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Supersilent

2020-09-01

This will be a short blog. I just wanted to blurb about Supersilent as I was listening to it on my way home today. I think the first time that I read about supersilent was in a /mu/ wiki what got my attention initially was their name: "supersilent". I reckon anyone reading that name for a band would be quickly interested in their music, there's just something in their name: "supersilent" that speaks interest. Well, I think it's also because I'm into minimalist stuff and the word supersilent, in all lower case, speak of minimalism.

Regardless, I really quite like supersilent. It's a tough listen for their initial album: 1-3 but the abrasiveness of their music really tapers down on 4 onwards. Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention they just use numbers for their albums and songs. 1-3 was their "mega debut album" that lasted for three hours and the next album after that was 4 then 5 then 6 and so on. Each track are also differentiated by just a point number on the album, so the third song on the sixth album was called 6.3. Pretty neat, huh.

I think this naming convention speaks to the style of music that they do. Listening to 1.1 would feel alien if you're just used to listening to the usual pop music that you hear in the radio (or spotify), I personally would even call some of their pieces elaborate improvised soundscapes rather than music. Going through their discography, you might even be tempted to question whether they are music or not and I think that's the point, the point is to present an idea so extreme that you question the idea that you thought was so fundamental to you. To shift your perspective on what you might call music.

Now, this might all sound "hoity-toity" as one of my friends say and I wouldn't even disagree with you. This all sounds over-the-top for "just some piece of music" and you might be right on that on some respects but take a note on that phrase: "just some piece of music". Music nowadays have been so democratized that anyone can listen to almost any piece of music that they wish, there are a number of music streaming and downloading services that one can tap into to get their musical fix and I think this is such a good thing. But despite that, I think this also put some strain on what music is ought to be. As a result of this democratization, the value of music to the average person, I suppose, feels more pedestrian than it used to be. That which, I believe, is something that supersilent tries to uproot people from, from their pedestrian notion of music. To be able to experience something alien and organic, something that challenges our idea of what we can call music.