{{Short description|Music genre and scene}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox music genre | name = Post-noise | native_name = | etymology = | other_names = | stylistic_origins = * [[Noise music|Noise]]<ref name=":5" /> * [[Drone music|drone]]{{Sfn|Priest|2013|p=159}} * [[lo-fi music|lo-fi]]<ref name="McLeod2018">{{cite journal |last=McLeod |first=Ken |title=Vaporwave: Politics, Protest, and Identity |journal=Journal of Popular Music Studies |date=4 December 2018 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=123–142 |language=en }}</ref> * [[progressive electronic]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Quietus|first=The|date=3 December 2009|title=Oneohtrix Point Never — Rifts|url=https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/oneohtrix-point-never-rifts-album-review/|access-date=11 November 2025|website=The Quietus|language=en-GB}}</ref> * [[psychedelic music|psychedelia]]{{sfn|Trainer|2016|pp=409–410}} * [[ambient music|ambient]] * [[new age music|new age]]<ref name=":4" /> * [[tape music]] * [[kosmische Musik]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Quietus|first=The|date=3 December 2009|title=Oneohtrix Point Never — Rifts|url=https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/oneohtrix-point-never-rifts-album-review/|access-date=11 November 2025|website=The Quietus|language=en-GB}}</ref> * [[DIY]] | cultural_origins = 2000s<ref name=":5" /><ref name="McLeod2018" /> | derivatives = * [[Hypnagogic pop]]<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gabriele |first=Timothy |date=22 August 2010 |title=Chilled to Spill: How the Oil Spill Ruined Chillwave's Summer Vacation » PopMatters |url=https://www.popmatters.com/129734-chilled-to-spill-how-the-oil-spill-ruined-chillwaves-summer-vacation-2496151511.html |access-date=12 November 2025 |website=www.popmatters.com |language=en-US}}</ref> * [[vaporwave]]<ref name="McLeod2018" /> * [[glo-fi]]<ref name="Guardian">{{Cite news|title=The 1980s revival that lasted an entire decade|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2010/jan/22/eighties-revival-decade|work=The Guardian|date=22 January 2010|access-date=1 December 2025|issn=0261-3077|language=en-GB|first=Simon|last=Reynolds}}</ref> * [[neo-kosmische]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=2012-12-30 |title=Apollo's Bounteous Harvest: The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2012 |url=https://thequietus.com/tq-charts/albums-of-the-year/the-quietus-albums-of-the-year-2012/ |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref> * [[nu-new age]]<ref name="Bychawski" /> * [[chillwave]]<ref name="Guardian" /> | subgenrelist = | subgenres = | regional_scenes = | local_scenes = * [[Post-noise underground]] | other_topics = {{hlist|[[Crimson Wave (music)|Crimson Wave]]|[[hauntology (music)|hauntology]]|[[harsh noise]]|[[blogspot]]|[[frippertronics]]|[[shoegaze]]|[[Italian occult psychedelia]]|[[Brooklyn noise]]}} | footnotes = }} '''Post-noise''' is a 21st century [[music genre]] and scene related to [[hypnagogic pop]], [[New-age music|new-age]] and [[Hauntology (music)|hauntology]]. The term was featured in writer [[David Keenan]]'s 2009 article ''Childhood's End'' in issue 306 of the British music magazine [[The Wire (magazine)|''The Wire'']] where he coined the term hypnagogic pop, describing it as a "questing post-Noise network that worships New Age music and uses half-remembered hits as portals to the subconscious". Music critic [[Simon Reynolds]] referred to "[[glo-fi]]" as a post-noise microscene.
The style mostly propagated on the [[Internet]], primarily through [[tape trading]]. Reynolds credited [[The Skaters (band)|the Skaters]], a group formed by [[James Ferraro]] and Spencer Clark in 2004, with catalyzing an "international post-noise network". Other associated artists included [[Oneohtrix Point Never]], [[Pocahaunted]], [[Laurel Halo]], [[Sun Araw]], [[Yellow Swans]], Stellar Om Source, Dolphins into the Future, Xiphiidae and [[Emeralds (band)|Emeralds]]. Ferraro released work through [[CD-R]] and [[cassette tape|cassette]] on his self-owned [[independent record label]]s New Age Tapes and Muscleworks Inc. Musical styles such as [[neo-kosmische]], [[nu-new age]], [[chillwave]] and [[vaporwave]] have been associated with the post-noise scene.
