Industrial music
| Industrial | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | Musique concrete, Fluxus movement, Performance art, Electronic art music, Noise music |
| Cultural origins: | Early 1970s, London, Sheffield, United Kingdom |
| Typical instruments: | Synthesizer - Drum machine - Tape loops - Drums - Guitar (in latter incarnations were added Sequencer - Keyboard - Sampler) |
| Mainstream popularity: | Small |
| Derivative forms: | Techno music - IDM - Trance - Synth pop - Glitch |
| Subgenres | |
| EBM - Futurepop - Hardcore - Noise | |
| Other topics | |
| Notable artists - List of noise musicians | |
Industrial music is a term that describes a wide range of music, generally mixing rock with samplers and electronic instruments and sounds.
History
Industrial music grew as an offshoot of electronic music known as musique concrète, which was made by manipulating cut sections of recording tape, and adding very early sound output from analog electronics devices. The term Industrial Music was originally coined by Monte Cazazza as the strapline for the record label Industrial Records, founded by British art-provocateurs Throbbing Gristle, the musical offshoot of performance art group COUM Transmissions, and later advanced further through the artistic mastery of projects like Psychic TV or Download. These original artists have very little musical connection with modern "industrial music". Although contemporary to punk rock in the mid-to-late 1970s such as the Sex Pistols, industrial music was more hard hitting, conceptual, thought-provoking and less easy to swallow (being basically experimental, not rock music). Early industrial performances would involve taboo-breaking, provocative elements, often involving self-mutilation, pornography, sado-masochistic elements and totalitarian symbolism.
The term was meant by its creators to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation of people, previous music being more agricultural. Specifically, it referred to the streamlined process by which the music was being made, although many people later interpreted the word as a poetic reference to an "industrial" aesthetic, recalling factories and inhuman machinery.
First wave of industrial music
The first wave of this music appeared in 1973 with Boyd Rice's project, NON, featuring drumbeats and distorted loops. Bands like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and SPK soon followed. Blending electronic synthesisers, guitars and early samplers, these bands created an aggressive and abrasive music fusing elements of rock with experimental electronic music. Like their punk cousins, they enjoyed the use of shock-tactics including explicit lyrical content, graphic art and Fascist imagery. The label Industrial Records controversially used an image of a gas chamber as its logo.
Later, across the Atlantic, similar experiments were soon to take place. In San Francisco, shock/performance artist Monte Cazazza (collaborating with Factrix and Survival Research Labs) created harsh atonal noise. Boyd Rice (aka NON) released several albums of Noise music, with guitar drones and tape loops creating a cacophony of repetitive sounds. In Germany, Einstürzende Neubauten were performing daring acts, mixing metal percussion, guitars and even jackhammers in elaborate stage performances that often damaged the venues they were playing.
In the early 1980s, advances in sampling technology and the popularity of synthesised new wave music bought some industrial musicians greater exposure. As much as some New Wave bands were informed by the experiments of the industrial bands, the original industrial groups also began to refine their sound. Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle experimented with dance beats, and the Cab's (as they were known by fans) album The Crackdown (1983) was released on Virgin Records to some success.
Industrial rock
In the 1980s the more experimental side of industrial music became subsumed into dance and rock music. Psychic TV, formed from the remnants of Throbbing Gristle, released early albums of Acid House music, such as Jack The Tab (1988). In North America, bands such as Skinny Puppy and Ministry mixed shock-rock performances with electronic samples and heavy metal guitars to create a genre often referred to as "industrial rock". Other notable artists in this genre enjoyed widespread mainstream success in the 1990s, including but not limited to Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, White Zombie, and Fear Factory.
Modern industrial music is generally sequenced, making heavy use of FM & digital synths. It is characterized by a deadened snare drum sample and a heavy bass drum sample to a rock or techno beat. Vocals are often distorted and can feature tortured lyrics. The auto-arpeggiate feature of modern synthesizers is used often, to create complex sounding multiple simultaneous arpeggiations from multiple synthesizers which are synchronized with drum machines via MIDI. Reliance on heavy distortion pioneered by heavy metal also typifies the genre. Contemporary industrial music tends to be, but not exclusively, club-oriented
Industrial music today
Today, "Industrial" as a genre name has become largely obsolete. While a few fringe artists are still adhering to the original Industrial Records sound and philosophy, the bulk of the mainstream has fractured into many disparate sub-genres. While most of these sub-genres have roots in the industrial scene of the eighties, they also draw upon other influences, mainly from the electronic music scene. Here is a list of some of the more prominent subgenres. This list is by no means intended to be complete:
Darkwave
Main article: Darkwave
Darkwave is largely a combination of neo-classical, EBM, and synthpop music. It is reasonably popular in Europe, but is also popular in the gothic scene in the U.S.
- Examples: Deine Lakaien, Das Ich, Switchblade Symphony, Cruxshadows
- Labels: Projekt (USA).
Power noise
Power noise (also known as rhythmic noise) takes its inspiration from some of the more rhythmic, distorted early industrial acts, such as Esplendor Geométrico. There are also certain techno and technoid (see below) influences. Typically, power noise involves heavily distorted beats, harsh (but not overwhelming) noise, and is usually instrumental. Sometimes a melodic component is added, but this is almost always secondary to the rhythm. Power noise tracks are typically structured and danceable, but often they are more abstract. This genre is showcased at the annual Maschinenfest festival in Aachen, Germany.
- Examples: Winterkälte, Imminent Starvation, Converter
- Labels: Ant-Zen (Germany), Hands Productions (Germany)
Post-Industrial
A term used by Cold Meat Industry to describe industrial. Post-industrial is not an actual genre, but a new term used to separate industrial from music that is mistaken for industrial. Labels such as Metropolis have blatantly misued the term industrial, slapping it onto bands that fall into genres such as futurepop, EBM, and electronic rock.
- Examples: Mental Destruction, Sanctum
- Labels: Cold Meat Industry
Death industrial
Death industrial is power electronics used to create a dark atmospheric sound. The Grey Wolves are credited for pioneering the style, but the concepts of death industrial were first seen in NON.
- Examples: The Grey Wolves, Brighter Death Now, Godflesh, Swamp Terrorists
- Labels: Cold Meat Industry (Sweden)
Power electronics
Main article: Noise music
This is often confused with powernoise but is completely different. Power electronics is closely related to the noise music scene, and despite the name the music is usually pretty low-tech. It largely consists of screeching waves of feedback and screamed, distorted, often hateful and offensive lyrics. There is no structure or rhythm to power electronics.
- Examples: Whitehouse, The New Blockaders, Sutcliffe Jugend, Masonna, Muskel
- Labels: Come Organisation (UK), Broken Seal (Germany), Alien8 Recordings (Canada)
Martial Industrial
An offshoot of industrial music developing from the original movement's discourse of totalitarian symbolism, militant music involves dark ambient soundscapes in combination wtih martial beats, samples and presentation. The political orientation of many performers of militant music is often intentionally left unclear, but it would appear that in some cases, industrial music's original experimental questioning of totalitarian sounds and symbols has mutated into aesthetic and political affirmation.
- Examples: Les Joyaux de la Princesse, Der Blutharsch, Karjalan Sissit, Folkstorm
- Labels: NER (Australia), Athanor (France)
Notable industrial music artists
See: List of industrial music artists