Harsh Noise as an Expression of Romance

Romance, love, relationships - it's probably the subject on which the most music has been written. You can pick almost any genre you'd find a plethora of love songs in it, you want to listen to some hip hop maybe throw on Tyler, the Creators Flower Boy, indie rock just throw on some The National or if you're more into radio friendly pop you can listen to whatever Sabrina Carpenter song is currently playing on your local radio station. But there are some genres that are less concerned with the topic and where some might even say that at a baseline the genre might not be able to portray the emotions necessary for such a song. One of these genres is certainly harsh noise, a genre that is mainly concerned with building songs out of harsh, non-musical noise elements. Thematically the genre is often either completely abstract with no thematic context given at all, deals with old industrial music inspired themes such as Werewolf Jerusalems amazing record God Has Shot Himself or is thematically tied to certain erotic themes, this is especially the case for early japanoise such as Merzbow's Music for Bondage Performance series. There are numerous records in genres adjacent to harsh noise that have dealt with the topic of romance such as Prurients Frozen Niagara Falls, a record that combines icy synths and acoustic guitar work with noise and poetic lyrics about the hectic city life and the relationship struggles that can come with it. But there has never been a record of purer harsh noise, that doesn't incorporate musical elements from other genres, about the topic of romance than Hijokaidans 1990 record Romance.

The album art already shows you what you are in for, a red sun setting over the ruins of an ancient city, you can practically feel the heat burning on your skin. From the second you press play you are immediately met with an intense wall of noise, a million things are happening at ones as you're trying to find some sort of balance and orientation in the everchanging screeches seemingly coming from everywhere at once. But there's nothing to hold onto only harsh, all-encompassing noise being thrown at you for nearly one and a half hours, by the end of which you might feel like you've just spent a whole day exposed to the  hot sun on that album cover for a full day. And that is the vision of romance that Hijokaidan presents us with on this album, an endless turmoil of the most intense emotions imaginable, into which you are thrown, from which there is no escape and which can at times be almost too hard to bear.  

𝑺𝑬𝑬 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑺𝑷𝑨𝑪𝑬 𝑪𝑶𝑾𝑩𝑶𝒀...