{{Psychedelic sidebar}}
== Etymology and characteristics == In August 2009, writer [[David Keenan]] coined the term "[[hypnagogic pop]]" in the article ''Childhood's End'' in issue 306 of the British music magazine [[The Wire (magazine)|''The Wire'']].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Spicer|first=Daniel|title=“Breathless yea-saying”: David Keenan's Volcanic Tongue collection reviewed – The Wire|url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/breathless-yea-saying-david-keenan-s-volcanic-tongue-collection-reviewed|access-date=11 November 2025|website=The Wire Magazine – Adventures in Modern Music|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Dolphins Into The Future – I cherish my insecurity {{!}} skug MUSIKKULTUR |url=https://skug.at/dolphins-into-the-future-i-cherish-my-insecurity/ |access-date=11 November 2025 |website=Skug |language=de-DE}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=14 December 2011 |title=Wreath Lectures 2011: Club Beats From The Digital Ether |url=https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/black-sky-thinking/club-music-digital-ether-wreath-lecture/ |access-date=11 November 2025 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=15 December 2011 |title=Adventures On The Far Side: An Interview With James Ferraro |url=https://thequietus.com/interviews/james-ferraro-far-side-virtual-interview/ |access-date=11 November 2025 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> He also used the terms "post-noise" and "post-noise underground". The [[blurb]] of the article described hypnagogic pop as a "questing post-Noise network that worships [[New-age music|New Age music]] and uses half-remembered hits as portals to the subconscious."<ref name=":4" /> In the article, Keenan discussed artists such as [[James Ferraro]], Spencer Clark, [[Ariel Pink]], [[Ducktails (musical project)|Ducktails]], [[Pocahaunted]], [[Zola Jesus]], and [[Emeralds (band)|Emeralds]] as hypnagogic pop acts.<ref name=":4">{{cite magazine |last=Keenan |first=David |date=August 2009 |title=Childhood's end |url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/306 |magazine=The Wire}}</ref> Keenan also noted the commonalities between hypnagogic pop and [[noise music]], stating that "Like Noise before it, Hypnagogic pop fetishises the outmoded media of its infancy, releasing albums on [[Cassette tape|cassette]], celebrating the video era and obsessing over the reality-scrambling potential of photocopied art."<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":9">{{Cite news |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |date=22 January 2010 |title=The 1980s revival that lasted an entire decade |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2010/jan/22/eighties-revival-decade |access-date=1 December 2025 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> In 2009, musician [[Daniel Lopatin]] described post-noise as a move away from "macho" noise music.<ref name=":102">{{Cite web |title=The Hidden Reverse: This Beat Is Hypnagogic |url=https://thehiddenreverse.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-beat-is-hypnagogic.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091006124622/https://thehiddenreverse.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-beat-is-hypnagogic.html |archive-date=2009-10-06 |access-date=2026-01-13 |website=thehiddenreverse.blogspot.com}}</ref> Hypnagogic pop has been cited as growing out of post-noise music.<ref name=":18">{{Cite web |last=Gabriele |first=Timothy |date=2010-08-22 |title=Chilled to Spill: How the Oil Spill Ruined Chillwave's Summer Vacation » PopMatters |url=https://www.popmatters.com/129734-chilled-to-spill-how-the-oil-spill-ruined-chillwaves-summer-vacation-2496151511.html |access-date=2026-02-03 |website=www.popmatters.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
On September 28, 2009, writer Emilie Friedlander would post an article on hypnagogic pop stating, "I commend Keenan a hundred times over for putting into words something that was on the tip of many a critical tongue over the past year but that no one had the guts articulate as something so sweeping as a cultural movement: the rise of a lo-fi post-noise psychedelia that moves past noise's rejection of [[Consonance and dissonance|consonance]] and sort of unconscious adherence to the 20th century high modernist ideal of autonomous art (art that engages in discourse with contemporary culture precisely by refusing such a discourse, though noise typically refuses a discourse with academic constructs of this kind as well)".<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |title=Horizons: What, if any, are the Politics of Hypnagogic Pop? « Visitation Rites |url=http://www.visitation-rites.com/2009/09/what-if-any-are-the-politics-of-hynagogic-pop/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091215094510/http://www.visitation-rites.com/2009/09/what-if-any-are-the-politics-of-hynagogic-pop/ |archive-date=2009-12-15 |access-date=2026-01-13 |website=www.visitation-rites.com |language=en-US}}</ref>{{Quote box | quote = Although their aesthetic sensibilities diverge in many ways, this kind of composition shares with Hauntology and Hypnagogic Pop a kind of sadness or melancholy and a desire to construct an alternative reality by abstracting the affects from expressions past and showering the listener with their unclosed charm. Turning attention away from the historical depths in which a musical signifier is sunk, and scrambling the customary relationship between a work’s formal object and aural symptoms, produces a strange, alluring apparition that “brings objects directly into play by invoking them as dark agents at work beneath those qualities [that express it]”. | source = — Eldritch Priest (2013){{Sfn|Priest|2013|p=159}} | align = right | width = 27% | border = 2px | bgcolor = #e8f9fa }}
