System Noise

Got this 6 track promo the other week and only got chance to listen to it today. What you have here is an Arty/Pop/Noise band that has elements of Blondie, Fugazi, Garbage, P.I.L. and Elastica thrown in giving you something very cool to listen to. Fronted by wicked vocalist Sarah Mucho this band really do kick ass. Kurt Leege really does the business on guitars and Dave's bass lines really work well with the guitars. Keeping it all in time is Paul Pouthier on drums. Between the four they produce some of the best music I've heard this year but the sad thing they'll never be huge as most so called music lovers couldn't deal with something so hot. 9/10 - Street Voice UK

Aptly titled, Brooklyn rockers System Noise’s third release captures the magnificent savagery of their live show. Frontwoman Sarah Mucho, a rising star in the cabaret world, sings with spectacular power and range, yet with equal subtlety and emotional depth. If American Idol didn’t force you to completely sell out in order to participate, Mucho would beat any competition hands down. She’s also an excellent lyricist, with a terse intensity that reminds of Ian Curtis. Guitarist Kurt Leege provides equal amounts of scorching, noisy ferocity and virtuosically catchy, melodic hookiness. Their drummer, who goes by the name of Pouth, is recorded somewhat minimalistically here: live, he’s a powerhouse straight out of the Bill Bruford school of pyrotechnics. Their new bassist manages to wrap his fingers around their former four-string guy Sanford Arisumi’s brilliant lead lines, no easy task. This cd is a characteristically gripping mix of assaultive, pummeling, somewhat noir art-rock with occasional departures into Talking Heads-ish funk, eerie King Crimson-inflected anthems and even metal for a sound completely unlike any other band out there now.



The cd kicks off with the riff-driven, somewhat menacing The Final Frontier with its forest of spiky guitar textures and sudden, off-the-cliff ending. A Bad Situation builds from a similarly catchy, funky verse into reverb-drenched noise-rock a la vintage Public Image Ltd., and then back again. It’s a defiant call to hold onto hope while the world closes in on you: “Give me your hands tonight and I’ll take you somewhere a little higher,” Mucho belts, and she means it.



The next track, Earth, has an edgy, 70s metal/funk feel, like Fame by Bowie covered by King Crimson, with a surreal spoken-word bridge mid-song. The sinister cannibalism anthem Good Enough to Eat feeds off a deliciously eerie chromatic riff straight out of Iron Maiden. Last Words, an anguished, somewhat elegiac art-rock masterpiece, begins with an equally ominous albeit atmospheric feel before the explosive chorus kicks in:



We were meant to suffer

There is no one in the sky

All the angels live here

You have reasons to survive

Everybody suffers

And there is no reason why.



At the end, the song literally spins off its axis, layers of screaming guitar sliding over the edge into nothingness. The cd’s obvious hit single is its bonus track, Shitkickers, a ridiculously catchy, funky slap upside the head of rightwing idiots such as the kind you find on the Fox Network, Leege’s cheery, playful guitar clanking along over a contagious hip-hop beat. In something of a departure for them, the production on most of the songs here is somewhat stripped-down, emphasizing the high midrange as Steve Albini might have done. This album is a blast of fresh air, especially for anyone who loves loud guitar music but can’t stand bands like Nickelback. A serious contender for best cd of 2008. System Noise plays Arlene’s on August 24 at 10. - Lucid Culture

Powerful, groundbreaking, even paradigm-shifting first release by NYC’s most indelibly unique, instantly recognizable band. They are unmatched in intensity by any other band in town right now. System Noise are going places nobody’s gone before, blending elements of noise rock, art rock, funk, metal and even hip-hop with a scorching, high-voltage live show. Produced at Lucid Production, arguably the best-sounding new rock and pop studio in New York, this ep adds a richness of textures and subtleties that don’t always make it to the stage. Most of it is ferociously loud rock, yet imbued with the kind of dynamics you typically expect from a jazz group. They’re fearlessly political, but their sense of humor makes them more likely to get their point across than if they thrust it in your face. You can dance to System Noise, but this cd is also a treat to listen to on headphones. It’s the kind of album that stoners, punks and hip-hop kids – people you don’t necessarily expect to find in the same room, let alone getting along with each other – can all agree on.

It’s what happens when you put four type A personalities in a locked room with a bunch of guitars and loud amps. Frontwoman Sarah Mucho honed her spectacular vocal chops singing over crowds of drunks in cabaret bars. Kurt Leege played lead guitar with avant-funksters M’lumbo, noisy indie rockers Noxes Pond, goth-tinged art-rockers Ninth House and mod punk revivalists the Dog Show. Bassist Sanford Arisumi slides and swoops out of the murky depths to the heights of ecstasy with a full-tilt intensity and melodicism unmatched by any other four-string player in rock today. No wanky Jaco Pastorius bullshit, just melody, groove, then more melody and groove. Drummer Pouth pushes the unit with a spectacular precision, sense of humor and uncommon subtlety for someone who hits as hard as he does.

