the loudest bass you've ever heard

m.

On Talib Kweli's 'Soul Rebels' there are these big, deep bass drops that I never even heard until I played it in a car.

I'd also have to nominate a lot of Sly Stone, esp. the distorted bass stuff like on Dance to the Music.

There you go.

The best Soundgarden bass sound is the isolated bass guitar note at the end of Jesus Christ Pose, after the the preceding descent into noise squall that one pure low tone sound HUGE. And lovely.

that band god had two low slung bass players (and Eddie Prévost) and it seemed more deeper(music) than louder

Indeed - I always like the album version most for that.

But outside of the more stuctured stuff, Lustmord "Heresy" features some of the most stomach churning low frequency ambient drones I've ever come across.

And the Daft Punk remix of Scott Grooves "Mothership Reconnection" tops even the "Homework" material for massive bass grooves.

As for low frequency drones, Lull : Moments will make your neighbours move (or murder each other, or get devoured by their pets) when played persistently enough.

the loudest treble i have heard to date was coming from neil young's guitar at moe's in seattle

Also, any number of reggae recordings, particularly Bob Marley's late 60s-early 70s work.

loads of big square-wave womb-like electro bass heaven! yeh!

and that's what I want to call my new album.

Anyway, my nominee is Raw Fusion's "Welcome to the Styleetron" - intro track from their first record. Window-shattering.

Namanax's track on the American/Japanese Noise comp.
or
The Thrones live (Joe Preston is nothing but bass, why this isn't replicated on record is a mystery).

Japan: Gentlemen Take Polaroids
Japan: Tin Drum
Mick Karn: Titles
Masami Tsuchiya: Rice Music (which has both Karn and Percy Jones)

As for electronic, i submit Aphex Twin's Bucephalus Bouncing Ball. ¥

Reminding me of honorable mention: The Byrds' Eight Miles High.. At the beginning, where the snare drum rattles from the bass - I always wanted to do a whole song where the only "drumming" was via this method.

Wow!

But as a dub fan a couple steps past dilletante, I have to say the recording Dub Terror Exhaust by Automaton, which is an earlier Bill Laswell dub foray with Jah Wobble on bass, is probably the loudest bass I've heard out of a few thousand albums (various genres). Wobble, from interviews, actually tunes/plays his bass to the resonant frequencies of the studio rooms, and perhaps my last few listening rooms have had similar dimensions. And Dub Terror Exhaust is the most bass-centric of any of Wobble's recordings I've heard (including, of course, Metal Box).

There are a lot of Miami Bass and LFO-type recordings that delve the subsonic frequencies, but they mostly sound anemic on any but the most extravagent home/car systems. Consider them demonstration hi-fi discs for the tune impaired.

As for ringing ears, the human ear is much more damage prone to transients (abrupt sounds) in the treble frequencies. Low frequency hearing is protected by the same muscle relaxation that prevents damage from a strong wind. When you have ringing ears from a concert, its more likely the fault of the snare, guitar, or distorted harmonics from a bass than the bass fundamental.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/805430-loud-bass-music-killed-student-tom-reid

URL guaranteed 0% misleading, traditional hat tip to the Metro please

'Highly Possible' is why I hate the Metro

Whatever guy waiting for stop light last night in front of my house was listening to.

That kind of story scares the living crap outta me

Yeah I read that story earlier and my heart exploding as a result of massive bass rumblings has now topped my Completely Irrational Fears list, toppling razorblades-on-the-waterslide which has had 23-year unbroken stint at #1.

sunn o))), on sunday. you hear it from the bones out.

this kinda shit makes me wanna get checked out

Dr Reid said: ‘I hope some lessons may be learnt from his tragic death.’

lol um

If it was possible to learn any worthwhile lessons (other than 'go to the doctor and get your heart checked out') then I would be absolutely terrified because clearly a bass frequency that kills people would be disastrous were it to fall into the wrong hands.

If this incident can dissuade even one reckless young person from choosing to be born with a heart defect, it'll be for the best.

