Noise fits into this weird place in contemporary music. Because of the non-commercial nature, it will never get big. Not in a million years. Sonic Youth has come the closest and they're still pretty unknown. But people will always do it and it will never go away. Some part of the music has to consist of the music being torn apart, in the mad pursuit of finding unique sounds. Cleveland State's Thursday Club pursue this avenue with abandon. Be advised, no Thursday Club record is the same - they all come from different long, barely structured noise jams between Ryan and Bryan David. It's hard to pick apart individual sounds, but feedback waves, distorted keyboards and random sampling/scratching blend in, only one being prominent at a time. There is no definite tempo or any concept of key. Hell, there aren't even tracks on the review copy. Just one long stretch of noise. But it is interesting, on some level. It makes curiously effective "study music," in that you can put it on and not notice it, because there is no melody, but in the random moments you pay attention, you will find something innovative.
-A.V.