Post-noise

Not to be confused with Noise music.

Post-noise (also known as post-noise psychedelia) is a microgenre and underground music scene that emerged in the early 2000s, and closely associated with the contemporary American new age, ambient and hypnagogic pop scenes. Artists such as James Ferraro and Spencer Clark's The Skaters, Oneohtrix Point Never, Pocahaunted, Zola Jesus and Emeralds would pioneer the movement.

Post-noise
Other names	Post-noise psychedelia[1][2] post-noise underground[3]
Stylistic origins	Noise drone kosmische musik free improvisation new age progressive electronic ambient neo-psychedelia lo-fi music tape music minimalism frippertronics sound collage
Cultural origins	c. 2003, United States
Derivative forms	Hypnagogic pop[4] eccojams chillwave vaporwave
Subgenres
New age revival[5]
Other topics
Harsh noise noise pop noise rock plunderphonics hauntology shitgaze blogosphere bloghouse blog rock psychedelic music blogspot acid rock

The scene would became one of the earliest music scenes to propagate on the Internet, primarily through cassette tape and CD-R sharing on the website Blogspot.^[6][7][8] Post-noise would eventually influence the emergence of several online microgenres such as chillwave and vaporwave. Additionally, the terms "post-noise" and "hypnagogic pop" would briefly be used interchangeably or in parallel.

Characteristics

Writer David Keenan of the Wire stated, "post-noise" drew influences from noise music, drone, free improvisation and lo-fi cassette tapes as a musical way "to effect time travel".^[9] Other influences include neo-psychedelia and new age, alongside German progressive electronic and kosmische musik artists Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Vangelis and Edgar Froese.^[10][11] Additionally, Keenan would coin the term "hypnagogic pop" in 2009 to describe a certain '80s nostalgia focused outgrowth of the post-noise scene.^{[9][12][13][14]}

History

See also: Hypnagogic pop § Impact and criticism

Coming from several noise scenes in the United States, artists James Ferraro and Spencer Clark formed the group The Skaters in 2003.^[15][16][17] After a year of recording, they began touring around the country,^[18] inspiring a trend of artists that would mimic their style. Other acts associated with the scene included Oneohtrix Point Never,^[11][10] Pocahaunted, Dolphins Into the Future, Sun Araw, Yellow Swans,^[19] Stellar Om Source,^[10] Ducktails,^[16] Zola Jesus,^[16] Xiphiidae, and Emeralds.^[20][21] With some artists owning DIY blog labels that published music coming from the scene, such as Clark's Pacific City Sound Visions, Ferraro's New Age Tapes, and Muscleworks Inc., and Xiphiidae's Housecraft Recordings.^[22][23]

James Ferraro (pictured in 2012) and Spencer Clark's noise group the Skaters formed in 2003, pioneered post-noise psychedelia.^[1]

In August 2009, writer David Keenan of the Wire coined the term "hypnagogic pop", and briefly the origins of the style through "post-noise". Keenan would bring the terms "hypnagogic pop" and "post-noise" to broader attention. In December 2010, writer Ed Jupp would criticize the terms in a review of Twin Shadow:^[24]

[...] 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 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.

Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin) has been cited as emerging from the post-noise scene. 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. In 2025, Pitchfork stated in a retrospective review:^[11]

[Lopatin] was at the vanguard of the American noise scene in the hazy years when it retreated from 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 Texas Chain Saw Massacre and more like Tarkovsky’s Stalker—and Lopatin was quietly training to become the house DJ for the “Zone.”

The terms "post-noise" and "hypnagogic pop" would be used interchangeably.^{[23][25][26][27]}

Legacy

By the 2010s, the scene fell out of prominence, as artists would eventually endeavor into Electronic music, and some labels lowering their output or going defunct. However, labels such as Retrac Recordings have focused on reissuing and re-releasing "internet cult" classics of the era on tape, CD and vinyl, while artists such New Mexican Stargazers spearheaded a revival of the visual and musical style of the era, with the scene becoming a large influence on experimental scenes around the internet.^[28]

See also

• Hauntology (music)
• Frippertronics