Archive for the industrial tag

Recoil: Faith Healer

Tuesday. Tuesday...I never thought next Tuesday would ever happen. Way back in the wee days of the internet, I was on the Recoil official mailing list--back when that meant daily emails of conversing with other fans, and sometimes Alan Wilder himself, who is surprisingly approachable for someone who used to be a very key member in one of the most important electronic bands ever.

We begged, and begged, but he said it couldn't be done. Recoil could never tour, could never even do a live show... there were just too many people involved. We couldn't expect him to actually pack Douglas McCarthy, Toni Halliday, Moby, Maggie Estep, Siobhan Lynch, Nicole Blackman, Samantha Coerbell, Hildia Cambell, and Diamanda Galás all on a tour bus. Oh come on, we could dream, right?

I guess Alan changed his mind, because he's on tour, and he's coming to The Metro on Tuesday night with Gary Numan. After a LOT of digging around, I was able to discern that he actually accomplished this by bringing no vocalists at all; in their place is film, with imagery chosen specifically for each piece. It's not Diamanda Galás and Douglas McCarthy hanging out on a bus, but I'll take what I can get.

Though nearly impossible given all the options, I choose Recoil's first single and most well-known track, a cover of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's "Faith Healer" featuring Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) from Bloodline*. I can't say it's a good representation of Recoil, because each album and even each song is a work of art that stands on its own, ranging from vintage Bukka White placed over minimal electro and Maggie Estep's hilarious spoken words to Diamanda Galás screeching in tongues and Toni Halliday screaming hate over industrial like nothing you'd ever imagine listening to her spacerocky Curve albums. And I'm not even touching on the whole plane-crash-as-concept-album thing...

official website
buy Bloodline on Amazon.com

*trivia: Foetus also covered this song on Rife, ergo this track is often mistaken for a Foetus cover, not to say that Thirwell's version didn't influence this one.

Tribute to Gary Numan: Radio Heart + My Jesus

Tonight we celebrate the career of electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, and we'll be giving away tickets to his show at Metro on Tuesday. He'll be playing his signature album Pleasure Principle in it's entirety. Also playing: the amazing and beyond definition Recoil (which I'll blog about this weekend), and Daniel Myer project Architect, rounding out the lineup appropriately with a little noisy techno-industrial.

Radio Heart was a project of Hugh Nicholson, a friend of Gary Numan's. Elton John and Ray Cooper also contributed vocals on various tracks, but the three songs featuring Numan are by far the best on the album. The single "Radio Heart", released in 1987, is far more mainstream pop than his own output, and likewise achieved more chart success than Numan had on his own at the time.

My favorite Gary Numan album does not come from his smashing glam-meets-new wave '80s-era work, but his 2000 release Pure. Following in the wake of his wife's repeated miscarriages, Numan took a page from Trent Reznor's book (and one he himself inspired, no less), and wrote an industrial-inspired epic of pain and scathing religious commentary, as exemplified in "My Jesus".

official website
buy Gary Numan at Amazon.com

Ministry: Same Old Madness

So, you all know industrial gods Ministry. Most of you are familiar with the likes of "So What," "Stigmata" and "Jesus Built My Hotrod." You're even pretty familiar with the first Ministry album With Sympathy, which you're afraid to admit that you like better than the rest of their work. You wish Al Jourgensen would have kept hanging out with Depeche Mode (I kid!) for more fake British accent and made more records like this.

But HEY! You can take one more trip down that synthy route that they were known for at the time with this unreleased single "Same Old Madness."

This track still has not seen an official release. It was originally supposed to see light in 1982 as the band's second single following "Cold Life." The song was recorded and a video was filmed (partially at Chicago's Metro, as legend has it) until Ministry decided to move to Arista Records for the release of With Sympathy.

Sidenote: Angry Biker Al in the video? MMM, what a treat.

Ministry at Amazon.com

Give thanks for Nitzer Ebb!

Ok, so… it's a bit hypocritical for me to post this, I'll admit it. I mostly make fun of Nitzer Ebb; I have food related parody vocals for most of their songs. I hardly need to put much effort into it with stuff like this on their Wikipedia page: "Nitzer Ebb began when Bon Harris and David Gooday asked Douglas McCarthy to sing in their band. They shared an interest in witchcraft, talking to trees, and collecting runestones in Chelmsford and Little Baddow"

Talking to trees?

