| Electro-industrial | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Electronic body music, industrial music, darkwave, electro music |
| Cultural origins | Mid-1980s Belgium, Canada, France, and Germany |
| Typical instruments | Synthesizer - Drum machine - Sequencer - Keyboard - Sampler - electric guitar (infrequently) |
| Mainstream popularity | Low |
| Derivative forms | Dark electro Aggrotech |
| Fusion genres | |
| Power noise | |
| Other topics | |
| Industrial metal - IDM - Dark ambient | |
Electro-industrial is a music genre drawing on EBM and industrial music that developed in the mid-1980s. While EBM has a minimal structure and clean production, electro-industrial has a deep, complex and layered sound. The style was pioneered by Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, and other groups, either from Canada or the Benelux. In the mid-'90s, the style spawned the dark electro and aggrotech offshoots.[1] The fan base for the style is linked to the rivethead[1] subculture (although not everyone who primarily listens to industrial is a rivethead).
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After the EBM movement faded in the early 1990s, electro-industrial increasingly attained popularity in the international club scene. In contrast to the straight EBM style, electro-industrial groups use harsher beats and raspy, distorted, or digitized vocals. In contrast to industrial rock, electro-industrial groups avoid guitars.[2]
Electro-industrial was anticipated by 1980s groups such as SPK,[1][3] Die Form, Klinik, Skinny Puppy,[4][5] and Front Line Assembly.[5][6] Prominent electro-industrial groups of the 1990s include Android Lust, Mentallo and the Fixer, and Velvet Acid Christ (U.S.);[7] Controlled Fusion, Forma Tadre, Haujobb,[8] In Strict Confidence, wumpscut:,[9][10][11] and X Marks the Pedwalk (Germany); Download,[12] Decoded Feedback, Numb[13] (Canada); and Leæther Strip,[14] from Denmark,[15] and early Hocico, from Mexico.
Noise rock groups, such as Wolf Eyes, have also been associated with the label.[16] In the mid-'90s, some electro-industrial groups added guitars and became associated with industrial metal; other groups, such as Download and Haujobb, have incorporated elements of drum and bass and IDM.
Skinny Puppy took inspiration from Nocturnal Emissions, Portion Control, and The Legendary Pink Dots.[17][18] Critic Jason Ankeny has also noted Skinny Puppy's debts to Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, and Cabaret Voltaire.[19]
As in most industrial music, many electro-industrial groups tend to feature themes of control, dystopia, and science fiction. Electro-industrial groups sometimes take aesthetic inspiration from horror films, including The Exorcist[20] and the work of Roman Polanski,[21] and the science fiction films Blade Runner and Alien.
Dark electro is a similar style, developed in the mid-1990s in central Europe. The term describes groups such as yelworC[22] and Placebo Effect,[1] and was first used in December 1992 with the album announcement of Brainstorming, yelworC's debut.[23] The style was inspired by the electro-industrial of The Klinik and Skinny Puppy. Compositions included horror soundscapes, and grunts or distorted vocals. YelworC were a music group from Munich, formed in 1988. They laid the foundations of the dark electro movement in the early 1990s, and were the first artist on the German label Celtic Circle Productions. In subsequent years, dark electro was displaced by techno-influenced styles such as aggrotech and futurepop.[1] Other groups to practice the style included Trial, Evil's Toy, GGFH (Disease), Ice Ages & The Electric Hellfire Club.
Aggrotech (also known as hellektro,[1] or Terror EBM) is an evolution of electro-industrial and dark electro with a strong influence from hardcore techno that first surfaced in the mid-1990s. Its sound is typified by harsh song structures, aggressive beats and lyrics of a militant, pessimistic or explicit nature. Typically, the vocals are distorted and pitch-shifted to sound hoarse, harsh and synthetic. Aggrotech artists include Aghast View, Aesthetic Perfection, Unter Null, Alien Vampires, Amduscia, Agonoize, Psyclon Nine, Die Sektor, Combichrist[24][25][26][27], Hocico, Virtual Embrace, Tactical Sekt, Funker Vogt, God Module, Grendel, Aslan Faction, Tamtrum, Asphyxia, Retraktor, Feindflug, Cenobita, Dawn of Ashes, Detroit Diesel, Suicide Commando, X-Fusion, Wumpscut, Cruciform Injection Forgotten Futures and Freakangel. NoiTekk and Out of Line are both German aggrotech labels. Alfa Matrix is a Belgian aggrotech/dark electro/synthpop label.
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