Noise or Texture?

The issue of whether something is “sound” or “music” is in the ear of the beholder, so in posting a track of incipient low-grade constrained cacophony, Kyle TM asks a less qualitative question. He wonders aloud whether his two minutes of bracing, brittle, fierce static is “noise” or “texture.” The answer may, to some degree, be a matter of volume level. Set on quiet, this is noise in the sense of white noise, a constant flux of utter, remote abstraction. Louder, though, the textural element comes to the fore, something like an array of flannel spun from rusted wire. And from within that frame, screeches and train noises and snatches of what might be music from a melodrama sneak through, perhaps illusions, perhaps source material revealing itself. In either case, a rhythm is clear, two even, one a pace-setting rumble, the other a rapid internal combustion. Titled “Terminal,” the track was originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/kyletm. More from Kyle TM at twitter.com/thekyletm.