Monthly Archive for December, 2006

This, for me, is where much of it began.

I remember being at Planet nightclub in Perth, circa mid-1995, and hearing ‘Cuz It’s Hot’. Particularly the ‘Thrill Kill, Thrill Kill’ refrain. I felt like I had found my way into a new, underground universe full of tantalizing possibility. Perhaps I had.

As it happened, the mid-90s were an odd time for industrial dance music. In the mainstream music world, guitar music was utterly dominant. The sounds of 80s of new wave and electronica couldn’t have been further from vogue. Depeche Mode had released their most rock-oriented album ever, and the industrial music that was successful in the public eye was save for the odd remix entirely guitar dominated (Nine Inch Nails, Ministry). Dance music was of course going from strength to strength at the time, but filled an entirely different musical niche from the song based rock that dominated the charts. Pure, electronic, industrial music, seemed to fit nowhere.

Surprising then, just how busy the industrial ‘scene’ was at the time. The demand for quality releases arguably outstripped supply. Of course at the time it was difficult to ascertain just how closely supply reflected production – the internet was some years away from being able to complement existing distribution networks, and the labels that did exist were small affairs. Enthusiasts generally had to fork out large amounts for imported CDs with little prior guarantee of the quality of their purchases.

The use of (predominantly sampled) guitar was popular at the time, particularly evident in Stateside releases, but also apparent on European releases, where a strictly electronic ethic had dominated through the 80s with bands such as Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb (who also started releasing guitar albums at the time). Canadian legends Front Line Assembly put out “Millennium”, an album that was by their own admission Pantera-inspired industrial metal. Whilst the album did in reality have some interesting electronic tracks underneath the veil of youth-dollar baiting guitar crunch, things were perhaps looking grim for electronic purists.

Nonetheless, electronic industrial music continued to be made. It was a time when Claus Larsen and his project Leaether Strip came to the fore, followed soon by contemporaries such as Rudy Ratzinger of Wumpscut. The releases that were produced at this time were, suffice to say, particularly harsh and abrasive sounding. It perhaps is not surprising that the first manifestations of the music that was to become futurepop emerged around this time.

And yet there were many tracks released from 1990 through to 1995 that grew to become classics. Not all the tracks in this mix are such, though a handful appear (Strap Me Down (perhaps -the- track of this era) and Soylent Green – a track that often seemed to me about the most danceable thing ever committed to record).

Perhaps though, much of this music was at least in one sense ahead of its’ time. I hope this set demonstrates how well much of this music could work in the context of a mix. As far as I am aware, bar the odd faltering effort one or twice a night at a club, no one was mixing industrial music in the mid-90s. A track would be played, people would move onto the dance floor if they liked it, and then move off again (unfortunately, in many industrial clubs, not much has changed). Each piece of music therefore had to stand or fall as a lone entity. As such, looking back on this era its easy to focus on the hits – and there were many that don’t appear here. But in between, there is a rich body of material that, whilst not always of the classic mould, represents a creative and challenging output that is arguably underrated in the annals of alternative music.

The early to mid 90s was an era dominated, at least for Australian listeners, by the releases of US label Cleopatra records (long since trumped more than decisively by Metropolis). Cleopatra’s releases were of variable quality at best – but you had, then as now, to take the good with the bad – and there was gold to be found for those prepared to look.

It was a time dominated by compilations. Arguably two of the biggest of Cleopatra’s compilations at the time were their ‘Industrial Revolution’ series, and the ‘Enchantments’ release. Many of the tracks in this mix are lifted from these sources.

Strap Me Down Leaether Strip 130.8 5:36 Solitary Confinement 1993 http://www.discogs.com/release/17305 Soylent Green (Extended Version) Wumpscut 122 7:14 Music For A Slaughtering Tribe 1997 http://www.discogs.com/release/17178 Resist Front Line Assembly 128 5:26 Caustic Grip 1990 http://www.discogs.com/release/13146 Blue Nine (Free Me Mix) Penal Colony 131.3 5:41 Enchantments 1995 http://www.discogs.com/release/171785 Kick To Kill Noise Unit 131 4:06 Enchantments 1995 http://www.discogs.com/release/171785 Klute / Desert Storm [Remix] Industrial Revolution – Second edition 187.6 4:04 Industrial Revolution – Second edition [Disc 1] 1994 http://www.discogs.com/release/351949 Subjection (Violent Mix) Lights of Euphoria 186.8 4:58 Enchantments 1993 / 1995 http://www.discogs.com/release/171785 Electric Chair Ultraviolence 162.5 3:49 Life of Destructor 1994 http://www.discogs.com/release/95541 Religion (Bass Under Siege Prodigy Mix) Front 242 148 4:41 Mut@ge Mix@ge 1995 http://www.discogs.com/release/26036 Gave Up (Remixed by Coil with Danny Hyde) Nine Inch Nails 143.5 5:25 Fixed 1992 http://www.discogs.com/release/809121 Division Digital Poodle 140 5:59 Industrial Revolution – Second edition [Disc 1] 1994 http://www.discogs.com/release/351949 Murderous Nitzer Ebb 131.2 5:43 That Total Age 1987 http://www.discogs.com/release/37317 The Bog Bigod 20 129.4 3:35 DJ Hell – Electronicbody-Housemusic 1990 / 2002 http://www.discogs.com/release/63287 Burn Baby Burn Blok 57 124 3:40 Blok 57 1992 http://www.discogs.com/release/256556 Deadlines Skinny Puppy 110.4 5:54 Industrial Virus (Box Set) 1985 / 1997 http://www.discogs.com/release/126997 Feurio! [Remix] Einsturzende Neubauten / 128.7 4:49 Industrial Revolution – Second edition [Disc 1] 1990 / 1994 http://www.discogs.com/release/351949 A Daisy Chain 4 Satan My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult 125.8 6:22 ‘Cuz It’s Hot’ 1990 http://www.discogs.com/release/207883 Death to censorship Psychopomps 121.3 4:51 Industrial Revolution – Second edition [Disc 1] 1993 / 1994 http://www.discogs.com/release/351949

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