In ''Boring Formless Nonsense: Experimental Music and the Aesthetics of Failure'' (2013), author Eldritch Priest describes "lo-fi post-noise psychedelia" as "often drone-heavy and noise-inclined, this music is characterized by a logic of deformation that aims to disfigure without obliterating samples, timbres, and impressions noticeably culled from a musical past that never was." Priest refers to what writer David Keenan labelled "wasteland 1980s cultural signifiers" to describe how "Indulgence in these warped signifiers is what gives the music its spectral identity."{{Sfn|Priest|2013|p=159}} Additionally, Priest stated that the style blends "outmoded media's high noise to signal ratio with an affected anti-virtuosity", and elaborated "Rather than sampling 1980s pop culture with contemporary technology, one can hear composers recycling the tropes of experimental art music from the 1950s and 1970s, tropes that [[Michael Nyman]] compiled and categorized as '[[Indeterminacy (music)|indeterminacy]],' '[[Process music|process]],' 'ephemerality,' and the 'non-identity' of a work. But we can also hear the debt to [[conceptual art]] and [[free jazz]] that helped evolve [[experimental music]] in the 1970s into [[sound art]], something that [[Hauntology]] and Hypnagogic Pop don't exhibit owing to the [[Rock music|rock]] and [[Dance music|dance]] background of their practitioners."{{Sfn|Priest|2013|p=159}}
In ''Sounds of the Underground: A Cultural, Political and Aesthetic Mapping of Underground and Fringe Music'' (2016), author Stephen Graham defines post-noise as a wide subgenre of [[noise music]] which breaks apart noise music's orthodoxies, "inserting newer influences and references from popular culture alongside dyschronic affects [...] and subliminal modalities."<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=Sounds of the Underground: A Cultural, Political and Aesthetic Mapping of Underground and Fringe Music|last=Graham|first=Stephen|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0-472-12164-9|edition=4th|location=United States of America|pages=8, 170, 185, 207, 212}}</ref> It can even add "some commercial appeal."<ref name=":5" /> For Graham, post-noise encompasses [[Hauntology (music)|hauntology]] and hypnagogic pop.<ref name=":5" /> Throughout the book, he uses the term "post-noise" to refer to artists such as James Ferraro, LA Vampires, [[the Advisory Circle]], [[Fatima Al Qadiri]], [[Daniel Lopatin]], [[Broadcast (band)|Broadcast]], [[Sun Araw]], and [[Moon Wiring Club]].<ref name=":5" />{{Sfn|Graham|2016|pp=185–186}} Additionally, Graham states:
{{Blockquote|text="Post-noise" refers to twenty-first-century music building off the viscous sounds, loose gestures, and anti-mainstream contexts of noise, while adding pop influences and even some commercial appeal [...] uses popular culture, from 1980s films and the proto-digital soundtracks of 1990s advertising to popular musical sounds themselves, as bedrock influences. But they aren’t simply pop artists at the extremes; their work demands some kind of other home. These would be examples of horizontally overlapping fringe practices.<ref name=":5" />}}
Post-noise artists were influenced by noise music,{{Sfn|Graham|2016|p=8}} [[psychedelic music|psychedelia]],{{sfn|Trainer|2016|pp=409–410}} and new age,<ref name=":4" /><ref name="Bychawski">{{Cite web |last=Bychawski|first=Adam|date=16 August 2016|title=The new wave of new age: How a maligned genre finally became cool|url=https://www.factmag.com/2016/08/16/new-age-matthewdavid-deadboy-sam-kidel/|access-date=11 November 2025|website=Fact Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref> alongside German [[progressive electronic]] and [[kosmische musik]] artists such as [[Tangerine Dream]], [[Klaus Schulze]], [[Vangelis]] and [[Edgar Froese]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Quietus|first=The|date=3 December 2009|title=Oneohtrix Point Never — Rifts|url=https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/oneohtrix-point-never-rifts-album-review/|access-date=11 November 2025|website=The Quietus|language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2010, ''[[The Guardian]]'' published an article by music critic [[Simon Reynolds]] where he stated "post-noise microscenes like [[glo-fi]]" were maintaining "the [[Tape trading|tape trade]] tradition, releasing music in small-run editions as low as 30 copies and wrapping them in surreal photocopy-[[Collage|collage artwork]]".<ref name=":9" />
== History ==
=== Origins === {{See also|Hauntology (music)|Brooklyn noise}}[[File:James_Ferraro_(cropped).jpg|left|thumb|[[James Ferraro]] (pictured in 2012) and Spencer Clark's noise group [[The Skaters (band)|the Skaters]] formed in 2004.{{Sfn|Whiteley|Rambarran|2016|p=409}}]]Writer Stephen Graham traces "the wide genre(s) of post-noise music" to a hybridization of the noise music scene which took place from the 1990s onwards.<ref name=":5" /> Coming from several noise scenes in the United States, artists [[James Ferraro]] and Spencer Clark formed the group [[The Skaters (band)|the Skaters]] in 2004.