Product Code Database
Industrial music (also known as industrial) is a subgenre of experimental music inspired by post-industrial society, initially drawing influences from avant-garde and early electronic music genres such as musique concrète, tape music, Noise music and sound collage. The term was coined in 1976 by Monte Cazazza and Throbbing Gristle, with the founding of Industrial Records. Other early industrial musicians include Boyd Rice and Cabaret Voltaire. By the late 1970s, additional artists emerged such as Clock DVA, Nocturnal Emissions, Einstürzende Neubauten, SPK, Nurse with Wound, and Z’EV, alongside Whitehouse who coined the subgenre "power electronics".
During the 1980s, industrial music splintered into a range of offshoots collectively labelled "post-industrial music", these included industrial rock, dark ambient, EBM music, neofolk, power noise, electro-industrial, industrial metal, martial industrial, industrial hip-hop, industrial dance, futurepop and industrial techno."... journalists now use 'industrial' as a term like they would 'blues.'"—Genesis P-Orridge, RE/Search #6/7, p. 16. By the 1990s, elements of industrial music were made accessible to mainstream audiences through the popularity of acts such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Rammstein, and Marilyn Manson, all of whom released platinum-selling records.
Early industrial music made by groups such as Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, featured tape editing, stark percussion, vocal effects and loops which were distorted. Throbbing Gristle opposed traditional rock music structures associated with the punk rock scene, declaring industrial to be "anti-music." Early industrial performances often involved taboo-breaking, provocative elements, such as mutilation, sado-masochistic elements and totalitarian imagery or symbolism, as well as forms of audience abuse, RE/Search #6/7, p. 5. such as Throbbing Gristle's aiming high powered lights at the audience.Ford, 8.10V.Vale. , 1983.Nicolas Ballet, Shock Factory: The Visual Culture of Industrial Music. Intellect Books, pp. 17-20 ' writings became a conceptual inspiration for the industrial music movement]]
Artists often played in non-traditional ways, incorporating the use of homemade instruments, such as Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle who invented a device named the "Gristle-izer", played by Peter Christopherson, which consisted of a one-octave keyboard and a number of cassette machines triggering various pre-recorded sounds. Cabaret Voltaire's Chris Watson custom-built a fuzzbox for Richard H. Kirk's guitar, produced a unique timbre. Carter built speakers, effects units, and synthesizer modules, as well as modifying more conventional rock instrumentation, for Throbbing Gristle. Cosey Fanni Tutti played guitar with a slide in order to produce glissando, or pounded the strings as if it were a percussion instrument. Throbbing Gristle also played at very high volume and produced ultra-high and sub-bass frequencies in an attempt to produce physical effects, labelling this approach as "metabolic music". AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of Rock music and electronic music".
Industrial groups typically focus on transgressive subject matter. In his introduction for the Industrial Culture Handbook (1983), Jon Savage considered some hallmarks of industrial music to be organizational autonomy, shock tactics, and the use of synthesizers and "anti-music." Furthermore, an interest in the investigation of ", wars, psychological techniques of persuasion, unusual murders (especially by children and psychopaths), forensic pathology, venereology, concentration camp behavior, the history of uniforms and insignia" and Aleister Crowley's magick was present in Throbbing Gristle's work, RE/Search #6/7, p. 9. as well as in other industrial pioneers. William S. Burroughs' recordings and writings were particularly influential on the scene, particularly his interest in the cut-up technique and noise as a method of disrupting societal control."These ideas contributed some of the theoretical mise-en-scène for emergent Industrial groups such as Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Cabaret Voltaire, all of whom experimented with cut-up sound and re-contextualised ambient recordings." Sargeant, Jack, "The Primer: William S. Burroughs," The Wire 300, February 2009, p. 38. Many of the first industrial musicians were interested in, though not necessarily sympathetic with, fascism. RE/Search #6/7, p. 105 Throbbing Gristle's logo was based on the lightning symbol of the British Union of Fascists, while the Industrial Records logo was a photo of Auschwitz.
