Equipment

About Equipment

Equipment exists in that peculiar space where experimental music people and gear obsessives overlap. The project started in the mid-90s when John Wiese, then a teenager in Los Angeles, began making harsh noise recordings that treated audio equipment as the instrument rather than a means to an end. The name tells you everything about the approach.

Wiese didn't come out of nowhere. He was soaking up the American noise scene that Merzbow and Masonna had kicked into overdrive, but also paying attention to the more structured end of industrial music. Equipment recordings from the late 90s sound like someone dismantling electronics in real time, which isn't far from what was actually happening. This wasn't noise for shock value. It was about exploring what sound could do when you stopped trying to make it musical.

The project gained traction in the early 2000s when Wiese started releasing through labels that mattered in experimental circles. Helicopter Variation and Seven of Wands, both from that period, showed a shift toward something more composed without losing the fundamental aggression. These weren't just harsh noise walls. There was spatial thinking happening, moments of negative space that made the loud parts hit harder.

Around 2006, Equipment put out "Cactus" on the Type label, which probably did more for Wiese's visibility than anything prior. Type had credibility beyond the noise underground, and the album showed Equipment could work in longer forms without getting tedious. Tracks like "Cactus 1" moved through different densities of sound, almost narrative in structure if you squinted.

Wiese has always been a collaborator, working with everyone from Wolf Eyes to Sunn O))) to Smegma. That collaborative instinct shows up in Equipment recordings too. There's an awareness of how sounds interact in space, how frequencies can either reinforce or cancel each other out. It's technical but not academic.

The 2010s saw Equipment releases become less frequent but more considered. "Third of the Senses" in 2016 felt like a refinement of everything Wiese had been working toward. Harsh when it needed to be, but also capable of something almost delicate. The track "Untitled 3" could almost pass for musique concrète if you played it in the right context.

These days Equipment functions as one node in Wiese's larger practice, which includes solo work, collaborations, and running his own label. New releases still appear occasionally, usually through smaller experimental labels. The approach hasn't changed much because it didn't need to. Equipment figured out what it was doing early and has been refining that methodology ever since. If you're looking for an entry point, start with "Cactus" and work backward or forward depending on your tolerance for punishment.

Shows are quiet and tense in a way that makes people uncomfortable. The crowd stands still, leaning in to catch details in the sound. No pyrotechnics, no choreography. Just someone and their equipment, which feels like the whole point. People leave drained.

Known for Machines, Feedback Loop, Static, Analog Signal, The Grid

See Equipment Live