<ref name="redbullmusicacademy.com3">{{citation |title=Interview: James Ferraro And His Music Multiverse |date=6 March 2012 |magazine=[[Red Bull Music Academy]] |url=http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/james-ferraro-fireside-chat |access-date=10 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628192521/http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/james-ferraro-fireside-chat |archive-date=28 June 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Masters |first=Marc |date=14 September 2009 |title=The Decade in Noise |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/7702-the-decade-in-noise/ |access-date=11 November 2025 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Staff |first=SPIN |date=25 October 2011 |title=James Ferraro, 'Far Side Virtual' (Hippos in Tanks) – SPIN |url=https://www.spin.com/2011/10/james-ferraro-far-side-virtual-hippos-tanks/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250124022759/https://www.spin.com/2011/10/james-ferraro-far-side-virtual-hippos-tanks/ |archive-date=24 January 2025 |access-date=14 November 2025 |work=SPIN |language=en-US}}</ref> After a year of recording, they began touring around the country.<ref name="redbullmusicacademy.com3"/> Graham referred to Ferraro as a "post-noise musician".<ref name=":5" /> Other acts associated with the post-noise scene included [[Oneohtrix Point Never]],<ref name=":16"/><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gabriele |first=Timothy |date=2010-02-08 |title=Oneohtrix Point Never: Rifts » PopMatters |url=https://www.popmatters.com/119931-oneohtrix-point-never-rifts-2496157430.html |access-date=2026-01-13 |website=www.popmatters.com |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Pocahaunted]],{{sfn|Trainer|2016|p=416}} Dolphins into the Future,<ref name=":19" /> [[Sun Araw]],<ref name=":5" /> [[Yellow Swans]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Byrne |first=Michael |date=24 December 2011 |title=MB Mixtape 2011 .06: Pete Swanson, "Remote View" |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/mb-mixtape-2011-06-pete-swanson-remote-view/ |access-date=13 November 2025 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref> Stellar Om Source,<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=There Are Other Worlds: Stellar OM Source Interviewed|url=https://thequietus.com/interviews/stellar-om-source-interview/|website=The Quietus|date=11 June 2013|access-date=1 December 2025|language=en-GB|first=The|last=Quietus}}</ref> Xiphiidae,{{Sfn|Whiteley|Rambarran|2016|p=409}} Laurel Halo,<ref name=":153">{{Cite web |last=Gibb |first=Rory |date=2011-12-12 |title=Armchair Dancefloor: Top 10 of 2011 |url=http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4144224-armchair-dancefloor--top-10-of-2011 |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=DrownedInSound |language=en}}</ref> and [[Emeralds (band)|Emeralds]].{{Sfn|Whiteley|Rambarran|2016|p=409}}<ref name=":16">{{Cite web |last=Gabriele |first=Timothy |date=16 September 2010 |title=Emeralds: Does It Look Like I'm Here? » PopMatters |url=https://www.popmatters.com/129922-emeralds-does-it-look-like-im-here-2496149426.html |access-date=11 November 2025 |website=www.popmatters.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Sonar Festival 2014: A Quietus Preview|url=https://thequietus.com/news/sonar-2014-preview/|website=The Quietus|date=6 June 2014|access-date=1 December 2025|language=en-GB|first=The|last=Quietus}}</ref> Independent record labels such as California-based Not Not Fun proved influential.{{Sfn|Graham|2016|p=139}}<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Reynolds|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Reynolds|date=May 2011b|title=NOT NOT FUN label|magazine=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]]}}</ref>
The style primarily proliferated on the Internet, especially through [[cassette tape]] and [[CD-R]] sharing.{{sfn|Reynolds|2011a|p=416}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harvell|first=Jess|title=Woebot: Automat EP / East Central One EP|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12749-automat-ep-east-central-one-ep/|access-date=11 November 2025|website=Pitchfork|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Matt Shoemaker {{!}} Erosion of the Analogous Eye|url=https://www.helenscarsdale.com/published/shoemakererosion.htm|access-date=11 November 2025|website=www.helenscarsdale.com}}</ref> Some artists also owned [[netlabel]]s that published music coming from the scene, such as Spencer Clark's Pacific City Sound Visions,{{Citation needed|date=February 2026}} James Ferraro's New Age Tapes and Muscleworks Inc.,<ref name=":5" /> along with Xiphiidae's Housecraft Recordings.{{Sfn|Graham|2016|p=8}}{{Sfn|Graham|2016|pp=185–186}}<ref name=":19">{{cite magazine |last=Reynolds|first=Simon|date=29 May 2010|title=Dolphins Into the Future: The Music of Belief (Director's Cut)|magazine=The Wire}}</ref> Ferraro used New Age Tapes primarily for small-run releases of his own work on CD-R and cassette.<ref name=":5" /> Additionally, several writers have used terms such as "post-noise psychedelia",{{Sfn|Whiteley|Rambarran|2016|p=409}}{{Sfn|Priest|2013|p=158}}{{sfn|Trainer|2016|pp=409–410}} "post-noise underground,"{{Sfn|Spiegel|2012|p=168}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Neyland |first=Nick |title=Dolphins Into the Future: Canto Arquipélago |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16395-canto-arquipelago/ |access-date=2025-11-11 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=2012-02-28 |title=The Month's Electronic Music: Alive In The Sea Of Information |url=https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/electronic/hyperspecific-10-electronic-music-review/ |access-date=2025-12-01 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> "lo-fi post-noise underground,"<ref name=":12" /> "post-noise drone,"<ref name=":14" /> "post-noise music,"<ref name=":18" /><ref name=":5" /> and "post-noise pop".