In 1923, Arthur Honegger created Pacific 231, a modernist musical composition that imitates the sound of a steam locomotive.Daniel Albright (ed.) Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Source. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2004. p. 386 Another example is Ottorino Respighi's 1924 orchestral piece Pines of Rome, which included the phonographic playback of a nightingale recording. Also in 1924, George Antheil created a work titled Ballet Mécanique with instrumentation that included 16 Player piano, 3 Propeller, and 7 Electric bell. The work was originally conceived as music for the Dada film of the same name, by Dudley Murphy and Fernand Léger, but in 1926 it premiered independently as a concert piece.
In an essay written in 1937, John Cage expressed an interest in using extra-musical materials and came to distinguish between found sounds, which he called noise, and musical sounds, examples of which included: rain, static between radio channels, and "a truck at fifty miles per hour". Essentially, Cage made no distinction, in his view all sounds have the potential to be used creatively. His aim was to capture and control elements of the sonic environment and employ a method of sound organisation, a term borrowed from Varese, to bring meaning to the sound materials. Cage began in 1939 to create a series of works that explored his stated aims, the first being Imaginary Landscape #1 for instruments including two variable speed turntables with frequency recordings.
In 1964, John Cale recorded the track "Loop" which consisted solely of audio feedback in a locked groove, it was released in 1966 as a single credited to the Velvet Underground, who were later noted as influential to industrial music. AMM, formed in 1965, were later retroactively recognized by AllMusic as precursors to industrial, writing that the "experimentation in sonic assault, noise, and chance sound (including transistor radios)" on their debut album AMMMusic (1967) would "reach the rock fringes in the work of industrial groups like Test Dept". Additionally, Cromagnon's album Orgasm (1969) has been cited by AllMusic's Alex Henderson as foreshadowing industrial with the track "Caledonia" resembling "a Ministry or Revolting Cocks recording from 1989".
Other contemporaneous developments include the work of underground and Psychedelic rock acts such as the Mothers of Invention, Intersystems, Musica Elettronica Viva,[1] Liner Notes for Musica Elettronica Viva recording set MEV 40 (1967–2007) 80675-2 (4CDs) Spacecraft was recorded in Cologne in 1967 by Bryant, Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum and Vandor Red Krayola, and Fifty Foot Hose. In 1968, the Beatles' The White Album incorporated influences from musique concrète on track "Revolution 9", alongside George Harrison's Electronic Sound and John Lennon's avant-garde with Yoko Ono who had been a part of the Fluxus scene.from Rolling Stone issues # 74 & 75 (21 Jan & 4 Feb, 1971). "John Lennon: The Rolling Stone Interview" by editor Jann Wenner
Subsequently, Germany's krautrock scene would also be recognized as influential, the 1970 album Klopfzeichen by Kluster recorded in 1969 has been retroactively recognized as an early precursor of industrial music, alongside the early works of kosmische musik band Cluster, which XLR8 magazine described as having "a profound impact on industrial music’s brainier practitioners". Writer Alexei Monroe argues that Kraftwerk were particularly significant in the development of industrial music, as the "first successful artists to incorporate representations of industrial sounds into nonacademic electronic music."Monroe, p. 212
Additionally, New York band Suicide, formed in 1970, by Alan Vega and Martin Rev, were retroactively described by The Guardian as "equally influential on the industrial music ... scenes that followed." The New York Times retroactively described the American avant-garde band the Residents, who formed in 1966, as having "presaged forms of ... industrial music".
Subsequently, musicians cited as inspirations include the Velvet Underground, Joy Division, and Martin Denny. RE/Search #6/7, p. 11–12. Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle had a cassette recording library by the Master Musicians of Joujouka, Kraftwerk, Charles Manson, and William S. Burroughs. RE/Search #6/7, p. 19. P-Orridge also credited 1960s rock such as the Doors, Pearls Before Swine, the Fugs, Captain Beefheart, and Frank Zappa in a 1979 interview. Germany's krautrock scene which included groups like Faust and Neu! was also noted as an influence on industrial artists, alongside John Cage who was an initial inspiration for Throbbing Gristle.
