Industrial rock is an alternative rock genre that fuses industrial music and rock music.
Industrial metal is the fusion of heavy metal music and industrial music, typically employing repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Prominent industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, KMFDM and Nine Inch Nails.
Ministry is an American rock band founded in 1981 by Al Jourgensen in Chicago, Illinois. Originally a synth-pop outfit, Ministry's sound changed as they became one of the pioneers of industrial metal in the late 1980s. The band's lineup has frequently changed throughout its history, with the exception of Jourgensen who is the band's main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. Notable musicians who have contributed to the band's studio or live activities include vocalists Nivek Ogre, Chris Connelly and Burton C. Bell, guitarists Mike Scaccia and Tommy Victor, bassists Paul Barker, Paul Raven, Jason Christopher, Tony Campos and Paul D'Amour, drummers Bill Rieflin, Martin Atkins, Rey Washam and Roy Mayorga, keyboardist John Bechdel, and rappers/producers DJ Swamp and Arabian Prince.
History
Rieflin began his professional career in his hometown of Seattle. In 1975, he was in The Telepaths, a band which played backup for a couple of live gigs by the pre-The Screamers band The Tupperwares.[2] He played drums for The Blackouts starting in 1979. His bandmates included his brother Raymond, Paul Barker, Roland Barker and Erich Werner. Eventually that band dissolved and Paul Barker joined the nascent Ministry. Rieflin's earliest collaboration with Al Jourgensen was on the second single by the Revolting Cocks, You Often Forget. Later, he participated in the creation of Ministry's ground-breaking album The Land of Rape and Honey. He was noted for his performance in the live video In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (Live) (alongside fellow drummer Martin Atkins). His work with Ministry and its side projects lasted through to the mid-Nineties, though he notes that he was never credited as a member of Ministry proper, always as an "other" musician. Therefore, when he parted ways with the band during the Filth Pig sessions, he did not really quit since he was never an official member.[3]
The Screamers were an American electropunk group founded in 1975. They were among the first wave of the L.A. punk rock scene. The Los Angeles Times applied the label "techno-punk" to the band in 1978. In the documentary Punk: Attitude (2005), the Dead Kennedys cite the Screamers as a key influence on their group and as one of the great unrecorded groups in rock history.
The Blackouts were a punk rock band formed in Seattle in 1979 by singer/guitarist Erich Werner, bassist Mike Davidson, and drummer Bill Rieflin, who were all former members of a local punk band, The Telepaths. They were joined by Roland Barker, first on synthesizer and later on saxophone.
Paul Gordon Barker, also referred to as Hermes Pan, is the former bass guitarist, producer and engineer of the industrial metal band Ministry from 1986 to 2003. Prior to Ministry, Barker provided bass for the Seattle post-punk ensemble The Blackouts alongside future Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin and his brother, one-time Ministry touring keyboardist/saxophonist Roland Barker, from 1979 until 1985.
Rieflin helped Atkins kick off Pigface, the industrial collective that would grow to incorporate hundreds of artists, formed a friendship with labelmateChris Connelly and founded First World Music. Like Connelly, Rieflin's work has grown beyond his industrial roots. They have collaborated on several recordings; two in particular, The Ultimate Seaside Companion (as "The Bells") and Largo, showcase Rieflin's frequently overlooked keyboard skills.
Pigface is an industrial rock supergroup formed in 1990 by Martin Atkins and William Rieflin.
Industrial music is a genre of experimental music which draws on harsh, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments and punk provocation". The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by members of Throbbing Gristle and Monte Cazazza. While the genre name originated with Throbbing Gristle's emergence in the United Kingdom, concentrations of artists and labels vital to the genre also emerged in America, namely in Chicago.
Chris Connelly is a Scottish musician and author who became famous for his industrial music work of the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly his involvement with the Revolting Cocks and Ministry. He has since established himself as an alternative singer-songwriter, and continues to release solo albums.
Living in Seattle gave Rieflin the opportunity to build relationships with other prominent musicians including Robert Fripp and Trey Gunn of King Crimson, Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows, Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM and Peter Buck of R.E.M. Fripp contributed to Rieflin's solo debut, Birth of a Giant, which also featured Rieflin singing in something other than a background role. Improvisations from these sessions turned up later on the CD The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior.
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. As a guitarist for the progressive rock band King Crimson, Fripp has been the only member to have played in all of King Crimson's line-ups from their inception in the late 1960s to the present. He has also worked extensively as a studio musician, notably with David Bowie on the albums "Heroes" and Scary Monsters , Brian Eno, David Sylvian and contributed sounds to the Windows Vista operating system. His complete discography lists more than seven hundred releases over five decades.