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus |first=The |date=2011-12-21 |title=Hyperspecific's Electronic/Dance 12"s Of 2011 In Words & A Mix |url=https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/electronic/hyperspecific-08-tracks-of-2011/ |access-date=2025-12-01 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=John Maus on his Audacious Younger Self |url=https://www.journalofmusic.com/discover/john-maus-his-audacious-younger-self |access-date=2025-12-01 |website=The Journal of Music {{!}} Music in Ireland: News, Reviews and Opinion |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":15">{{Cite web |last=Gibb |first=Rory |date=2011-12-12 |title=Armchair Dancefloor: Top 10 of 2011 |url=http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4144224-armchair-dancefloor--top-10-of-2011 |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=DrownedInSound |language=en}}</ref> Graham used the phrase "post-noise fringe pop",{{Sfn|Graham|2016|p=186}} while writers Emilie Friedland and Eldritch Priest used the phrase "lo-fi post-noise psychedelia".{{Sfn|Priest|2013|p=159}}<ref name=":11" />
In 2010, music critic [[Simon Reynolds]] referred to Lieven Martens as a "a prominent figure in the international post-noise network catalysed by the Skaters."<ref name=":19" /> A close relationship existed between New Age Tapes and [[David Keenan]] and Heather Leigh Murray's [[Glasgow|Glasgow, Scotland]]-based record shop, [[Distribution (marketing)|distribution company]], and record label [[Volcanic Tongue]].<ref name=":5" /> The Volcanic Tongue shop enabled James Ferraro's UK and European audience to obtain physical copies of his music.<ref name=":5" /> The relationship between New Age Tapes and Volcanic Tongue was facilitated by the Internet.<ref name=":5" />
==== Hypnagogic pop and new-age music ==== {{Main|Hypnagogic pop|New-age music}}
[[File:Ariel_pink_(3439870529).jpg|thumb|[[Ariel Pink]] performing in 2007]] David Keenan's ''Childhood's End'' article from 2009 coined the term "hypnagogic pop" referring to "[[hypnagogia]]", the psychological state "between waking and sleeping, liminal zones where mis-hearings and hallucinations feed into the formation of dreams."<ref name="wire">{{cite magazine |last1=Keenan |first1=Dave |author-link=David Keenan |date=August 2009 |title=Childhood's End |magazine=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]] |issue=306}}</ref> Simon Reynolds credited a comment made by James Ferraro with inspiring the use of the term "hypnagogic".{{Sfn|Reynolds|2011|p=412}} In December 2010, writer Ed Jupp acknowledged the article and a debate surrounding it in a review of [[Twin Shadow]]'s ''[[Forget (Twin Shadow album)|Forget]]'':<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jupp |first=Ed |date=10 December 2010 |title=Twin Shadow Forget 4AD |url=https://www.isthismusic.com/twin-shadow |access-date=11 November 2025}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=[...] the advent of artists like [[Neon Indian]], Emeralds, and [[Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti]] (the latter labelmates of Twin Shadow) have started a seachange in thinking about 80s [[Album-oriented rock|AOR]], particularly when filtered through a post-noise and [[shoegazing]] filter. David Keenan wrote an article in The Wire last year that examined the concept and lead to a whole lot of discussion of whether the term is fair or not, and whether totally different bands are being shoehorned into the type of movement-making more commonly associated with the [[NME]].}}
According to Keenan, hypnagogic pop "takes New Age at its word, as legitimate [[Devotional song|devotional music]] filtered through the particular ethos of the time."<ref name=":4" /> Keenan acknowledges that "it's vaguely serendipitous that the post-Noise underground would finally find its [[spirituality|spiritual]] side in New Age music and 1980s [[Popular culture|pop culture]]," but argues that they allow for "true creative freedom."<ref name=":4" /> In Keenan's view, new-age music's "[[Punk rock|punk]]" simplicity makes it a "readymade [[Do it yourself|DIY]] form of devotional process."<ref name=":4" /> Hypnagogic pop has been described as growing out of post-noise music or the post-noise underground.<ref name=":18" />{{Sfn|Spiegel|2012|p=168}}
In 2009, writing for ''[[Tiny Mix Tapes]]'', writer Elliott Sharp reviewed the album ''Crowded Out Memory by'' Caboladies, stating that the group "navigate post-[[The Skaters (band)|Skaters]] all-night pizza club and arcade terrains".<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |last=Sharp |first=Elliott |title=2009: Favorite 50 Albums of 2009 |url=https://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/2009-favorite-50-albums-2009 |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=Tiny Mix Tapes |language=en}}</ref> Further adding that the album was one of the best representatives of hypnagogic pop which was described as a "mysterious post-noise persuasion".<ref name=":13" /> That same year, ''[[The New Yorker]]'' highlighted "glo-fi," "chillwave" and "hypnagogic pop" as new terms, while citing the group [[Small Black]] as standing out as one of the "talented gems".<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |last=Nast |first=Condé |title=Small Black @ MKT hotel 11/09 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/night-life/small-black-mkt-hotel-1109 |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref> The group were described as "warm nostalgic experiments in post-noise drone and shimmering pop."<ref name=":14" />
