Industrial music
Genesis P-Orridge - Suicide (band) - industry - industrial - machine - noise
Definition
Industrial music is a term that describes a wide range of music, generally mixing rock with samplers and electronic instruments. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_music"Industrial culture? There has been a phenomena; I don't know whether it's strong enough to be a culture. I do think what we did has had a reverberation right around the world and back." Genesis P. Orridge (Throbbing Gristle) [1]I've often thought that somebody really ought to write a history of industrial music. After all, there are histories of reggae, rap, and countless rock, jazz, folk and classical histories. Unfortunately, the best books on industrial music (Re/Search's Industrial Culture Handbook and Charles Neal's Tape Delay) were both written when the genre was still fresh, still on the move, and neither tells us much about where the music came from. A more recent contribution to the field, Dave Thompson's Industrial Revolution suffers from Americocentrism, major omissions, basic errors and from a concentration on electrobeat and industrial rock to the near exclusion of all else. Still, this article isn't that history; that will have to wait for someone better qualified than I. -- 1995, Brian Duguid, http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/articles/precont.html [May 2004]
Books
Charles Neal lived in London for a number of years during the 80s, where he compiled his awesome and definitive collection of interviews called Tape Delay. He now lives in San Francisco where he writes about fine wines and Cognac and runs a company that imports wines from France. Married with two children, Charles has also written two novels. --About the Author via amazon.com
Contributors to Tape Delay include: Marc Almond - Dave Ball - Cabaret Voltaire - Nick Cave - Chris & Cosey - Coil - Einsturzende Neubauten - The Fall - Diamanda Galas - Genesis P. Orridge - Michael Gira - The Hafler Trio - Matt Johnson (The The) - Laibach - Lydia Lunch - New Order - Psychic TV - Boyd Rice - Henry Rollins - Clint Ruin - Sonic Youth - Stevo - Mark Stewart - Swans - Test Dept. - David Tibet (Current 93)
In 1984 author Charles Neal set about interviewing the major protagonists working in sound, word and image. Concentrating on the most challenging and confrontational, he deliberately chose those individuals and groups most at odds with the mainstream. His aim to produce a collection that reflected the cutting edge of the Eighties underground.
With only his tape recorder as defence, he solicited hundreds of hours of interview material, as well as photos, original writing and illustrations. His findings were as intriguing and diverse as the artists included. Often encompassing the taboo and perverse, the opinions of Nick Cave, Genesis P.Orridge and Michael Gira now read like lone voices against the tide of creeping commerciality that abounded in the Eighties music scene.
Those such as Coil, Einsturzende Neubauten and Lydia Lunch are still gnawing away at the boundaries of respectability, while New Order, Sonic Youth and Henry Rollins have become internationally renowned. Clearly, the confrontational legacy of the artists included within Tape Delay’s myriad pages is still visible in today’s musical world, whether it be in the industrial rhythms of Nine Inch Nails or the ambient undercurrents of Orbital or Underworld. Years later, this invaluable collection still makes for fascinating reading both as historical document and as signpost to future actions. --Book Description via amazon.com
English wunderkind Genesis P-Orridge, the artist who founded Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, is a musician, an occultist, and a postmodern religious leader living in exile. In Painful but Fabulous, P-Orridge explicates his multiple identities and incarnations — from performance artist and creator of cyberfuturistic artworks to industrial music maker and icon of the body modification movement. Color and black-and-white photos are included. --amazon.com
Essential library reference guide to the deviant performance artists and musicians of the industrial culture movement. Features Survival Research Laboratories, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, Non, Monte Cazazza, Johanna Went, Sordide Sentimental, R&N, and Z'ev. Some topics discussed: new brain research, forbidden medical texts & films, creative crime and interesting criminals, modern warfare and weaponry, neglected gore films and their directors, psychotic lyrics in past pop songs, art brut. 10 interviews, essays, quotations, chronologies, bibliographies, discographies, filmographies, sources, and index.
The Industrial Culture Handbook is simply a reference guide to the philosophy and interests of a flexible alliance of the following deviant international artists: Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, Z'ev, Non, Monte Cazazza, Mark Pauline, Sordide Sentimental, Johanna Went, and R&N. Most of these artists have been working creatively a decade or longer, in varying degrees of obscurity. The impetus in common is rebellion.
This book has a great introduction by music journalist Jon Savage, but I found the articles/interviews a bit too academic, overlong and quite literally, exhausting. It's hard to believe this book was published 17 years ago - industrial music as a genre only became really popular in the early 90s with Ministry, Nine Inch Nails etc. Of these artists Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey, Cabaret Voltaire, Non, Monte Cazazza, SPK, Z'ev and Johanna Went are listed here on amazon.com. The Reference section at the end of each article is wonderful -- I especially love the Library of Genesis P. Orridge. There is a useful index and an enticing Re/Search Catalog at the end. Those who like confrontational artists like Lydia Lunch, Clint Catalyst and Michelle Tea will find much to appreciate here. This book should be read together with Tape Delay, published at the same time but now hard-to-find and not even listed on amazon. All in all, one of the best Re/Search publications. [...]