Women of Noise Night Fest 2024 REcap

by Dora Robertson (Leperwitch)

October 24, 2024

Plugging things in

Almost a full month has passed since Women of Noise Fest 2024. Frankly, I needed this much time to fully reflect on what happened over that weekend and write about it from a perspective that was not entirely skewed by emotion (not that emotion is a bad thing of course, but I’m an analytical sort and wanted to have a cool-headed review).

A festival dedicated to women in noise, experimental, and extreme music is something I’ve wanted to organize for quite a while, so when Chattanooga Noise Night organizer Aaron Cole AKA Leviathans of Black Hollering suggested the idea back in February of this year, I was immediately on board. We had already put together a “Women of Noise Night” in September of 2023 featuring me, Slow Blink, Whit3corset (Memphis), and Stardustinmotion (Nashville), and that event had been a success. For September 2024, we decided to take a leap of faith and create a two-day festival.

The “draft edition” of Women of Noise Fest was simple - ten performers over two nights, all of whom would be local or regional talent. Starting out small seemed like the most logistically sound way to go. In April I started reaching out to artists whose work I liked and who I thought would be interested, and surprisingly, none of them said, “No.” Everyone asked was very enthusiastic about the idea and couldn’t wait for September 20th and 21st to roll around. We had no clue that both nights would be blisteringly hot both outside and inside, and frankly it didn’t matter. We were there to sweat it all out.

Night One: Telefronetic

Telefronetic kicked off the festival on night one with a mix of noise punk and hypnotic theremin pieces, crafting a set that was incredibly varied in nature. Kristina had some technical issues involving their laptop and a couple of cables, but once things were up and running, they completely commanded the crowd’s attention through raw musicianship and humorous anecdotes between songs, joking, “This song is about trying to make aliens understand drugs," among other things. Their set concluded with a great cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit," which totally works in a noise context.

Slow Blink

Second up was Chattanooga’s Slow Blink, who debuted some new material for her set that felt much darker and eerier than previous work. For those unfamiliar, Amanda’s work as Slow Blink revolves around distorted, home-recorded tape loops. At times, her set reminded me a bit of Aaron Dilloway, but like a more subdued and nuanced version of his usual output. To hear a live set from Amanda is to feel connected to something both nostalgic and unsettling, like sitting by the window in a dusty attic just as the sun sets.

Ipek Eglinli

Ipek Eglinli was the third performer for the night, and her (mostly improved) set was a complete shock to the senses. A native of Turkey who now lives in the Atlanta area, Ipek’s work draws from traditional folk elements and recontextualizes them into extremities in sound and structure. She is a dynamic performer who literally puts her entire body into her work - she is constantly moving as if entranced by sound. There were times when her vocalizations recalled those of Meredith Monk, and her revolving roster of instruments (piano, drums, bells, etc) incorporated jazz and sound art elements equally. Ipek is simply on a whole other planet and we’re the eager alien observers.

Sarah Jones

Next up was Sarah Jones, whose mixture of body horror performance art and harsh noise has been electrifying local venues this past year. To put it lightly, Sarah’s pieces aren’t always for the faint of heart. There’s going to be sex and violence in equal measures as listeners/viewers are forced to confront how we perceive women’s bodies and what they do with them. Sarah also had a technical issue early in her set with a homemade instrument glitching out, but the hideous synth racket and children’s sing-along tape samples made up for it. She used a kitchen knife to carve away fake body parts until she “died”, revealing…well, something. You can watch the footage. Let’s just say that the last 20 seconds of her set elicited a raucous response.

Leperwitch

The last performer of night one was me as my power electronics/noise project Leperwitch. I hadn’t intended to go last initially, but things just worked out that way. I wore a very glittery red dress/slipper combo to fit the theme of the piece, “The Lesser of Two Evils”, which has to do with shitlib politics and idolizing “joyful” Democratic politicians who are condoning and furthering genocide in Palestine - red is the color of blood and of war, and the sequins symbolized “pretty” distractions. I was frustrated because I couldn’t get my mic levels right during part of my set, but the debut of this piece went over very well nonetheless. I concluded my set with “Meaningless”, a track off of my upcoming debut album that has gotten a warm response at previous shows.

