"All I want is blackness. Blackness and silence.”
August 2, 2016 11:42 AM   Subscribe

Death metal band Dead Territory performs John Cage’s seminal avant-garde work 4’33”. A significantly different version, performed by EntertainmentMIG, demonstrates the range of expression and emotion that the work makes possible. Finally, drummer Edo Animus offers notes and outtakes on his solo performance.

h/t louche mustachio
posted by Johnny Wallflower (22 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by nightrecordings at 11:50 AM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]


Would have been nice to see a version done with a Hello Kitty drumkit.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 11:52 AM on August 2, 2016


There's something about this that's so silent, it's like how much more silent could this be? And the answer is none. None more silent.
posted by straight at 12:02 PM on August 2, 2016 [18 favorites]


Hired these guys for a wedding reception once. They didn't get paid.
posted by dubwisened at 12:22 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


Seriously, though, I think Dead Territory is missing the point. 4'33" is about all of the sounds that occur during the piece, people coughing, whispering, breathing, dogs barking blocks away, stomachs rumbling...muting the camera's mic or deleting the audio track in a video editing program is not the same thing. I've always thought that Cage was pointing out that silence is elusive and that art can be found in the margins.
posted by dubwisened at 12:29 PM on August 2, 2016 [8 favorites]


Yeah, some YT "death metal covers" are just a band logo with blank audio track, but none of the linked videos muted the audio. Dead Territory's effort had lots of cell phone-induced speaker noise throughout.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:37 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]


I thought these were all good performances even with the jokey bits. I liked hearing the speakers buzzing in the background of the EntertainmentMIG one and I felt the drummer in the last one did a nice job of framing the performance -- he didn't hold a fake performance stance but just held the sticks in a natural resting position far closer to Tudor's original performance.

I've only performed it once in front of an audience and I don't feel like either me or the pianist really did it justice -- we choose the fake performance stances as well. In retrospect that just adds a whole lot of human baggage ('ego' as Cage would have said) to the performance.

I guess this has become memey among metal bands? And that's probably the most interesting thing to think about, assuming it's not just a joke for these folk (and it could be) what is it that draws them to the piece and/or Cage? In the second two videos it's interesting that they pronounced the name of the piece as Cage customarily did "four thirty three" instead of "four minutes thirty three seconds". So perhaps there was some thought put into it?

Seriously, though, I think Dead Territory is missing the point. 4'33" is about all of the sounds that occur during the piece, people coughing, whispering, breathing, dogs barking blocks away, stomachs rumbling...muting the camera's mic or deleting the audio track in a video editing program is not the same thing.

One could see this as inviting you to listen to the sounds in your environment instead of the ones in their environment.
posted by bfootdav at 12:37 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]


4'33" is about all of the sounds that occur during the piece, people coughing, whispering, breathing, dogs barking blocks away, stomachs rumbling...muting the camera's mic or deleting the audio track in a video editing program is not the same thing.

You're thinking of the live version.

The studio version is totally different.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 12:45 PM on August 2, 2016 [18 favorites]


There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot. For certain engineering purposes, it is desirable to have as silent a situation as possible. Such a room is called an anechoic chamber, its six walls made of special material, a room without echoes. I entered one at Harvard University several years ago and heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation. Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music.
John Cage, address to the Music Teachers National Association, 1957
posted by beerperson at 1:08 PM on August 2, 2016 [15 favorites]


One need not fear about the future of music.

One of my favorite lines from Cage. But the one I probably quote most often is "There are no aesthetic emergencies."
posted by bfootdav at 1:13 PM on August 2, 2016 [6 favorites]


 

 

 


 
posted by sammyo at 2:06 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]


I hear what you did there.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:20 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


There's metal for every occasion.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 2:30 PM on August 2, 2016


Metafilter: Four minutes and thirty three seconds of silent contemplation of a plate of beans.
posted by lumpenprole at 3:08 PM on August 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


Metafilter:
posted by Sebmojo at 6:13 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]


dubwisened: "4'33" is about all of the sounds that occur during the piece, people coughing, whispering, breathing, dogs barking blocks away, stomachs rumbling...muting the camera's mic or deleting the audio track in a video editing program is not the same thing. "

That's what makes recordings of 4'33" so odd: it works either way. In EntertainmentMIG's (non-muted) performance I heard amp buzz and chuckling and occasional sounds escaping from the guitar and drums. In Dead Territory's (muted) performance I heard a high pitched tone in my ears and cicadas and someone moving a chair upstairs and a car driving by. Both ways I heard the sounds that occurred during the piece, it's just that in one it was the stuff that happened around the musicians, and in the other it was stuff that happened around me.
posted by Bugbread at 7:40 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]


What Dead Territory video are you guys watching? The one in the first link isn't muted.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:56 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]


Johnny Wallflower: "What Dead Territory video are you guys watching? The one in the first link isn't muted."

Huh. You're right. I cranked up the volume and I could hear ambient noise, but it was so quiet that initially it was under the noise ceiling produced by my air conditioner.
posted by Bugbread at 10:18 PM on August 2, 2016


Noise ceiling -> noise floor
posted by Bugbread at 10:43 PM on August 2, 2016


These are fantastic. I'm gonna go ahead and assume they play them live...
posted by From Bklyn at 10:54 PM on August 2, 2016


a head could be banged silently at least...
posted by judson at 7:50 AM on August 3, 2016


Huh. You're right. I cranked up the volume and I could hear ambient noise, but it was so quiet that initially it was under the noise ceiling produced by my air conditioner.

I must admit that my attention span for a death metal band's silence ran out around 0'22". It's kind of like hearing a minute log wind up for a joke you've heard before. My loss, I suppose.
posted by dubwisened at 8:38 AM on August 3, 2016


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