===== Nu-new age and neo-kosmische ===== {{Main|Nu-new age|Neo-kosmische}}
In 2016, ''[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]]'' magazine published an article written by Adam Bychawski regarding an emerging revival of new-age music. Bychawski noted that by the end of the twentieth century, "listeners’ appetite for the genre had waned," but it had an "afterlife" among some artists, including from the post-noise scene, "not long after [new-age] faded from public consciousness."<ref name="Bychawski" /> These "post-noise converts" to new-age included Emeralds, Stellar Om Source, and Oneohtrix Point Never.<ref name="Bychawski" /> The style has been referred to as "[[nu-new age]]".<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=2010-19: Back To The Garden: The Return Of Ambient And New Age · Feature ⟋ RA|url=https://ra.co/features/3594|access-date=2026-02-27|website=Resident Advisor|language=en}}</ref> Other artists who have been associated with the style include James Ferraro and Dolphins Into the Future.<ref name=":19" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Reynolds|first=Simon|date=October 29, 2009|title=blissblog|url=http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/10/|access-date=2026-02-27|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=James Ferraro – Last American Hero – Soundohm|url=https://www.soundohm.com/product/last-american-hero|access-date=2026-02-27|website=www.soundohm.com|language=en}}</ref> Independent record label Leaving Records was labelled a "bastion" of the movement.<ref name=":7" />
Additionally, [[neo-kosmische]] emerged as a style of music used to refer to post-noise<ref name=":162">{{Cite web |last=Gabriele|first=Timothy|date=16 September 2010|title=Emeralds: Does It Look Like I'm Here? » PopMatters|url=https://www.popmatters.com/129922-emeralds-does-it-look-like-im-here-2496149426.html|access-date=11 November 2025|website=www.popmatters.com|language=en-US}}</ref>{{Sfn|Whiteley|Rambarran|2016|p=409}} groups such as [[Emeralds (band)|Emeralds]],<ref>{{Citation |title=Gemini Suite - Outer Space {{!}} Album {{!}} AllMusic|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/gemini-suite-mw0002980968|access-date=2026-02-02|language=en}}</ref> who "prompted a wave of [[Millennials|millennial]] interest in kosmische Musik ([[Deuter]], [[Klaus Schulze]], [[Cluster (band)|Cluster]] et al)".<ref>{{Cite web |title=EMERALDS - Does It Look Like I'm Here? (Expanded Remaster )|url=https://boomkat.com/products/does-it-look-like-i-m-here-expanded-remaster|access-date=2026-02-02|website=Boomkat}}</ref> The term was also used by ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' to label Brooklyn band Titan.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stosuy|first=Brandon|title=Titan: A Raining Sun of Light and Love For You and You and You|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10215-a-raining-sun-of-light-and-love-for-you-and-you-and-you/|access-date=2026-02-02|website=Pitchfork|language=en-US}}</ref> According to ''[[the Village Voice]]'', around 2006, Lopatin stated that the [[Brooklyn noise scene]] began to discuss the work of Klaus Schulze.<ref name=":112">{{Cite web |last=Reynolds|first=Simon|date=2010-07-06|title=Brooklyn's Noise Scene Catches Up to Oneohtrix Point Never|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/brooklyns-noise-scene-catches-up-to-oneohtrix-point-never/|access-date=2026-03-31|website=The Village Voice|language=en-US}}</ref> Initially Lopatin was considered an outcast in the scene for introducing "'70s cosmic trance music and '80s [[New-age music|new age]]" into noise music.<ref name=":112" /> However, Emeralds and other acts felt a "boredom with noise, a sense we'd ''done'' it: We ''get'' this emotion".<ref name=":112" />
In 2012, neo-kosmische would be used as a term by British magazine ''[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fact|date=2012-01-06|title=Pete Swanson: Man with Potential|url=https://www.factmag.com/2012/01/06/pete-swanson-man-with-potential/|access-date=2026-02-02|website=Fact Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref> That same year, Canadian magazine ''[[Exclaim!]]'' referred to [[Daniel Lopatin]] on the collaborative album ''[[Instrumental Tourist]]'' as "neo-kosmische noodling".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin │ Exclaim!|url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/tim_hecker_daniel_lopatin-instrumental_tourist|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250411025513/https://exclaim.ca/music/article/tim_hecker_daniel_lopatin-instrumental_tourist|archive-date=2025-04-11|access-date=2026-02-02|website=Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin │ Exclaim!|language=en-US}}</ref> By December, ''[[The Quietus]]'' published a review of Bee Mask's ''When We Were Eating Unripe Pears'' by Rory Gibb, where he associated the term "neo-kosmische" with post-noise, stating "Of all the neo-kosmische/post-noise explorers whose balmy currents have lapped at our shores over the past few years, Chris Madak is among the few who seem hellbent on mapping out genuinely new territory."