Trey Gunn is an American musician, known for his membership in progressive rock band King Crimson from 1994 to 2003, playing Warr Guitar and Chapman Stick.
King Crimson are an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968. King Crimson have been influential both on the early 1970s progressive rock movement and numerous contemporary artists. The band has undergone numerous formations throughout its history, in the course of which 22 musicians have been members; since October 2017 it has consisted of Robert Fripp, Jakko Jakszyk, Tony Levin, Mel Collins, Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison, Jeremy Stacey and Bill Rieflin. Fripp is the only consistent member of the group and is considered the band's leader and driving force. The band has earned a large cult following. They were ranked No. 87 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. Although considered to be a seminal progressive rock band, they have often distanced themselves from the genre: as well as influencing several generations of progressive and psychedelic rock bands, they have also been an influence on subsequent alternative metal, hardcore and experimental/noise musicians.
Rieflin appeared on all KMFDM records released from 1995–2003 as a drummer, programmer, vocalist and keyboardist. He toured with the band as a bassist in 2002 in support of its comeback album, Attak and performed on the 2011 KMFDM album, WTF?!.[4]
The bass guitar is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, except with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses.
Attak is the twelfth studio album by German industrial band KMFDM, released on 19 March 2002 by Metropolis Records. The band's first album following a three-year hiatus, it was the first to feature member Lucia Cifarelli and the last to feature member Tim Sköld.
He also drummed for McCaughey's band, The Minus 5, which occasionally included guitarist Peter Buck. Eventually Buck offered Rieflin the opportunity to sit in with R.E.M., who were missing a permanent drummer since the 1997 departure of Bill Berry.[citation needed] The band gave him the live drummer slot in its 2003 tour.[5] They later announced that Rieflin would fill the role indefinitely, though once again as a hired musician rather than as an official member. In recordings, Rieflin also contributed bouzouki, keyboards and guitars to the group, serving as an auxiliary member until R.E.M. disbanded in 2011.
Rieflin formed an experimental ensemble under the name Slow Music in 2005 (including Fripp and Buck) in which he plays synthesizers rather than drums. As the name suggests, its approach is geared toward the musicians leaving space for each other and doing a lot with few notes. All performances are improvised. The group played a small handful of live dates in 2005 and 2006 and went inactive for several years.
Rieflin is involved in a music collaboration project entitled The Humans, which consists of him, Chris Wong, Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox. The band performed a series of live dates in Estonia in Autumn 2007 and 2009, and released their debut album We are the Humans on May 1, 2009. Another album came in 2013, followed by a small series of double-bill shows with Slow Music in spring of 2014.
Rieflin has been a regular contributor to Swans since the 1995 album The Great Annihilator, and has played an array of instruments on all their studio recordings since the band reformed in 2010 and released My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky. (He is listed as an "honorary Swan" on The Seer).
In 2012, Rieflin performed drums for Robbie Williams's album Take The Crown. Later that year he produced the single Crush Vaccine for Atomic Bride. On December 15, 2012, Rieflin performed live with Atomic Bride for a sold-out show at Crocodile Cafe in downtown Seattle.
In an online diary entry dated September 6, 2013, Robert Fripp announced a new lineup for King Crimson that included Rieflin as one of the band's three drummers.[6] A few days after the first full-length live release of the band with Rieflin on board (Live in Toronto 2015), Fripp announced Rieflin's decision to take a sabbatical from the band, effective March 6, 2016, "a decision supported by all the Crimson Brothers."[7] In early 2017, Fripp announced that Rieflin would be returning alongside of his replacement, Jeremy Stacey. Due to Fripp's desire to stave off complacency after several years of touring, Rieflin "will be focusing on mellotron, keys and fairy dusting, rather than using drums as a main instrument" in the new Double Quartet configuration,[8] thus becoming the band's first full-time keyboardist ever. For the US Autumn 2017 tour dates in October–November, he was replaced by the Seattle-based musician Chris Gibson.[9] He rejoined in 2018, and took again an indefinite sabbatical starting in 2019.
Discography
Key
Indicates a live release
Name of release year, artist, release title and Rieflin's contribution
KMFDM is a German industrial band from Hamburg led by multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project.
Nihil is the eighth studio album by German industrial band KMFDM, released on 4 April 1995 by Wax Trax! Records. The album marked the return of former band member Raymond Watts and the first appearance of journeyman drummer Bill Rieflin, and was mostly written by frontman Sascha Konietzko, who emphasized a less guitar-driven sound.
"Money" is a song by industrial rock group KMFDM from their 1992 album of the same name. It was released as a single in 1992, and released as a 7" in 2008, as the ninth release of KMFDM's 24/7 series. The song charted at No. 36 in July 1992 on Billboard's Dance/Club Play Songs Chart. The tracks on the single are included on the singles compilation album, Extra, Vol. 1.