Is Matt aware of the bass frequency commonly known as "brown noise" and what that's alleged to do to the human body?

that's what all those massive baggy trousers at raves were all about. in case someone accidentally or on purpose hit the automatic-prolapse-frequency in the sub-bass range

andy stott - massacre

the "brown note" is a myth btw

probably a couple of "old school" Japanese noise bands.

Do not read if you are a tall, thin smoker who likes dubstep:

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2004/09/64829

Saw DJ/rupture in Barcelona during the summer, was right up the front and had to leave cos the bass was making my heart feel a bit funny. Glad i did now.

DFA1979

Tests at NASA have shown that the human eyeball has a resonant frequency of 18 cycles per second. And at its resonant frequency, the eyeball will vibrate, causing blurred peripheral vision.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41efVS3xv5L._SS500_.jpg

crank it up

The remastered Helter Skelter deserves a nod here. Same with Come Together.

Swans, live 1987/8

this question works well in the live setting: I remember kim gorden making the whole venue feel like it was about to collapse once so that but then i never did see flipper
also public enemy i remember being frighteningly loud. would have love to have been at a few jamaican parties in kinston the dub boom. seen pictures of the speakers those guys used to whhel around. ginornmous. that might well have taken yer head off.

on record: don't know. i'll go for sly stone for now although stuff like king tubby and some perry/upsetters stuff surely gets there but does this really count? a bit of a redundant question for on record..most prominent or best might be better??

thats kingston plus various other spelling mistakes...gorden?

on record: regarding the impression its something between dynamix II - 'release the anihilator' and whitehouse' - great white death album

I know this isn't exactly the question, but the loudest bass I have ever heard - by far - was at the University of Dub at Brixton Recreation Centre. It literally makes the hairs on the back of your neck vibrate. It's not so much a series of notes as a set of vibrations. Literal vibrations. It made me understand why so many dub tracks (and jungle tracks) are produced the way they are; when the serious sub-bass kicks in is when the vibration gets generated: that's the moment then the entire room quivers, like the bass is a comb and waxpaper contraption as big as a house, and we're speared on one of its tines. BVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVDDDDDDTTTTTT

Has anyone ever experienced the opposite of this, not hearing bass frequencies at all? Last year, my right eardrum managed to fill with mucus from the ear-nose-throat cavity (gross, I know). Rather than a gradual fading, it apparently just disappeared sometime over the course of a day. I didn't notice until I put my headphones on and couldn't hear bass drum in my right ear, though the rest of the spectrum was coming out just fine. I had thought that somehow my headphones were broken, though I realized that it would be physically impossible for them to break in that way. I ran some sine wave sweeps through speakers and headphones and found that I couldn't hear frequencies below somewhere around 320 hz. The truly strange part came the next day, when I was exposed to environmental sounds without bass. I couldn't hear my footsteps in my right ear, but I could in my left - I also lost sound by bone conduction, so that I could knock my knuckles on both sides of my head and still only hear the rustle of hair on my right side. My favorite experience was feeling the thrum of the garbage truck outside my window without being able to hear it.

Oh, and before it went away, it also managed to produce the most annoying bass I'd ever heard. A constant (days on end) 60 hz hum, sort of like tinnitus but on the opposite side of the spectrum. Still couldn't hear actual bass, but the hum was omnipresent and made trying to sleep a living hell. It wasn't terribly loud, I could hear things over it, but it just never stopped. I had to take sleeping pills every night for a week and a half. Thankfully, two and a half weeks of decongestants managed to clear things up. My girlfriend had four months earlier had pretty much the same thing happen to her, except she lost her hearing completely for two weeks. She had so much mucus buildup that her eardrum actually ruptured one morning, leaking several tissues worth of nastiness directly out of her ear.

Fuck.

I got my ears de-waxed once and it was freaking amazing. Total upgrade.

probably when i went to the rock the bells tour and during nas's set they had the weirdest, loudest ass mix going...the bass was literally like caving in our chests...

I have wondered if "Diddy Wah Diddy" by Captain Beefheart was considered pretty bassalicious at the time as the bass is pretty high in the mix, although maybe a lot of the Nuggets stuff is like this

I can't say for sure on record, but live it must have been the Orb. We were up front, and there were a few moments when it actually caused me to feel as though I was losing my balance.