How to Write Harsh Noise [Fr] Lyrics

You want words that hit like a brick smashed by a subwoofer. You want language that becomes texture more than meaning. You want French vocal rubble that translates to impact whether the listener understands the words or not. This guide is for noise makers who want lyrics that serve the assault, the ritual, the aesthetic and the joke. No fluff. Lots of fury. A few usable methods that will make your next live set feel like an event rather than a polite disturbance.

This article explains what harsh noise is, why lyrics can matter in a genre that often rejects meaning, and how to write French language material that functions as sound, symbol, and sabotage. We will cover phonetics, cut up techniques, manifesto writing, performance delivery, processing and mixing, legal checks, and real life scenarios you will probably find yourself in. Acronyms and terms are explained like you are six and a little intoxicated. There are exercises at the end you can do in five minutes and in five hours. Let us ruin a speaker together.

What is Harsh Noise and what does [Fr] mean

Harsh noise is a branch of experimental music that prioritizes timbre, density and intensity over melody and harmony. It ranges from slow crushing walls of sound to jittery shards and static storms. One common substyle is noise wall. Noise wall means a sustained, often immersive block of sound that overwhelms traditional musical change. When you see HNW you are reading the initials for noise wall. If you see [Fr] after a tag it usually signals French language content or an origin in France. In this guide [Fr] means French language lyrics or French phrasing used inside harsh noise work.

Why put lyrics into harsh noise at all? Lyrics can operate as a texture, a trigger, a concept or a provocation. They can be spoken, screamed, looped, processed or buried under tape hiss. In the right hands words give the noise a face. They anchor the chaos without calming it. You keep the threat and you add a point of reference. Fans remember a line that shocked them. Labels remember a concept phrase you spray painted on a flyer. Promoters remember an act that made the PA rattle like lava. That is power.

Types of lyric roles in harsh noise

Lyrics in harsh noise serve different jobs. Pick your job before you pick your words. Each job has different writing rules.

• Texture Words become sound. Phonetics and rhythm matter more than semantics.
• Manifesto Short declarative statements that describe intent or ideology. Think of these as the band tattoo.
• Found collage Cut up newspaper lines, field recordings, announcements, legal disclaimers and adverts. Juxtaposition creates meaning or disorientation.
• Ritual Repetitive phrases used like incantation. Repetition conjures trance even under white noise.
• Punchline A single line that lands like a thrown bottle. The rest of the set builds toward it.

Why French changes the game

French has phonetic properties that noise musicians will love. Nasal vowels create smear and resonance. The uvular r adds low rasp and spittle without trying. Consonant clusters can be compact and percussive. French tracks often sound more mouthed than sung, which suits noise where articulation becomes noise. The cadence of French, the way it lingers on syllables, makes looped fragments feel like refrains even when the listener does not know the word meaning. Using French is a sonic choice as much as a linguistic one.

French phonetics you can exploit

• Nasal vowels Use words with en on an to create a sustained nasal color. In English you cannot match that exact resonance.
• Uvular r The throaty French r can be rolled into a growl when pushed through distortion.
• Sibilance Words with s and sh create high frequency hiss. Use them as natural top end in the mix.
• Closed vowels Vowels like i and u are sharp and can cut through heavy low end.
• Elision French often drops or fuses sounds. That gives you fragments that loop neatly.

Writing approaches that actually work

Here are practical frameworks. Choose one depending on the role you want for the lyrics.

Approach 1 Textural grids

Write lines as sound palettes rather than statements. Pick five words for their consonant and vowel makeup. Example palette in French: craquement, ongles, verre, gorge, nuit. Loop those words, vary rhythm and pitch, process heavy. The point is to create a recurring timbral motif.

Approach 2 Manifesto bites

Craft short declarative sentences that could be spray painted on a wall. Keep them raw. Example in French: Nous brisons les lampes et nous applaudissons. Repeat with small variations and then bury it in sauce. Manifestos read well on posters and cut well into show descriptions.

