Boyd Rice: the Grand Noise Provocateur.

If in today’s industrial underground there exist people who could be held the icons of this culture, Boyd Rice from the US would undoubtedly be one of them. Provocative noise pioneer, filmmaker, photographer, writer and occult researcher, you can continue the list. Some even call Boyd Rice a unique cult figure capable of reaching the heights of Andy Warhol in today‘s underground. Charles Manson named Boyd Rice „the black pimp“, while Marilyn Manson openly claims Boyd Rice to be his „mentor“. And after you recall Boyd Rice’s collaboration projects with such artists as Death In June, Current 93, Coil, Sol Invictus or Blood Axis, his provocative declarations and philosophy as well as his activities in Satan‘s Church, you can get a picture of the person who will throw his performance together with Ait! and Luftwaffe in Vilnius on 26 October.

Noise Culture Pioneer

Boyd says that this music was mainly inspired by the 60’s girl pop bands from Germany and France and glam rock. However, as far back as at the start of his musical career in 1973 – when Boyd Rice received a tape recorder from his imprisoned friend – his music declared absolutely different, aggressive and non-compromising source. The first album The Black Album, released in 86 copies, and the output of the later maestro's project NON (reasoning the choice of this name, Boyd Rice claimed: „The name implied everything and nothing“) contained drone loops, sonic experiments, noise collages and vinyl experiments, the first in history.

At first, Boyd tried his strengths in the field of weird ambient, however, later his taste turned to ever more radical direction, while in the end it developed into what the music researchers tend to call the origins of the first industrial wave. Boyd Rice was certainly influenced by his correspondence with Genesis P Orridge, just like by the punk explosion which enabled both the expansion of more aggressive music strains into a broader spectrum, and Boyd Rice to get a contract with MUTE, which until this day is releasing his records along with those by Nick Cave or Depeche Mode.

"I did not use noise in order to confront something, I sincerely like noise," – said Boyd Rice at the beginning of his career. At that time, the growing authority of Boyd Rice in the underground scene was strengthened by the concerts he started to organise that turned into unbearable aural assaults upon the public. The public could never know what to expect from him. Sometimes he raged on the stage, sometimes, on the contrary, he would shut himself in the dressing-room and would model his sounds from there. The chaos taking place during Boyd Rice’s gigs was recorded in his live LP Physical Evidence.

In the 80s Boyd Rice flung quite a few albums with a special significance in the industrial culture, like Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing where he manipulated sounds recorded in a variety of places, or the conceptual Might! or God And Beast. Seemingly belonging to the same subculture, Boyd was always one step ahead of it either in his philosophical approach, or the efforts to find ever new accords. Boyd Rice himself has no intention to hide his merits to music and boldly calls himself King of noise.

A special place in Boyd Rice’s discography belongs to the remarkable album Music, Martinis And Misanthropy. Nihilistic philosophy, black humour and cynicism – pearls are swung one after the other. All neofolk fans undoubtedly know Boyd Rice through his collaboration with Death In June as it was namely Boyd who was one of the main composers of Death In June‘s albums Alarm Agents and Wolf Pact. Projects Scorpion Wind, or Spell created in cooperation with Rose McDovall – although Boyd Rice calls himself an incurable idler, his album list speaks for itself.

Magister of the Church of Satan

Present or former buddies of Boyd Rice also lead us to believe that he is a controversial personality. For a while, he was in close cooperation with Anton LaVey, the High Priest of the Church of Satan. Boyd was ordained as a Priest, and subsequently as a Magister in the Council of Nine of the Church.
In fact, Boyd Rice himself claims that he had little in common with the actual Church, whereas Anton was one of the closest friends with whom he used to meet weekly. Later, after Anton LaVey‘s death in 1997, Boyd‘s interest in the Church of Satan eventually subsided.

“When he was alive, and he was my friend, I was proud to say I was a Satanist – that I was a member of the inner circle of The Church of Satan – but since his death, my research into occult matters has evolved exponentially. So less and less does the Church of Satan have any relevancy to my life,” – claimed Boyd Rice.

Charles Manson was the other equally impressive personality with whom Boyd Rice was in close contact for a long time. “He’s one of these people who has an incredible amount of insight,” – Boyd Rice shortly described Charles Manson. Actually, his collaboration with Charles ended when the prison security found a bullet in Boyd Rice’s pocket during his visit to Manson.

I’ve always felt like a sadist

Although Boyd Rice is often openly labelled as the enemy of the society, the intelligence is collecting data about him and spies on him, while mass media calls him fascist, the misanthrope himself finds it funny. Yes, he overtly spits into the face of the moral standards of the rotten society, however, claims that politics does not interest him – simply some find his openly declared radical ideas too brutal and straightforward.

Boyd Rice does not buy into the illusion of democracy (“I think this society suffers so much from too much freedom, too many rights that allow people to be irresponsible.”), is deeply interested in the origins of totalitarianism (“I have an interest in people who find themselves in the position to exercise absolute power.”), overtly declares what he thinks about the aid sent to the countries in need or ecological issues (“I think AIDS is probably the best thing that’s happened to Africa.”), or feminism (by producing an article R.A.P.E. in which he seemingly encourages men to rape women in order to show that men have a superior status). “The strong rule the weak, while the clever rule the strong,” – theorises Boyd Rice who was long been deeply interested in the theories of Social Darwinism.

Boyd Rice is also very interested in the Nordic mythology, Gnosticism, Grail legends and has produced a number of studies on these themes. He says these studies sometimes even take more of his time than the music lately.

Some critic described the music composed by Boyd Rice as the most fit for listening in a lift descending to hell. And, most probably, he was right. “I’ve always felt like a sadist”, - says the grand noise provocateur with a malevolent smile playing on his lips.  

Written by Audrius Ozalas.