But I can't deny their influence, which is rampant everywhere from synthpop to Detroit techno and, of course, the industrial and EBM scenes that they had a hand in founding. Their style sounded very dated to me 10 years ago, but now the minimalism sounds fresh--all things come back again, of course.

I choose to post "Let Your Body Learn" from 1987's That Total Age release because to me, it relates well to new wave [and I'm sure the influence goes both ways]. I'm also including a new track from Neon Electronics vs The Hacker that I've been playing alongside various Nitzer Ebb tracks the last few weeks; it's a fantastic modern example of their continuing impact on electronic music and instantly got a warm reception on the dance floor.

We're thrilled to be giving away tickets to their upcoming concert on Thanksgiving night. Though lacking in trees, Nitzer Ebb put on a great live show, and I'm sure they won't disappoint. Opening for them is my absolute favorite local-Chicago-via-way-of-Detroit band Kill Memory Crash, and if you haven't seen them, get there early--you will be blown away. I've posted their song "Demento", also wearing a bit of Nitzer Ebb inspiration, from their 2004 album American Automatic. They have new stuff and it's amazing, but still unreleased so you'll have to listen to my radio show if you want to hear it.

See you on Thanksgiving night, and see you at the Nitzer Ebb show!

Amazon's Nitzer Ebb Store
Neon Electronics vs The Hacker
Kill Memory Crash on Amazon

Atomic Halloween Mix 2009

I made a quick mix this afternoon, loosely based on my sets at our costume contest Thursday night. Have a great Halloween!

photo by Jason Ernst, wildharedesigns.com

Tracklisting:
Human League: Darkness
Anne Clark: Sleeper In Metropolis
Cabaret Voltaire: Yashar [John Robie Mix]
Ministry: Everyday is Halloween
Animotion: Obsession
Duran Duran: Wild Boys
Depeche Mode: Personal Jesus [Pump Mix]
Michael Jackson: Thriller [DiscoTech Remix]
Front 242: Welcome To Paradise

Portion Control: The Great Divide

Portion Control are one of the most influential artists in the canon of  electronic music, and name-checked by some of the biggest underground artists in electronic music, including Front 242, Skinny Puppy, and Depeche Mode.  Even Trent Reznor cited them recently as a major influence.  Yet for some reason, Portion Control are still virtually unknown to many; which is a crime, because they wrote some of the best hard rhythmic electronic anthems ever during the years of 1982-1986.
This south London trio started their rhythmic chaos in 1980.  Their earliest cassettes resembled  sounds of layered cut up industrial noise that the geniuses Cabaret Voltaire manipulated.  As PC progressed further, their sound got harder.  Imagine if you will the furious noise of Throbbing Gristle spliced into the electro funk of Grand Master Flash. Combine hard analogue keyboards with propulsive beats, noises, but several melodic elements. Add Dean Piavani's voice, rather punk and gruff to contrast the cold machines. It's the perfect foil that gave rise to a new genre of music coined by the UK music press in '84, "electro punk".

However, it was 1985 when Portion Control flirted with possible stardom with the seminal 12 inch single, The Great Divide.  What was so great about this song was that it bridged a gap musically to very diverse sub-cultures. Nihilistic post-industrialists, B-Boy rappers, punk rockers, and house DJs all were mesmerized by how Portion Control used and abused the beat.  In fact, back in the day, the cool kids used to break dance in the clubs to the "The Great Divide."  Even to this day, one can go to a club, and chances are the DJ might have a copy of "The Great Divide".  In 1986, after the release of "Psycho-Bod Saves the World,"  they stopped recording music under the name, and tried a different project called Solar Enemy. The legend grew around the band only for them to re-surface in 2004.  Since their return to 'rapid response electronics,'  Portion Control has been very busy releasing a double album, two full lengths, EPs, and a 7" rebuild version of one of their biggest hits, "Chew You To Bits.   There are some people that would argue that Portion Control are better than ever.  The counting continues once more.

Portion Control on iTunes