Approach 3 Found text collage

Record announcements at train stations, take fragments from instruction manuals, rip shriveled sentences from supermarket labels. French bureaucracy texts have a particular bureaucratic gravity that sounds surreal when looped into white noise. Cut up lines and re splice them until the meaning dissolves into rhythm.

Approach 4 One word anthems

Pick a single French word with a killer mouth feel and make it the chorus. Examples: charnier, verre, lenteur, fumée. Repeat that word at different tempos and dynamics. One word repeated until it means something else is a classic weapon in noise music.

Approach 5 Spoken poetry fragments

Write mini poems three to eight lines long, plain and ugly. Then destroy them with effects. The poem gives the listener a foothold before you show them the cliff. This works especially well if you want an emotional crack inside the noise wall.

Prosody and rhythm in harsh noise lyrics

Prosody is alignment of natural speech stress with musical emphasis. In harsh noise musical emphasis is flexible. You can slam stresses with sub bass or hide them under static. The important part is understanding where your spoken French naturally stresses syllables and then deciding whether to amplify, negate or flatten those stresses.

Read your line out loud like a cop reading a warrant. Listen for the heavy syllable. Try two strategies.

• Amplify Put the heavy syllable through a distortion send or an EQ boost. It becomes a hook inside the wreckage.
• Negate Put the heavy syllable inside a gated tremolo so it disappears into the noise. That can be unsettling in a good way.

Techniques for creating French lyric content

Below are hands on techniques you can apply with a phone and a cheap mic. None requires conservatory training. All require a willingness to be nasty with your voice and your conscience.

Technique Cut up collage

1. Collect five pages of printed French text. Newspapers work well.
2. Cut lines physically or in a text editor into fragments of two to six words.
3. Randomly reorder fragments until a line surprises you or repulses you.
4. Speak the line and record it. Repeat while changing rhythm.

This is the William Burroughs method updated for noisy violence. It creates lines that are half meaning and half accident and that is often perfect.

Technique Vowel pass

1. Play a raw buzz or a looped sample of static for one minute.
2. Speak only open vowel shapes in French like aah, ooh, eh for thirty seconds while recording.
3. Listen for a pattern that feels musical. Replace vowels with French words that match the pattern.

This keeps you from writing sentences that fight the noise. You shape text by mouthfeel rather than by dictionary meaning.

Technique Field take

Record public announcements, security chatter, or a street vendor. Chop a phrase into one or two syllable bits and time them against beats or clicks. The public voice turned private is a classic unsettling device.

Examples in French with translation and use case

Below are original examples you can adapt. Each has short notes on how to perform and process them.

Example 1 Manifesto bite

French: Nous débranchons la statue de la ville.

English: We unplug the city statue.

Use: Repeat three times slow then machine gun stutter it through a granular processor. Good for set opening. Spray with reverb until it sounds like it was said in the belly of a cathedral.

Example 2 One word anthems

French: Charnière

English: Hinge

Use: Say the word into a closed mic and into a room mic. Layer both and pitch one down. Repeat in a loop and gradually stretch syllables until it becomes texture. Works as a post chorus or lingering outro.

Example 3 Cut up fragment

French: Le moniteur dit silence puis le frigo rit.

English: The monitor says silence then the fridge laughs.

Use: Tape cut this into two halves and reverse the second half. Place at the moment when the noise density drops so the listener hears human absurdity as a shock.

Example 4 Ritual phrase

French: Fermez les yeux et comptez jusqu a neuf.

English: Close your eyes and count to nine.

Use: Whisper to a low tone then crescendo into a scream on nine. Repeat until it becomes a micro rite the audience can follow and then abandon.

Delivery options and mouth techniques

How you say a line is the point. The same sentence can be lullaby or battering ram depending on the vocal approach. Try these and record everything.

• Deadpan recitation Low volume, monotone, intimate mic. It creeps into the audience like a parasite.
• Screamed attack Short bursts of high intensity. Use throat technique and warm up your voice. This is destructive for the body so be careful.
• Sprechgesang Half sung half spoken. Play with pitch without opening into full melody.
• Vocal fry and growl Adds a physical rumble that becomes low end in the mix.
• Whisper and breath Can be processed into a hiss track that rides above the static.
• Automated pitch play Use pitch correction aggressively to bend vowels into unnatural shapes.