Night two: Giltvein

Night 2 got underway with a performance from Giltvein, Chattanooga’s resident goddess of cinematic dark ambient siren songs. Erica is a multi-talented individual whose creativity can’t easily be contained, and I think everyone in attendance on that humid Saturday night could sense this. For one thing, she has a gorgeous singing voice that soars dramatically over low-end rumbling synth loops and samples. Noise and extreme music is often so much about harsh vocalizations that we sometimes forget that clean vocals can deliver just as much impact. Erica did a great job of reminding us.

moth eater

moth eater, hailing from Johnson City, Tennessee, played next. Emily’s set (and much of their recorded work) can be compared to the work of Puce Mary in the sense that the music is spoken-word introspective poetry mixed with pummeling noise landscapes, but moth eater as a project is more about layers of static that slowly creep and build into oppressive harsh noise wall with hushed murmurs bubbling beneath the surface. Their sets feel incredibly intimate yet enigmatic at the same time, a line that is often hard to walk in a creative sense. Their work, sadly, has also taken on another context, one themed around survival. Just a few days after the Fest, the tri-cities area where moth eater resides was devastated by Hurricane Helene. In hindsight, this Fest and Emily’s set was metaphorically the calm before the storm.

Domesticatrix

Third up for the night was Domesticatrix, a lively industrial noise project from Birmingham, Alabama. Francine is a consummate professional in every sense, but she still knows how to have a rowdy good time. She had the crowd wiggling in their seats (or wiggling while standing in place) with a solid lineup of fun songs that still packed a mean punch musically and in subject matter. In the middle of her set, she broke out a cover of Big Black’s “L Dopa” in honor of the late Steve Albini, which absolutely brought the house down. Her musicianship and relentless energy can still be felt - I have a song of hers stuck in my head as I’m writing this.

Glad I didn't Get My Stupid Wish

Another improv set was played by Knoxville’s noisy synthpunk duo Glad I Didn’t Get My Stupid Wish. Calla and Sienna have played Chattanooga Noise Night previously and put on a killer set, so I had no doubt this set would be killer as well. Both ladies shared vocal duties and played off of each others’ instrumentation expertly, but in a way that still felt fluid and not at all stuffy. Of particular interest (to me at least) is how Calla, a fellow MS-20 nerd, uses hers in a completely different manner than I do - a true testament to the versatility of the instrument that makes it a favorite among racket-makers. Stupid Wish did indeed make a racket, and it was splendid.

Pulsatile Tinnitus

Capping off night two (and the Fest) was Pulsatile Tinnitus, the experimental noise project of Nashville’s Kayla Phillips. Some of you might know Kayla better as the vocalist for Bleed the Pigs, a band she founded and has fronted for over ten years. She debuted three new tracks during her set, which have since been released on her Bandcamp. Washes of ambience and electric buzzes were occasionally broken up by Kayla’s harrowing shrieks. Her voice is an unstoppable force of nature and hearing it live is something you need to experience at least once in your life. The music and vocals together presented a deeply intense catharsis that we were lucky enough to witness.

Wrapping up the cables

Not much can be said about how I feel about this Fest being a success that hasn’t already been said, so I will reiterate my closing remarks to the crowd: “What I want people to remember after tonight is that noise is not just a white man’s game. The future of noise is black, the future of noise is brown, the future of noise is queer, the future of noise is trans, the future of noise is female”. Every performer had a very different musical style and came from a very different walk of life. We all had a different story to tell about womanhood and femininity and how we relate to it (including with three of us identifying as nonbinary). Themes of heartache and racism and transphobia and political dissidence and sexism and dysmorphia and suicide and freedom were woven through each knob turned and every cable patched. The overarching theme?

Unity, support, and self-expression lead to strength and healing.

See you next year.

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