Studio d'essai xi – industrial
This week, we talk about industrial music with Tim.
We mentioned Throbbing Gristle as the founders of the genre. FACT magazine recently had them in first position of their top 100 albums of the seventies. Here is a bit of an interview with FACT magazine, that we did not get to read during the show:
Chris Carter:
At that time, in the 1970s and the early 1980s, we didn’t have a conceptual masterplan for ‘Industrial Music’. I think the conceptualisation of the genre evolved post TG break-up, when music journalists such Jon Savage, Sandy Robertson and later Simon Reynolds wrote pieces analysing, deconstructing and conceptualising what TG were and had achieved. However… reflecting now, well, as far as we were concerned anyway, the ‘Industrial Music’ concept was broadly anything produced by ourselves and anything released on our label Industrial Records. But for many fans of the contemporary Industrial scene there lies the problem. Our definition of ‘Industrial’ then was a very broad one, it’s definitely not so much now.
Cosey Fanni Tutti:
At the time 20 Jazz… was released there was an emerging feeling that our mission as such had served its purpose. Industrial music then was very different to the genre it has become. As far as I was concerned I knew in my gut what ‘Industrial’ meant and my notion of it was diversity but within the parameters of the Industrial ethos – which was self-defining due to the ongoing exploratory and experiential nature of our working practice. That’s why it was prudent to analyse the concept after its termination. Definitions and analysis would have placed unacceptable limitations on the creative process.
- Throbbing Gristle - Walkabout (20 Jazz Funk Greats, Industrial Records, 1979, England)
- Throbbing Gristle - United (D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle, Industrial Records, 1978, England)
- Kraftwerk - Spacelab (Die Mensch-Maschine, EMI Electrola / Kling Klang, 1978, Germany)
- Skinny Puppy - Two Time Grime (Rabies, Nettwerk, 1989 (remastered in 2001), Canada)
- Egyptrixx – Ax//s (intro) (A/B Til Infinity, Night Slugs, 2013, Canada)
- Amnesia Scanner – AS SEMBLY (not yet released, 2014, ) {listen on Soundcloud}
- M.I.A. – Steppin’ Up (_/\/\ /\ Y /_, XL Recordings, 2010, England / Sri Lanka)
- Azealia Banks - Yung Rapunxel (Broke with Expensive Taste, not yet released, USA)
- Gesaffelstein – Hate or Glory (Aleph, Parlophone, 2013, France)
- MYTHS – Prism Portraits (MYTHS, self-released, 2011, Canada)
- Pharmakon – Crawling On Bruised Knees (Abandon, Sacred Bones Records, 2013, USA)