To their credit, they avoid the virtuosity trap where everybody in the band is always soloing at the same time. While a lot of the playing is way over the edge, they’re very terse when they need to be. The ep opens with The Dark Side, a wild, King Crimson-inflected noise rock/funk number with all kinds of unexpected time changes and a surprise ending. Everyday Hustler, with its catchy, recurrent central hook evokes what a great funk band like Defunkt might have done with a Talking Heads song. The album’s centerpiece, Prom Night is a shockingly beautiful, macabre ballad inspired by the film Carrie, and could be the best single song released this year, creeping along on over eerie arpeggios to a murderously explosive chorus. Other standout tunes on the cd include the noisy hip-hop number Shitkickers, which kicks the shit out of Fox News and the rest of the propaganda industry, and Unresolved, with its ominous bass intro exploding into a practically heavy metal crescendo – and it only gets more intense from there.

Everybody I know who is a hardcore music fan eventually reaches the point where they suddenly discover something totally different, unlike anything they ever heard, that completely changes and enriches the way they hear music. For me, that was Second Edition by PiL. For you it might have been Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Coltrane, Skip James or something considerably more obscure or exotic. I think System Noise will have that same effect on a new generation of listeners who might not know any of those particular artists, who all pushed the envelope just as System Noise are doing now. This album is essential for anyone who thinks they know something about music…or who likes to throw parties where people can dance. It’s available at shows and soon online and at better retailers. - by Alan Young Trifectagram

Blondie + Fugazi + Hillbilly Frankenstein + Talking Heads + P.I.L. + Television + King Crimson = System Noise. Art rock for a whole new generation. This cd ep may only contain 5 songs but you get an excellent feel for the band and what they are capable of doing from it. It clocks in just shy of twenty minutes, which is about the same amount of time as most full-length cds. I could definitely get used to listening to this. It’s the kind of music you hear playing in your favorite hip little record store downtown if that helps any. - J.R. Oliver, Ear Candy

By J. Wallace

Everybody’s fooling you these days. Beck releases Sea Change and fills it with mellow meanderings, Rob Zombie puts out a movie with only 70s guitar rock on the soundtrack instead of his usual electronic swamp-grunge sounds, and then there’s this EP released by System Noise.

Between the name, the cover art and most of the song titles (except for "Shitkickers") you could be led to believe this group is marching lock-step with bands like System of a Down, or maybe riding the Skinny Puppy bus. Instead, you’re pleasantly surprised to find a five-song collection of original riffs, off-kilter playing that really works, and Sarah Mucho’s voice, which adds a 90s alternative feel to what otherwise might some kind of possible jazz/art/rock outing.

The slow and moody cuts work best here, but the last song, "Unresolved," combines a bit of agro playing with the moody stuff to good effect. The EP ends too soon, peaking in the middle with "Prom Night" -- a great vehicle for Sarah Mucho’s vocal skills. "Prom" shows a depth some of the other songs lack; if the band writes more tracks like this one, they are destined for some good airplay on college radio and beyond.

This disc shows System Noise is quite capable of some good sonic range. Are they up to the task of a full length release? From the sounds of EP, the answer would be yes. Let's find out soon!
- www.indie-music.com

Singer Sarah Mucho's powerful tones are refined and unusual and add a polish to the whole band's sound. System Noise itself is well-rehearsed, employing scales from outer space, with each guitar note picked intentionally and each drum fill matched to the guitar. Pay special attention to what could be the band's music video breakthrough, the final track on this disc, "Unresolved." The song rocks out at the start while Sarah Mucho sings one very loud long note. The band then breaks it down with serious delay effects on the guitar and the bass and drums build back to a rock finale to remember.
- By Thom White - Citizine Mag

Review by David Hurst

Routinely cited as one of the greatest rock-n-roll albums of all time, David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars has influenced generations of singers and artists since it was released in 1972. Bold in its musical form and visionary in its futuristic lyrics, Ziggy Stardust is the story of an alien rock superstar who reaches fame just as the Earth is entering the last five years of its existence; he then ends up the victim of his own success and ends his life in a “rock-n-roll suicide.” Concluding Mama Rose’s Under the Covers series with such a rock masterpiece took enormous courage but it’s a pleasure to report that the result was a smashing success. Singing the role of Ziggy and backed by the band System Noise, Sarah Mucho’s blistering performance was a theatrical revelation. Fierce and fabulous, the pixie-sized Mucho inhabited the persona of Ziggy, singing with an astounding ferocity that led an award-winning musician sitting next to me to quip, “Wow, I didn’t know Grace Slick and Ann Wilson had a daughter,” and he was right! Mucho’s got serious singing chops with a legit top that can soar into the stratosphere and a mid-range belt that will knock you off your chair. More importantly, she really knows how to sing, with beautiful phrasing and admirable breath control.
As for the band (in full costume & make-up!), System Noise—Kurt Leege (lead guitar), Paul Pouthier (drums) and Sanford Arisumi (bass), along with Michael Isaacs (guitar, piano & vocals) and Constance Allan-Pouthier (piano, vocals & narration)—played Bowie’s music brilliantly, recreating honest-to-goodness rock-n-roll with style and skill, setting a high standard for any such shows in the future and proving it can be done right. Smooth direction courtesy of Kristine Zbornik, terrific costumes by Jeff Johnson-Doherty and excellent lights & sound by Jean-Pierre Perreaux all added to the professionalism of their show which will be repeated one more time at Mama Rose’s (219 Second Ave.; 212-533-0558) on September 24th at 11:00 pm. Serious fans of Ziggy, rock-n-roll and talented singers shouldn’t dream of missing it.


- Show Business Weekly