Thousands of noise artists disturb America’s atmosphere at any given moment, and most of them bleed into the background hum of civilization with little distinction. However, the releases by Pharmakon (Margaret Chardiet) slice through the static spectacularly. Her tracks deliver a potent emotional payload, thanks to her dramatically poised vocal exorcisms about body terror and alienation from a sick society. From Pharmakon’s 2013 debut full-length Abandon to this year’s Devour, she’s proved that the most effective noise music commands attention through judicious and malicious use of space to create sonic horror. Aural oversaturation just induces numbness; Pharmakon realizes—like Throbbing Gristle and late-period Wolf Eyes—that seething tension is a more effective approach to jolting listeners into catharsis than artless gushes of distortion. A Pharmakon show is a transcendently blasphemous experience. by Dave Segal