NME's 20 LOUDEST Tracks: Which Is The Loudest?

Also please read
Stalaggh - The Most Extreme (And Unlistenable) Band Ever?

if we're talking RMS only, the APTBS track probably gets there

I voted in this but didn't really understand the criteria so mainly just chose the loudest mastered albums I could think of, none of which were included iirc

Loudest mastered record might be anything in the Top 40 singles chart. Or maybe the Iggy piloted remix of Raw Power.

(xxpost) Masonna are like a million times louder, without the dodgy politics.

When Jet Generation by Guitar Wolf came out it was supposed to be the loudest CD ever, dunno if that was actually true tho.

There must be hundreds of bands doing what Stalaggh are doing, and most it fades into ambience after about thirty seconds.

My copy of 23 Minutes over Brussels is actually mastered way low.

loudest record i own is xinlisupreme's murder license. which i sadly don't see in this poll

I reviewed that for this lot BITD too! Not thought about them for a while. Their website appears to have last been updated in 2007

Loudest mastered record I've ever heard is Medicine. Seriously. Like, 10x louder than any other CD that was ever in the disc player at the same time.

this will sound silly but i've always thought Summerteeth is an unnecessarily loud record

I cheated and voted for You Made Me Realise based solely on the live show because that actual EP really isn't very loud at all.

ditto "discipline", the recent version tg performed at heaven was bowel-punishing

I can't listen to it now, so what's the story with the Oasis one? A cocaine-fuelled centuple-tracking of every instrument?

Summerteeth and Being There are both very loud, yes.

Oasis tune is multitracked to hell and then mastered loud on top of that.

The Iggy Raw Power thing is the loudest disc I've ever heard. I have no idea what this poll is trying to accomplish. Back in Black isnt really mastered all that loud, the loudest sounding disc in their catalog is either Powerage or Let There Be Rock, at least the latest round of reissues.

Why the fuck is there a Universal Indicator track on here.

And why is there nothing from Spacemen 3 or "XTRMNTR"?

uh based on the choices it's pretty obvious they weren't going for "loudest" vis a vis loudest-mastered track but "loudest" vis a vis like "heavy songs" or whatever

Yes, that's what I meant

Well then theyve really fucked it up then. Why didnt they just call it "heavy songs" instead of "loudest".

because then they wouldn't be able to include oasis

to be fair, that particular Oasis song is a good shout; it's simply absurd in its OTT layering of loudnesses

also that Melt-Banana song should be nowhere near this list, great as they are

I was asked to do four of these and I chose the Buttholes, Universal Indicator, Player and Big Black.

It literally goes without saying that a, the feature was not about mastering and b, the writers involved had to use their own interpretations of what 'loud' actually meant. (If it was just 'heavy' then only Sunn would have made the final cut.)

Each of the inclusions came with a 200 word explanation of why it was chosen, so having a go on the basis of a list of songs is a bit pointless (although fuck knows why some of them are in there.)

And yes, I can explain why my choices are in there.

I *do* think It's Gettin' Better (Man!!) might be even louder and more utterly blockheadedly in-the-red than My Big Mouth

Iggy's rejiggered 'Raw Power' is a surprising omission here, besides a few others that have already been mentioned (XTRMNTR and such).

The loudest disc I recall hearing lately is Times New Vikings 'Rip It Off'. Shit is loud.

This has helped me to figure out that I very much enjoy "loud" music, even though I don't normally "turn it up" in the classic sense. But yeah, I like every one of those bands except for the 2 I don't recognize.

Doran I'm intrigued; can you explain your UI pick? I've loved them all for quite some time but would never think of them as "loud"

I am not Doran but I approve of highlighting the abrasiveness of a good healthy dose of 303 abuse, and no-one was much more abrasive than UI

Well, I wanted to suggest something of the overpowering loudness of certain types of Aphex Twin/IDM DJ sets and rather than just trot out 'Windowlicker' (which doesn't sound 'loud') or 'Come To Daddy' (which admittedly does kinda sound 'loud') I thought I'd throw this lesser known Aphex Twin related Rephlex act into the mix because you'd be more likely to hear this, or something like this, or something like 'Flowcoma' by AFX during a DJ set. Sheer volume was just one of numerous tricks used by Rephlex DJs to create a psychedelic or disorientating effect. In fact there's something similar to be said about the Buttholes in this context. Noise + operation videos + strobes + naked mute dancer + high volume + twisted fx = overpowering experience.

I wanted to also say that not only rock music suggests loudness. Although, the other dance track I picked, the Amon Tobin Slayer bootleg is purely loud because of the death metal samples.

But mainly I wanted to mention Universal Indicator in a magazine that doesn't tend to cover artists that extreme. I'll admit it's all purely subjective but there you go . . .

Fair enough. I'm down!

See, had NME included these 200 word reasons for each choice, that article would be 200x better.

"My Big Mouth" is the loudest (as in, you know, in the red all the time). "Back In Black" is the best.

no swans or whitehouse = no credibility.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i thought ilms MBV fans woulda been out in force

i like the winner though

No High Rise/Mainliner/Musica Transonic, no credibility.

I'll second Times New Viking. Pretty annoying cd to have on a 5-disc changer. Eat Skull's first one is about as bad. Okay albums, but mastered to simulate a dagger in the ears.

A worthy victor.