| Electro-industrial | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Electronic body music, post-industrial, synthpop |
| Cultural origins | Mid-1980s Belgium, Canada, France, and Germany |
| Typical instruments | Synthesizer, drum machine, sequencer, keyboard, sampler, electric guitar (infrequently) |
| Mainstream popularity | Low. With a recent revival early 2010s specially in the US. |
| Derivative forms | Dark electro, aggrotech |
(complete list) |
|
| Fusion genres | |
| Power noise | |
| Other topics | |
| Industrial metal - IDM - Dark ambient | |
Electro-industrial is a music genre drawing on EBM and post-industrial 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).
Contents |
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); Leæther Strip[14] from Denmark;[15] and early Hocico, Cenobita and Amduscia 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 and Android Lust.
Aggrotech (also known as Hellektro,[1] Harsh EBM, or Terror EBM) is a variation of electro-industrial with a strong influence from the rave scene that first surfaced in the mid 1990s. Aggrotech was the name of a San Francisco club in 1990, where DJs played industrial noise. Various installations at Aggrotech events were created to encourage the few people who were creating abstract art and computer generated artwork which, at the time, was beyond the budget of most underground music fans. This club was the blueprint for many "goth-industrial" nights to come, where the focus on dancing and music was shared with art galleries and physical performances. The club only lasted about a year, after which the owners of the now defunct club put out an Aggrotech magazine for a few months in 1991. The magazine featured reporting on some of the early bands influenced by industrial music, but no one involved ever referred to the music itself as "aggrotech". Beyond the name of the club, it has very little to do with the music currently dubbed as aggrotech.
Aggrotech regularly consists of harsh song structures, aggressive beats, and explicit, pessimistic, militant lyrics. Typically the vocals are distorted and pitch-shifted to sound harsh, and synthetic. Aggrotech musicians include Aesthetic Perfection, Hocico, Dulce Liquido, Suicide Commando, X-Fusion, Tactical Sekt, Amduscia, Agonoize, Psyclon Nine, Combichrist, Unter Null, Life Cried, Distorted Memory, Nurzery Rhymes, C-Lekktor, Virtual Embrace, DYM, Acylum, FGFC820, Allied Vision, Funker Vogt, Unter Null, The Retrosic, Nachtmahr, Reaper, God Module, Aslan Faction, Grendel, Tamtrum, Wynardtage, aktivehate, Feindflug, C-Drone-Defect, Panic Lift, Cenobita, Dawn of Ashes, Detroit Diesel, A7ie, Alien Vampires, and Die Sektor. Out of Line and Noitekk are German aggrotech labels. Alfa Matrix is a Belgian aggrotech/dark electro/synthpop label.
|
|||||||||||