Angst is the seventh studio album by German industrial band KMFDM, released on 13 October 1993 by Wax Trax! Records.
Wax Trax! Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago. It began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado, opened by life partners Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, who sold the store in 1978 and moved to Chicago. In November of that year, they opened a store under the same name in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. During the 1980s and 1990s, the accompanying record label became a presence on the new wave and punk rock scenes in the city, and an outlet for European bands. The label was purchased in 1992 by TVT Records and was discontinued in 2001. In 2014, it was re-established by Julia Nash, daughter of co-founder Jim Nash.
Xtort is the ninth studio album by German industrial band KMFDM, released on 25 June 1996 by Wax Trax! Records. It was recorded from the end of 1995 through early 1996, shortly after the death of Wax Trax! co-founder and band friend Jim Nash. Xtort features a variety of guest artists from the industrial music scene and studio musicians from other genres, but includes limited participation from core member En Esch.
Naïve is the fifth studio album by German industrial band KMFDM, released on 15 November 1990 by Wax Trax! Records. It was recorded following KMFDM's return from their first visit to America and subsequent tour with Ministry.
The Power to Believe is the thirteenth studio album by English progressive rock band King Crimson. It was released on 4 March 2003 through Sanctuary Records and was met with generally favorable reviews, with several critics appreciating its heightened aggression. The Power to Believe was preceded by the companion studio EP Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With (2002), which features alternate and otherwise unreleased tracks.
Beers, Steers + Queers is the second studio album by American–Belgian industrial rock band Revolting Cocks. Released in May 1990, the album was supported by three singles and was reissued several times. Its sound is industrial and built upon repetitive percussion and samples. David Jeffries of AllMusic described Beers, Steers + Queers as dominating college radio and clubs. The album's supporting tour was recalled by Chris Connelly as "ridiculous" and particularly chaotic.
Sin Sex & Salvation (1994), is an EP released by KMFDM and Raymond Watts. The artist for it is usually listed as KMFDM vs. PIG.
"Juke Joint Jezebel" is a song by industrial rock group KMFDM from their 1995 album Nihil. It is KMFDM's most widely known song to date, with around three million copies of the song sold in various forms.
The Great Annihilator is the ninth studio album by American experimental rock band Swans. It was released on January 23, 1995, through frontman Michael Gira's own record label, Young God. The album has been described by Gira as a companion album to his solo album Drainland (1995); the two were remastered and re-released together in April 2017.
"Larks' Tongues in Aspic" is a suite of music by the English progressive rock band King Crimson. Spanning thirty years and four albums, the series comprises five parts, all of which carry unifying musical motifs. Parts I and II were released as the introductory and final tracks on King Crimson's 1973 album of the same name, part III was featured on their 1984 album Three of a Perfect Pair, part IV appeared on 2000's The Construkction of Light, and the final part, "Level Five", was included on the 2003 album The Power to Believe. Despite breaking the naming convention, Robert Fripp, King Crimson founder and only constant contributor to the suite, insists that "Level Five" is part of the pentalogy.
Whiplash Boychild is the solo debut album by Scottish musician and singer-songwriter Chris Connelly, who is best known for his work for bands such as Ministry, The Revolting Cocks, and Pigface. It was released in 1991 through Wax Trax! Records. The album also features session contributions from drummer William Rieflin, and bass guitarist Stuart Zechman, who later reunited with Connelly on his next album, Phenobarb Bambalam (1992).
Live in Chicago, or Official Bootleg: Live In Chicago, June 28th, 2017, is a live album by the English progressive rock band King Crimson, released through Discipline Global Mobile records on 14 October 2017. The album was recorded on 28 June at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago, Illinois during the band's 2017 United States tour. It is the first full-length release by the eight-piece incarnation of the band and features new and altered compositions.
Live in Vienna, or Live in Vienna, December 1st, 2016, is a triple-disc live album by the English progressive rock band King Crimson, originally released in a limited capacity in Japan as Live in Vienna 2016 + Live in Tokyo 2015 on 27 September 2017. The expanded album, just titled Live in Vienna, was released through Discipline Global Mobile on 6 April 2018.
Meltdown: Live in Mexico City is a Blu-ray and triple-disc CD live album by the English progressive rock band King Crimson. Recorded over five nights in July 2017, Meltdown was released on 20 October 2018 and was produced by Bill Rieflin from multitrack recordings. The release was announced in August 2018 and was preceded by streaming of the track "Indiscipline" on 4 October.
↑ Propellor Time (CD liner notes). Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3. Sartorial Records. 2010. FIT 047. Retrieved December 28, 2018.CS1 maint: others (link)
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