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quietus|first=The|date=2012-12-30|title=Apollo's Bounteous Harvest: The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2012|url=https://thequietus.com/tq-charts/albums-of-the-year/the-quietus-albums-of-the-year-2012/|access-date=2026-02-02|website=The Quietus|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Matt|date=2023-11-06|title=AUTORHYTHM's Synapse/Oxytocin: A Neo-Kosmische Gem from the Nervous System|url=https://electronica.org.uk/frequencystate/blog/autorhythms-synapse-oxytocin-a-neo-kosmische-gem-from-the-nervous-system/|access-date=2026-02-02|website=Frequency State|language=en-US}}</ref> ''Pitchfork'' stated that Lopatin "was at the vanguard of the American noise scene in the hazy years when it retreated from [[Audio feedback|feedback]]-soaked harshness into an unkanny kosmische".<ref name=":23">{{Cite web |last=Weingarten|first=Christopher R.|title=Oneohtrix Point Never: Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/oneohtrix-point-never-chuck-persons-eccojams-vol-1/|access-date=11 November 2025|website=Pitchfork|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The sound of moderne kosmische musik: 10 artists pick their favourite tracks — The Vinyl Factory|url=https://www.thevinylfactory.com/features/the-sound-of-moderne-kosmische-musik-10-artists-pick-their-favourite-tracks|access-date=2026-02-12|website=www.thevinylfactory.com|language=en}}</ref>
=== Vaporwave and development === {{See also|Vaporwave#Eccojams}}[[File:Wikiwave 00000.png|thumb|[[Daniel Lopatin]] contributed to the development of [[vaporwave]]]] Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin) has been cited as emerging from the post-noise scene.<ref name=":5" /> In 2010, he released the album ''[[Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1]]'' under the pseudonym Chuck Person. The album would coin a style of music known as "[[eccojams]]" which would later develop into the larger [[vaporwave]] microgenre and movement.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Weingarten |first=Christopher R. |title=Oneohtrix Point Never: Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/oneohtrix-point-never-chuck-persons-eccojams-vol-1/ |access-date=11 November 2025 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref> That same year, Lopatin stated "I've got more in common with the American noise scene, to be honest."<ref name=":22">{{Cite news |last=Lester |first=Paul |date=2010-10-13 |title=Oneohtrix Point Never (No 886) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/13/oneohtrix-point-never |access-date=2026-02-03 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
On December 4, 2018, ''[[University of California Press]]'' published a research paper which stated that [[vaporwave]] shared "ties to the trends of 2000s lo-fi and post-noise music, such as 'hypnagogic pop'".<ref name="McLeod2018" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Camp |first=Vit Van |date=2017-05-28 |title=Vaporwave Poetics / Agential Language - Diffractions Collective Blog |url=https://diffractionscollective.org/vaporwave-poetics-agential-language/ |access-date=2026-02-03 |website=Diffractions Collective 2013-2023 |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2025, ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' stated in a retrospective review:<ref name=":2" />
{{Blockquote|text=[Lopatin] was at the vanguard of the American noise scene in the hazy years when it retreated from [[audio feedback|feedback]]-soaked harshness into an unkanny [[kosmische]]. Alongside artists like Emeralds, Yellow Swans, Skaters, and Carlos Giffoni, noise music was starting to sound less like [[The Texas Chain Saw Massacre|Texas Chain Saw massacre]] and more like [[Andrei Tarkovsky|Tarkovsky's]] [[Stalker (1979 film)|Stalker]]—and Lopatin was quietly training to become the house DJ for the "Zone."}}On September 15, 2009, Keenan published an email interview with Lopatin titled ''This Beat Is Hypnagogic''. In the interview, Lopatin drew a parallel between the relationship of post-noise and [[noise music]] and that of [[post-punk]] and [[punk rock]], arguing that both involved a re-evaluation and expansion of styles he viewed as "stifling, didactic and kinda trad".<ref name=":102"/> He suggested that post-punk faced criticism from early punk scenes due to its associations with Black and [[queer culture]]s, and characterized first-generation punk as " just [[Rockism and poptimism|rockers]] with trashier aesthetix{{Sic}} (punk rock-rock inertia undiluted)".<ref name=":102"/> Lopatin applied this framework to noise and post-noise, contrasting what he described as a "macho" strain of noise with post-noise practices that subverted it.<ref name=":102"/> While citing Spencer Longo's description of noise as a form of rock spectacle (referencing [[Hanatarash]]'s use of a [[bulldozer]] and the slicing of a dead cat in half).<ref name=":102"/> Lopatin argued that post-noise represented a move away from masculinist conventions in the genre, stating "Goodbye macho sigs, goodbye noise for dudes only."<ref name=":102"/> He would also state that "Hpop operates as a function of [post-noise] pnoise and pop both — and deals acutely with nostalgia as a medium by which we generate present day variety. It's postmodern as fuck and its been happening for a long while now. Sonically, a new ageian [[pan flute]] preset with chorus function-ON presented as a method by which one might deliver a sublime no-mind drone situation works in a pnoise context".<ref name=":102"/>
