music. Also referred to as Ambient Industrial music and Dark Ambient, Isolationism can be either minimalist and atmospheric in tone, or on the harsh side, can be claustrophobic and/or excruciatingly brutal. In 1997, Virgin Records released Ambient 4: Isolationism, the 4th and final volume in their Ambient music series, which featured tracks by Thomas Koener, Godflesh side-project Techno Animal, and Seefeel, amongst others.

Before the release of Ambient 4, I started to become interested in drone and noise music, starting with the first time I heard the drone masterpiece, Soliloquy for Lilith by Nurse With Wound. Drones are featured prominently in isolationist-sounding music. The first "isolationist" record I acquired in my collection was Motion Pool by Main (fronted by Robert Hampson, formerly of the band Loop.) On the back sleeve of the cd, the words "drumless space" appears. Drumless space is an apropos way to describe Isolationism. Another "isolationist" band that strongly influenced my interest in this genre of music is the amazing, but short-lived project known as Seefeel. Their phenomenal recording, Succour, ranks in my Top 10 for all-time favorite records.

Then, of course, the word noise comes from, again, my interest in unconventional music. With Isolationist Noise, I intend on reviewing new experimental recordings that I purchase along the way. I also hope to discuss how experimental music has inspired my creativity and other aspects of my life. Isolationist Noise is about the experience of exploring new and interesting music. Isolationism and experimental music have also played a role bringing the desire to create back to the forefront of my function in life. I'm slowly becoming more and more inspired to write in recent weeks, which hopefully will culminate in a fruitful creative life.

I'm also beginning work on Isolationism, my first full-length collection of writings. I haven't written any original pieces in a long time, but hope that will change. Many partially realized ideas are swimming in my head for new writings. I prefer to write in the form of poetry and stream-of-consciousness, but desire to experiment with prose poetry and creative non-fiction as well. Isolationism, the book, is also meant to be a tribute to the music that inspired me over the course of the last 15 years of my life. I also plan for works in progress to be documented as well as the eventually incorporation of interviews with people that inspire me and live show reviews and photos.

For now, the design of the site is going to be simple, based on an already created WordPress theme template. The simple design best reflects, in my mind, what isolationism means to me: dark and stark. As time progresses, I plan on updating and personalizing the design of the site, but manuevering through instructions on how to use WordPress' interface and functions has been difficult. So, I'd like to become more familiar with using WordPress and its processes, as well as, read more about coding in XHTML and working cascading style sheets (CSS) before I think about modifying the design. With that in mind, please stay tuned and I hope that you like Isolationist Noise.