Chris Carter also enjoyed and found inspiration in Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream. Boyd Rice was influenced by the music of '60s girl groups and tiki culture. RE/Search #6/7, p. 67. Z'EV cited Christopher Tree (Spontaneous Sound), John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Tim Buckley, Jimi Hendrix, and Captain Beefheart, among others together with Tibetan, Balinese, Javanese, Indian, and African music as influential in his artistic life. RE/Search #6/7, p. 117 Cabaret Voltaire cited Roxy Music as their initial forerunners, as well as Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express. Cabaret Voltaire also recorded pieces reminiscent of musique concrète and composers such as Morton Subotnick. Nurse with Wound cited a long list of obscure music as recommended listening. 23 Skidoo borrowed from Fela Kuti and Miles Davis' On the Corner. Many industrial groups, including Einstürzende Neubauten, took inspiration from world music.
Throbbing Gristle first performed in 1976, and began as the musical offshoot of the Kingston upon Hull-based COUM Transmissions. RE/Search #6/7, p. 17. COUM was initially a psychedelic rock group, but began to describe their work as performance art in order to obtain grants from the Arts Council of Great Britain. COUM was composed of P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Beginning in 1972, COUM staged several performances inspired by Fluxus and Viennese Actionism. These included various acts of sexual and physical abjection. Peter Christopherson, an employee of commercial artists Hipgnosis, joined the group in 1974, with Carter joining the following year. The group renamed itself Throbbing Gristle in September 1975, their name coming from a northern English slang word for an erection. The group's first public performance, in October 1976, was alongside an exhibit titled Prostitution, which included pornographic photos of Tutti as well as used tampons. Conservative politician Nicholas Fairbairn declared that "public money is being wasted here to destroy the morality of our society" and blasted the group as "wreckers of civilization."
By the late 1970s, industrial music acts such as Clock DVA, Nocturnal Emissions, Whitehouse, Nurse with Wound, and SPK RE/Search #6/7, pp. 92–105. soon followed. Whitehouse intended to play "the most brutal and extreme music of all time", a style they eventually called power electronics. An early collaborator with Whitehouse, Steve Stapleton, formed Nurse with Wound, who experimented with noise sculpture and sound collage. Clock DVA described their goal as borrowing equally from surrealist automatism and "nervous energy sort of funk stuff, body music that flinches you and makes you move." 23 Skidoo, like Clock DVA, merged industrial music with African-American dance music, but also performed a response to world music. Performing at the first WOMAD Festival in 1982, the group likened themselves to Indonesian gamelan. Swedish act Leather Nun were signed to Industrial Records in 1978, being the first non-TG/Cazazza act to have an IR-release. Their singles eventually received significant airplay in the United States on college radio.
Across the Atlantic, similar experiments were taking place. In San Francisco, performance artist Monte Cazazza began recording noise music. RE/Search #6/7, pp. 68–81. Boyd Rice released several albums of noise, with guitar drones and tape loops creating a cacophony of repetitive sounds. RE/Search #6/7, pp. 50–67. In Boston, Sleep Chamber and other artists from Inner-X-Musick began experimenting with a mixture of powerful noise and early forms of EBM. In Italy, work by Maurizio Bianchi at the beginning of the 1980s also shared this aesthetic. In Germany, Einstürzende Neubauten mixed metal percussion, guitars, and unconventional instruments (such as and bones) in stage performances that often damaged the venues in which they played. Blixa Bargeld, inspired by Antonin Artaud and an enthusiasm for amphetamines, also originated an art movement called Die Genialen Dilettanten. Bargeld is particularly well known for his hissing scream.