In 2010, Lopatin stated in reference to the group Double Leopards, that "It was droning put into the context of extended jamming. But it was really un-macho – they used to sit down and play. We called it floorcore. It was super-reverby, gauzy and dark."<ref name=":22"/> At the time, Lopatin had coined the term "[[floorcore]]" to describe a previous group he was in and style of music he performed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Weingarten |first=Christopher |date=2009-11-17 |title=Yes In My Backyard: Download Oneohtrix Point Never's "Zones Without People" |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/yes-in-my-backyard-download-oneohtrix-point-nevers-zones-without-people/ |access-date=2026-02-03 |website=The Village Voice |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":22"/>
In 2011, ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' reviewed James Ferraro's album ''[[Inhale C-4 $$$$$]]'' which was released as [[BEBETUNE$]], writer Jonathan Dean highlighted audience perception of Ferraro's music from his early work through ''[[Far Side Virtual]]'', stating that there was "a growing rank of malcontents who have greeted Ferraro's sudden leap from the lo-fi post-noise underground to lurid HD postmodernity with skepticism or contempt."<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |title=Music Review: BEBETUNE$ - inhale C-4 $$$$$ |url=https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/bebetune-inhale-c-4 |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=Tiny Mix Tapes |language=en}}</ref>
That same year, writing for ''[[Drowned in Sound]]'' in a review of [[Laurel Halo]]'s album ''Hour Logic'' released on the independent record label [[Hippos in Tanks]], Rory Gibb stated:<ref name=":15" />
{{Blockquote|text=2011 was a year when the formless stews of US post-noise pop began to crystallise out into warped proto dance music. Not Not Fun's 100% Silk label put out a series of dancefloor 12"s with mixed results, Olde English Spelling Bee's Stellar OM Source has started making droney acid-flecked house - and Laurel Halo put out Hour Logic, a stunning six tracker that nodded equally towards eighties [[synth-pop]], early [[Detroit techno]] and Oneohtrix-styled synthesiser music. But it was anything but retro - in the vocal-driven swoon of 'Constant Index', and the electric blue crackles of the title track, far more modern concerns were expressed: web age connectivity vs. bedroom-locked loneliness, the rapid-fire advance of modern technology, the utopian promises ushered in by the digital age.}}In 2019, [[Nashville, Tennessee]] artist River Everett founded Retrac Recordings,<ref name=":8" /> a DIY label active between 2019 and 2025 which released and reissued "past, present, and future internet cult classics," described as ranging from "analog bliss to digital psychedelia," on cassette tape, CD and [[Phonograph record|vinyl]].<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Retrac Recordings |url=https://retracrecordings.bandcamp.com/ |access-date=2 December 2025 |website=Retrac Recordings |language=en}}</ref> Her ambient and new age project New Mexican Stargazers drew heavy inspiration from the work of James Ferraro and Spencer Clark.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Records |first=Hiraeth |date=1 May 2025 |title=Retrac Recordings & Hiraeth Records – EU Distro |url=https://hiraethrecords.eu/news/retracrecordings-eudistro/ |access-date=12 November 2025 |website=Hiraeth Records |language=en-US}}</ref> Her work under Bagel Fanclub, a musical duo between Everett and Caybee Calabash, has been characterized as spanning "post-noise [[pastiche]]s and dense [[braindance]]."<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |date=11 June 2025 |title=bagel fanclub Find A New Type of God While I Try To Interview Them |url=https://www.trickystoop.com/indieanthro/bagel-fanclub-its-nothing-new-interview/ |access-date=2 December 2025 |website=trickyStoop |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=bagel fanclub |url=https://bagelfanclub.bandcamp.com/ |access-date=2 December 2025 |website=bagel fanclub |language=en}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Minimal music]] * [[Harsh noise]] * [[Crimson Wave (music)]] * [[Brooklyn noise]]
== References == <references />
== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book |last=Graham |first=Stephen |title=Sounds of the Underground: A Cultural, Political and Aesthetic Mapping of Underground and Fringe Music |date=2016 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-472-11975-2 |publication-place=Ann Arbor, Michigan}} * {{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |title=Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past |date=2011a |publisher=Macmillan + ORM |isbn=978-1-4299-6858-4 |publication-place=London}} * {{cite book |last=Whiteley |first=Sheila |author-link1=Sheila Whiteley |title=The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality |last2=Rambarran |first2=Shara |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-19-932128-5 |publication-place=Oxford}} * {{cite book |last=Trainer |first=Adam |title=The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-19-932128-5 |chapter=From Hypnagogia to Distroid: Postironic Musical Renderings of Personal Memory |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C1wFCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA409}} * {{Cite book |last=Priest |first=Eldritch |title=Boring Formless Nonsense: Experimental Music and the Aesthetics of Failure |date=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1441124753}} * {{Cite book |last=Spiegel |first=Maximilian Georg |url=https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/api/object//o:1282486/download |title=Gender construction and American 'Free Folk' music(s) |date=2012 |publisher=University of Vienna}} {{Psychedelic music}}{{Electronica}}{{Experimental music genres}}{{Hauntology}}
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