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New York Noise 3 is the latest installment in Soul Jazz Records’ journey into the underground music of New York City in the 1980s, this time focusing on the electronic dance/post-punk mutations and proto-electro music that originally came out on mainly small DIY labels.

Nightclubbin'

Today the newest new wave of New York art/rock groups such as DFA, The Strokes, the Rapture, Juan McLean, James Murphy, Liars and Yeah Yeah Yeahs all have their roots in this early 1980s New York Noise music scene.

This new collection represents a steamy stroll through the dark heart of New York's Eighties club scene - in the company of a handful of that era's electro ambient 'no-wave' pioneers. New York Noise 3 is compiled and annotated by Stuart Argabright, an important participant in the New York music scene during this period, and features music from Implog, Martin Rev (Suicide), Snatch, James 'Blood' Ulmer, Dominatrix and many more. Worth your attention is Judy Nylon's ultra 'slo-mo' take on Lieber & Stollers' Jailhouse Rock but that track is really an exception in being a fairly traditional track. Elsewhere the songs swing from industrial experimentalism to electronica and atmospherics.

Beginning in the mid-1970s, the East Village of New York City, AKA Downtown, became a hotbed of musical and artistic ideas. In this small ten-block area practically every musician was also an artist, every artist a filmmaker and every filmmaker was in a band. Experimental music clashed with the aftermath of Punk and groups such as Snatch, Dominatrix and Implog blurred the boundaries of art, punk and dance music.

East Village

During this time, New York City featured a bewildering array of musical communities: the birth of Hip-Hop in the Bronx, the punk scene of CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City - Ramones, Talking Heads, Television - to the emerging art music scene of Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson and the underground disco scene of David Mancuso’s 'Loft', Larry Levan’s 'Paradise Garage' to the The Free Jazz loft scene - James 'Blood' Ulmer, Rashied Ali - and the No Wave art/rock scene of James Chance, Lydia Lunch et al. The artists featured here created new music influenced by all these scenes.

Track-by-track, the full song listing for New York Noise 3 shapes up like this:

1. Implog – Sea Creatures
2. Ike Yard – Loss
3. Dark Day – Nudes In The Forest
4. Boris Policeband – Tow Away
5. Implog – Holland Tunnel Dive
6. James 'Blood' Ulmer – TV Blues
7. Martin Rev (Suicide) – Temptation
8. UT – Ampheta Speak
9. Snatch – Black Market
10. Boris Policeband – On The Beat
11. Ike Yard – A Dull Life
12. UT - Tell It
13. Judy Nylon – Jailhouse Rock
14. Dark Day – Hands In The Dark
15. Dominatrix – The City That Never Sleeps



Experimentalism

These fifteen tracks - sometimes uneasy listening and some definitely not to be listened to while suffering from a headache - mark a period of brave eclectic experimentalism in which no one style or genre pervaded. Sometimes coming on like club music for Star Wars' C3PO and R2D2 to dance to if this were a movie soundtrack rather than a comp it would suit the cityscapes of Blade Runner or an anime sequel to Eraserhead equally well. A great package that's a world (or at least an ocean) away from the Top of the Pops and I Love the 1980s school of thought. Surprisingly essential.

The album also features extensive text on the artists involved and original photos documenting this amazingly influential period.

New York Noise volume 3 is in the shops now, from Soul Jazz Records. Volumes 1 & 2 of this series - featuring the likes of The Contortions/Theoretical Girls and early Sonic Youth/Jim Jarmusch respectively - are also both still available.

Images: (bottom, right): Judy Nylon, (top, left): Dominatrix, in action.

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