Processing and production for vocals inside harsh noise

Processing is where your words stop being just words and become material. Here are production moves that suit French lyric fragments.

Distortion chains

Run the recorded vocal through layered distortion units. One unit for light grit, the next for heavy clipping. Use a parallel chain so you can blend the pure voice back underneath the mess. Think of distortion like concrete. Too much and the voice is lost. A controlled amount makes it architectural.

Granular and time stretch

Slice micro fragments into grains and stretch them. French vowels pleasantly smear into pads when stretched. Try freezing a single vowel and then resampling it at different pitches to create a choir of ghosts.

Ring modulation and frequency shift

Ring modulation creates metallic timbres. A vowel with ring modulation can become a bell. Frequency shifting moves content without obvious pitch cues. Use subtle settings so the voice remains recognizable when you want it to be.

Reverb and convolution

Use convolution with field impulse responses like a factory floor or a bathroom. Convolution places your voice inside a physical object. Choosing a claustrophobic IR gives the vocals physical weight and weird reflections.

Gating and rhythmic stutter

Sidechain gating to a rhythm or to a noise bus creates mechanical speech. This is great for making announcements sound like malfunctioning machinery.

Mixing tips specific to dense noise

• Carve space. Use narrow EQ cuts around the fundamental frequencies of your voice so the vocal can be felt rather than just heard.
• Use multi band distortion rather than one shot. You can distort high end and leave low end cleaner for warmth.
• Parallel compress the voice and send that to your effects chain. Maintain transients on the dry signal to avoid full wash out.
• Create a send with extreme processing and keep the dry vocal present. This keeps words intelligible if you want them to be recognized.

Live considerations and stagecraft

Live shows are where harsh noise lyrics either become myth or become noise complaints. Think through logistics.

Microphone choice and placement

Use a dynamic mic for proximity effect and rejection of room feedback. Condenser mics can be used for breath textures but are fragile. Move the mic toward your mouth for growls and pull away for whispers. A cheap contact mic on throat cartilage can pick up visceral rumble that a standard mic misses.

Monitoring and feedback

Be mindful of stage monitors and PA feedback. Harsh noise can destroy monitoring rigs. Keep a personal feed for timing cues and use earplugs. When vocals are heavily processed off board you might need to match latency to avoid timing chaos.

Interaction with the audience

Decide if you want to include the audience in the ritual. A repeated phrase that the crowd can chant creates a powerful shared moment. Alternatively, keep the lyrics private and let the audience feel like intruders in your ritual.

Legal and ethical notes

Sampling public announcements and private conversations can land you in trouble. Always consider privacy and copyright. Public domain and your own recordings are safest. If you pull a phrase from a copyrighted interview or a song you want to clear it or alter it beyond recognition. Ethical choices matter even if the genre thrives on provocation.

Do not put illegal instructions in your lyrics. Inciting violence is not art school clever. It is a legal problem. Provocation is different from instruction. Stay on the provocative side.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Writing words that do nothing If your lyrics add fact but no texture, turn them into fragments and replay.
• Too much intelligibility If every word is understood you lose the mystery. Add processing or compress vowels to blur meaning.
• Overprocessing If the vocal becomes indistinguishable garbage you lose the hook. Keep a dry reference layer.
• Getting loud without purpose If volume is the only dynamic consider adding quiet ritual moments. Contrast increases impact.
• Abuse of throat Screaming without technique causes damage. Warm up, hydrate and learn fry technique from trusted coaches online.

Ten step workflow to write a French harsh noise lyric

1. Decide the job for the lyrics. Texture, manifesto, collage or ritual.
2. Collect raw material. Five printed texts, three field recordings and one provocative image.
3. Do a cut up pass. Reassemble fragments without trying to be sensible.
4. Run a vowel pass while playing noise for ten minutes. Record everything.
5. Pick a one to three line seed that feels like it could be repeated in public and survive ridicule.
6. Test three deliveries. Deadpan, whisper and scream. Record each take.
7. Process each take with two different chains. One subtle. One extreme.
8. Mix by carving space around the key frequencies of the best take.
9. Rehearse live with looper and a single effect so you know the physical reality of the piece.
10. Refine the lyric for the next show. Harsh noise is iterative. Keep improving.

