Lucas Abela's earliest memory was "going through the windshield
of the family car with my Mom and Dad."
It's no surprise then, that his stunningly original noisecapes,
involving contact mics and effects pedals are produced through an
act of annihilation- glass and body. Lucas smashes and bites the
glass into tiny fragments, then walks over them barefoot to reach his
spit and blood-soaked audience. "Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic
Ribbon Device" is the name of his act and he has performed in basements,
hallways, clubs and festivals all over the world. During his
last visit to the PRD, he sprayed blood all over Babyface. This month
marks the return of "Justice Yeldham" to Guangzhou as part of his
Asian Tour.
Noise as a genre has been spreading all over the world in the last
decade. Cassette tape labels are more often seen than CD's or LP's.
During the mid 1990s in the U.S., labels like Hanson Records, RRR
and American Tapes were distributing radical sounds in equally radical
packaging. Spray paint, collage and some times even hardware
were used to make each cassette intrinsically different. Small batch
releases are often the norm, as the fan base is relatively small compared
to rock and roll or hip-hop. This rare originality is what excites
people about noise, in a backlash against mass-consumed music.
Nate Young from the band Wolf Eyes found that breaking equipment
often leads to brutal sonic accidents. He explains, "I was getting
bored with the sounds in my keyboard so I stuck a fork in it." Spastic
rhythms mixed with death metal vocals and twisted high frequencies
spawned the track "Stabbed in the Face," one of the signature songs
that propelled Wolf Eyes from the underground to sharing the bill with
Iggy Pop and Sonic Youth.
Of course, China has it's own groups and solo artists creating cutting
edge noise - Torturing Nurse from Shanghai, Li Jonahing and Yan
Jun from Beijing are among the most prominent. These two cities have
a well-deserved reputation for experimental music and Guangzhou
is not far behind either. Loft345 in Jiangnanxi is active every Thursday
evening with "The Fugue Sessions," an experimental jazz and noise
jam where artists are encouraged to create sounds without having to
conform to melody or rhythm.

Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device will be playing live at Loft345 on
Friday, October 17 along with Greenmist (UK) the Stephen Roach Group (USA/FR/AUS) and
Diatribal (USA). For more information visit the Loft's website at http://loft345.blogbus.
com/ or check out the Loft's Facebook group.