To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
VAZELIN – :
Goes from a bitter burning to smoky to sweet cedar, heck, after the top burns off this starts to smell like that urban outfitters wood that I liked but much stronger with a bitter edge. Like this more than I expected.
slon74vas – :
Don’t let the description of burning electronics scare you: while it is there, it is so short-lived that the rest of the fragrance is really worth considering outside of this context. Of the three fragrances in this line, this one probably matches up most with the audio and text: starting with a near-acrid sear of burning material. Ostensibly plastic wiring insulation, some people might argue it is more woody in character.
Regardless, this opening quickly dies down (probably after no more than 2-3 minutes or so). What emerges is a full bodied, warm, and earthy mix of soil, labdanum, and (to my nose) patchouli-like elements. The leather is immediately apparent, and while pepper and cedar are mentioned; to my nose the more volatile aromatic notes they are traditionally known for are not strong here. I wouldnt not have picked out those two notes by name.
Smoke rounds out the fragrance, but as a light wrap; like how wood burned long ago only smells smoky when you are close to it, in a gentle, sweeter way (without the harsher facets of active smoulder). As far as evolution goes, this fragrance is fairly linear. Tightly coherent from start to finish, sometimes you will catch flashes of salt and minerals, or earth and patchouli. I would characterize it as warm, and almost inviting in a strangely personal way. It has a comforting, masculine presence; like a father’s cologne dried down after a day out and about. It smells lived in, but nothing about it is stale, sour, animalic, or unclean.
Wholly male (to me, anyway) I think this is a very unique choice for someone looking for a warm, earthy fragrance that doesnt rely on patchouli or traditional elements of orientals. Performance wise, it does not reach as far as Bass, but it will make it to 9-10 hours with moderate projection. I think it would have fared much better without the out-of-place opening, which is the only thing to really connect it to the conceptual presentation.
Ira_1 – :
According to designer’s website, additional notes are aldehydes and ozone, magnolia, orchid, amber, leather and cedar wood.
usergs1 – :
I’m both smitten with and disappointed by Noise. On the one hand, it’s doing “fried electrical wiring” perfectly—far better than Lush’s The Bug which claimed to do the same. It really does smells like smoldering cables, and yet it’s somehow appealing (to smell, at least—I’m not sure it’s that wearable). What’s slightly disappointing about it for me, though, is that it’s largely guaiacol—a profoundly strong synthetic guaiac wood replacer that was most recently abused in Buxton’s Dreckig Bleiben. Although Noise exploits the material’s weird charm by creating a hyper-vivid olfactory picture of hot circuits, it’s a bit of a one-trick pony as it nose-dives a little too soon.
The Ben Frost accompanying audio works well here, I find—a blown-out speaker-type drone with the melodic high-frequency screech of feedback, and MFO’s accompanying video simulates smoke in the form of silvery light patterns. The integration of the media is more seamless, but I’m not quite as sold on the scent itself. The fried electrics effect functions as an effective hook to grab your attention, but you quickly realize that there’s not much more to it than that. It’s essentially a smoky guaiacwood with buzzing, fizzy feel to it. After 30 or so minutes, the wattage drops and it becomes a fairly run-of-the-mill fizzy vetiver and smoky labdanum that sticks around for a handful of hours.
Noise, as an aesthetic, was too top-loaded for me—initially impressive but then a little tiresome and then a little mediocre. But that’s partly because it’s a little too obvious to me how this was accomplished—even though it’s still an impressive rendition. As a stand-alone fragrance, I think it’s the least approachable and the least effective overall, but it synchronizes the best with the visuals and the audio for a more unified installation. Although this could never really be heralded as minimal as it’s quite engulfing, I would say that it’s direct and confident in what it aims to accomplish.
denis1000ua – :
Alfarom really nailed this when describing it as Kinski combined with the Monocle series. Coincidentally, I am a huge fan of both and I also consider myself a pretty huge Ben Frost fan soo… this is basically love at first sniff. The opening reminds me of a specific teenage memory I have.
When I was 15 or 16 a close friend and I got pretty deep into circuit bending. We would search garage sales and salvation armies all day looking for noisy childrens toys. By night we would open said toys, and short out every single contact we could find in hopes of creating some powerful disjointed glitches. Often we would mess up and end up wiring the battery to the wrong thing and (following some ear piercing electronic shrieks, pops, or crackles), would completely blow up the toy. This absolutely smells like those poor fried out, battery-baked dead toys! (I mean this in the absolute best way possible). Out of the three ephemera fragrances, I think this one captures the sonics of the artist the best. Ben Frost’s music is simultaneously frozen and smoldering, glitched, occasionally crushing and totally visceral. All of those adjectives can also be applied to Noise the fragrance. Smelling it makes me want to listen through By the Throat, and vice versa.
So this is a success in both concept and execution. It performs well, and despite how strange and industrial it is it works amazingly well as a personal scent. I wish the price wasnt so steep so I could bathe in it when I want to feel like a robot. 9/10
shatenok – :
“Geza Schoen created the scent representing Noise inspired by way of Ben Frost’s deepest recesses of olfactory memories: catholic church holidays, Australian bushfire, moisture, and insect drones, among other stimuli. Those ideas Schoen connected with aldehydes, ozone, black pepper, saffron, and labdanum, to name a few”.
Ben Frost’s career is pretty dense and counts collaborations with the likes of Brian Eno and The Swans together with composing soundtracks for films by Tarkovsky, Simon North and Julia Leigh. He recently signed to Mute with which he released his latest album Aurora. A mix of electronica, tribal percussions, noise, experimental music and avant-garde with influences that go from kraut rock to modern electronica via punk, industrial and ethnic music. Noise is based on these musical resonances and, in my opinion, strikes as the most *typically* Geza Schoen-esque of the trio. Think about an hypothetic mix between Kinski and the Monocle Series by Comme Des Garçons with a tad of Nu_be Sulphur . A rough, dark-green spicy incense which is earthy, dusty, dry and extremely angular. It opens with a blast of piercing aldehydes, pepper and saffron to then evolve into a dark green woody-vetiver / labdanum combo which is really not that far from Kinski. Whereas Kinski introduced a hemp-inspired note, Noise opts for something aiming at gasoline and, more precisely, like spilling gasoline on a bushfire (!!!). It’s fire on fire. Again, it’s the naturalistic outdoors and industrial environments paired together, it’s the arid uninhabited desert and the forest, it’s death and life, it’s piercing yet somehow comforting. A daring fragrance that perfectly captures the essence of noise.
Rating: 8.5/10