Practical exercises you can do tonight

Exercise 1 Five word palette

Pick five French words that sound mean. Make a one minute loop and say each word on every beat. Change volume dynamics every eight seconds. Record. You have a micro track.

Exercise 2 Manifesto in sixty seconds

Set a timer for sixty seconds and write a French sentence that could be printed on a flyer. Stop when the timer ends. Repeat to make a three line set. The first one will be trash. The second will be usable.

Exercise 3 Cut up walk

Walk for ten minutes and record ambient speech you overhear. Take two phrases and stitch them into one fragment. Process one and whisper the other. Put both into a short track and see how meaning warps.

Real world scenarios and how to respond

Scenario 1 DIY venue set

You arrive to play and the PA is tiny. You only have one amp and a laptop. Choose a textural strategy. Use a contact mic for throat rumble and create a wall with one loop. Keep volume within reason. Make the performance feel intimate and oppressive not dangerous. After the show give the venue owner your manifesto line for a flyer. They will remember you.

Scenario 2 Outdoor festival at dusk

Noise outside gets different reactions. Use manifesto or ritual lines that are short and deliverable at a distance. Breathe in the crowd reaction and aim for a moment where everyone is unsure if they were hit or blessed. Use visuals like a flashing lamp or smoke instead of pure volume.

Scenario 3 Studio recording with collaborators

Bank your raw phrases and give collaborators stems. Let a synth artist pick one vowel and build a pad. Let a tape artist resample your whisper. The studio version can be more cinematic than the live set. Keep a live take for the record to show the original aggression.

How to make French lyrics memorable to non French speakers

Make the phrase repeatable and phonetic. Choose words with strong mouth shapes and avoid long dependent clauses. Use a repeated motif that functions like an earworm. If you want the audience to shout it back, pick short consonant heavy lines or simple nouns that travel well.

Example crowd chant in French: Non plus jamais. That is short, strong and singable even for people who do not speak the language.

Resources and tools

• DAW explained. DAW means digital audio workstation. It is the software where you record and process. Popular options are Ableton Live, Reaper and Logic Pro. Pick one and learn basic routing.
• FX types. Distortion, granular, ring modulation and convolution are the most useful for voice in noise. Try free plugins if you are broke.
• Hardware. Contact mics, cheap tape recorders and cassette players for authenticity. A small analog distortion box can add character that plugins do not replicate.
• Field recording apps. Use your phone to capture announcements, markets and machinery. Label files by location and date so you can find odd phrases later.
• Community. Noise artists share methods openly. Join local experimental music groups and swap sets and tips.

Common acronyms and terms explained

• HNW Means noise wall. A long sustained block of dense sound.
• DAW Means digital audio workstation. This is your recording software.
• IR Means impulse response. It is used to simulate a space or object.
• FX Means effects. Anything that alters sound after it is recorded.
• DSP Means digital signal processing. The math behind processing effects.

FAQ

Can harsh noise lyrics be melodic

Yes. Harsh noise allows melody but used sparingly. A melodic hook can sit above the noise to create contrast. Use melody as punctuation rather than the main event.

Should I translate my lyrics for international audiences

Not necessary. If you want global engagement add a short English line in the press release or in the booklet. The mystery of not understanding is part of the appeal for many listeners.

How do I avoid losing my voice

Warm up before sets, avoid constant high intensity screams, use vocal fry for low damage screams and hydrate. Seek professional coaching for extended touring. Your throat matters more than your aesthetic.

Where do I get permission to sample public announcements

Sampling laws differ by country. Use your own recordings or public domain material to be safe. If samples are copyrighted obtain licenses or transform them beyond recognition while respecting the original privacy context.

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