Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, 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, artists and labels vital to the genre also emerged in the United States and other countries.
Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, later joined by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pioneers of industrial music. Evolving from the experimental performance art group COUM Transmissions, Throbbing Gristle made their public debut in October 1976 in the COUM exhibition Prostitution, and released their debut single "United/Zyklon B Zombie" and debut album The Second Annual Report the following year. P-Orridge's lyrics mainly revolved around mysticism, extremist political ideologies, sexuality, dark or underground aspects of society, and idiosyncratic manipulation of language inspired by the techniques of William S. Burroughs.
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions artistic collective and lead vocalist of seminal industrial band Throbbing Gristle. P-Orridge was also a founding member of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth occult group, and fronted the experimental pop rock band Psychic TV.
Peter Martin Christopherson was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, and former member of British design agency Hipgnosis.
Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderman, Inspiral Carpets, Moby, New Order, Laibach, Nitzer Ebb, Yann Tiersen, Wire, Yeasayer, Fever Ray, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yazoo, and M83.
Psychic TV were an English experimental video art and music group, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson in 1981 after the break-up of Throbbing Gristle.
Boyd Blake Rice is an American composer, performance artist, author and painter. A pioneer of industrial music, Rice was one of the first artists to use a sampler, as well as the second, after John Cage, to use a turntable as an instrument.
Paula P-Orridge, also known as Alaura O'Dell, is an English musician, writer, and entrepreneur.
Ian Dominick Fernow is an American experimental musician, poet and multimedia artist. He is best known for extreme music released under the stage name Prurient, as well as numerous other aliases including Vatican Shadow, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement and Christian Cosmos. His first releases date back to 1998, the same year in which he founded the record label Hospital Productions.
Soleilmoon Recordings is an American record label that began in 1987 as a cassette label, operating from the back of a record shop called the Ooze in Portland, Oregon, US.
Old Europa Cafe is an Italian independent record label and mail order service specializing in ambient music, noise music, electronic music, and industrial music. It is based in Pordenone. Originating in the early 1980s Old Europa Cafe began as a small cassette label. Some of the original Old Europa Cafe artists included De Fabriek, Mauro Teho Teardo, and Brume. According to founder Rodolfo Protti, Old Europa Cafe has two guidelines for musick it releases—uncompromising industrial sounds and esoteric dark ambient styles.
This is a comprehensive discography of the Japanese noise musician Masami Akita, best known for his project Merzbow. Since 1980 he has released hundreds of recordings, collaborated with dozens of musicians, contributed over two hundred exclusive tracks to compilations, and made numerous guest appearances on recordings by other artists.
Force the Hand of Chance is the debut studio album by English experimental group Psychic TV, released in 1982 by record label Some Bizzare. The first 5,000 pressings came with a bonus album, Themes.
Themes 2, also referred to as Themes, Vol. 2, is a studio album by a multimedia collective Psychic TV, released by Temple Records in 1985. It is the second album in the Themes series, predeced by Themes – initially an accompanying release to Force the Hand of Chance – and followed up by Themes 3, and was recorded as a soundtrack for videos by a British filmmaker Derek Jarman.
Thee Majesty was a British industrial music group.
Wesley Eisold is an American musician, poet and author. He records music under the name Cold Cave, and runs the publishing house Heartworm Press.
Crippled Intellect Productions (C.I.P.) is a record label for experimental music based in Chicago, Illinois, and run by the sound artist Blake Edwards. Edwards performs and records under the name Vertonen, and is a member of Anatomy of Habit, Startless, Burrow, and sseepage. The label is known for discovering and supporting artists who are relatively unknown, or who are just starting in their careers. It also publishes work by the artists who inspired Edwards, such as Z'EV, The Hafler Trio, and Crawl Unit.
Merzbow is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by Masami Akita, best known for a style of harsh, confrontational noise. Since 1980, Akita has released over 500 recordings and has collaborated with numerous artists.
Cold Cave is the solo project for musician Wesley Eisold, described as a "collage of darkwave, noise, and synthpop." A number of reviewers note the affinity with early 1980s post-punk and early synthpop, in particular Joy Division and New Order.