In January 1984, Einstürzende Neubauten performed a Concerto for Voice and Machinery at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (the same site as COUM's Prostitution exhibition), drilling through the floor and eventually sparking a riot. This event received front-page news coverage in England. Other groups who practiced a form of industrial "metal music" (that is, produced by the sounds of metal crashing against metal) include Test Dept, Laibach,Monroe, p. 222. and Die Krupps, as well as Z'EV and SPK. Test Dept were largely inspired by Russian Futurism and toured to support the 1984-85 UK miners' strike. Skinny Puppy embraced a variety of industrial forefathers and created a lurching, impalatable whole from many pieces. Swans, from New York City, also practiced a metal music aesthetic, though reliant on standard rock instrumentation. Laibach, a group who began while Yugoslavia remained a single state, were very controversial for their iconographic borrowings from Stalinism, Nazi, Titoist, Dada, and Russian Futurist imagery, conflating Yugoslav patriotism with its German authoritarian adversary.Monroe, p. 96. Slavoj Žižek has defended Laibach, arguing that they and their associated Neue Slowenische Kunst art group practice an overidentification with the hidden perverse enjoyment undergirding authority that produces a subversive and liberatory effect.Slavoj Žižek, "Why Are Laibach and NSK Not Fascists?," M'ARS 3–4, 1993, pp. 3–4. In simpler language, Laibach practiced a type of agitprop that was widely utilized by industrial and punk artists on both sides of the Atlantic.
Following the breakup of Throbbing Gristle, P-Orridge and Christopherson founded Psychic TV and signed to a major label. Their first album was much more accessible and melodic than the usual industrial style, and included hired work by trained musicians. Later work returned to the sound collage and noise elements of earlier industrial. They also borrowed from funk and disco. P-Orridge also founded Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, a quasi-religious organization that produced video art. Psychic TV's commercial aspirations were managed by Stevo of Some Bizzare Records, who released many of the later industrial musicians, including Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept, and Cabaret Voltaire.
Around 1983, Cabaret Voltaire members were deeply interested in funk music and, with the encouragement of their friends from New Order, began to develop a form of dark but danceable electrofunk. Christopherson left Psychic TV in 1983 and formed Coil with John Balance. Coil made use of gongs and bullroarers in an attempt to conjure "Martian," "homosexual energy". David Tibet, a friend of Coil's, formed Current 93, alongside Douglas P. of Death In June, Steven Stapleton and Fritz Catlin of 23 Skidoo; both Coil and Current 93 were inspired by amphetamines and LSD. J. G. Thirlwell, a co-producer with Coil, developed a version of black comedy in industrial music, borrowing from lounge music as well as noise and film music. In the early 1980s, the Chicago-based record label Wax Trax! and Canada's Nettwerk helped to expand the industrial music genre into the more accessible electro-industrial and industrial rock genres.
"From the early 1980s onwards industrial music as represented by Throbbing Gristle influenced and was fused with other musical styles, resulting in what can be termed 'post-industrial styles'."
While the original industrial sound was rooted in avant-garde and experimental music, post-industrial offered more accessible and diverse offshoots, with the incorporation of traditional pop songwriting, and influences from a variety of genres. Artists incorporated influences from new wave, Rock music, Pop music, heavy metal, hip hop, jazz, disco, reggae, ambient music, folk music, post-punk, EDM, and new age music.Chicago record label Wax Trax! Records was prominent in the widespread attention industrial music later received. The label was started by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, and became a central hub for the emerging industrial rock genre during the late 1980s to early 1990s. Wax Trax! released albums by artists such as Front 242, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, and Sister Machine Gun. Subsequent post-industrial styles included dark ambient, power electronics, power noise, Japanoise, industrial rock, neofolk, electro-industrial, EBM music, industrial hip hop, industrial metal, industrial pop, martial industrial, and futurepop.
Through the 1990s, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson had several albums and EPs certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), including Nine Inch Nails' Broken (1992), The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), and Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar (1996) and Mechanical Animals (1998).
Chicago record label Wax Trax! Records was prominent in the widespread attention industrial music later received. The label was started by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, and became a central hub for the emerging industrial rock genre during the late 1980s to early 1990s. Wax Trax! released albums by artists such as Front 242, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, and Sister Machine Gun. Another prominent label was Canada's Nettwerk which signed Skinny Puppy. Notable post-industrial styles included dark ambient, power noise, industrial rock, neofolk, electro-industrial, EBM music, industrial hip hop, industrial metal, industrial pop, martial industrial, and futurepop.
|
|
