Meat Beat Manifesto | |
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![]() Meat Beat Manifesto live in 2008 | |
Background information | |
Origin | Swindon, [1] Wiltshire, England |
Genres | |
Years active | 1987–present |
Labels | Mute, [2] Wax Trax!, Nothing, Brainwashed, Thirsty Ear, [3] Planet Mu, Tino Corp. |
Members | Jack Dangers Lynn Farmer Mark Pistel Benjamin Stokes |
Past members | Marcus Adams Colin James Craig Morrison Mike Powell Jonny Stephens Jon Wilson Simon Collins |
Website | www |
Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened as Meat Beat, Manifesto or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens that was formed in 1987 in Swindon, United Kingdom. The band, fronted by Dangers (the only permanent member), has proven versatile over the years, experimenting with techno, breakbeat, industrial, dub and jazz fusion while touring the world and influencing major acts such as Nine Inch Nails, the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy. [4] Some of the band's earlier work has been credited with influencing the rise of the trip hop, big beat, and drum and bass genres. [5]
Dangers and Stephens had formed the English pop group Perennial Divide in 1986 with Paul Freeguard and released the first few Meat Beat Manifesto singles as a side project. The first release under the Meat Beat name was 1987's Suck Hard EP on Sweat Box Records. [6] They left Perennial Divide in 1988 to record a full Meat Beat album. The tapes of what would have been the debut MBM album were claimed to have been destroyed in a studio fire before it could be released (detailed in a publicity statement). The former founder of Sweat Box Records (Rob Deacon) said that the fire never happened. Jack Dangers confirmed the story of the fire in a 2010 interview. [1] The pair then recorded the LP Storm The Studio , which got them pigeonholed as an industrial act [7] because Sweat Box Records sold the rights to the LP to Wax Trax Records for release in the United States. [4] In response, they released 99% in May 1990, which was more techno-influenced and characterized by heavy beats and ubiquitous samples. [6] In August they released Armed Audio Warfare , which was an effort to re-create the lost tracks of the would-be début album.
The band's live show was conceived as an intense audio-visual experience, with dancers, led by choreographer Marcus Adams, in costumes and sets designed by artist Craig Morrison [8] and video clips accompanying live instruments, sequenced electronic instruments, and live DJing. In the United States, they opened for Nine Inch Nails on their debut national tour in 1990. [9] In 1991, they performed at The Limelight in Manhattan [10] [11] and toured North America with Consolidated. [6] Despite his contributions being nonmusical in nature, Adams was credited as a full band member and appeared in many of the band's record sleeves and promo photos until the release of Satyricon in 1992. Adams also appeared in several of MBM's early videos, such as "Strapdown" and "Psyche-Out".
1992's Satyricon continued to show Meat Beat adopting a more mainstream electronic sound, crediting influences of such newly popular dance bands as Orbital, The Shamen, and The Orb, all of whom had either remixed or been remixed by MBM. The album produced the hits "Mindstream" and "Circles". "Original Control (Version 2)", renamed "I Am Electro" in later compilations, is the best-known track from the album, featuring samples of recordings from the 1939 World's Fair exhibit Elektro The Robot, and was the opening song in MBM's 2005–2006 tour.
In 1993, Dangers relocated from England to San Francisco, resulting in Stephens' departure from the band. At this time, Nothing Records was founded as an imprint of Interscope with the purpose of signing industrial and electronic bands to capitalize on the recent success of Nine Inch Nails. [12] Nothing, helmed by Trent Reznor, signed Meat Beat Manifesto and in 1996 the double album Subliminal Sandwich was released. While this album represented MBM's major-label debut, it failed to achieve the critical and commercial successes of previous releases. The album is notable for the last appearance of Jonny Stephens who contributed guitar on the track Asbestos Lead Asbestos. After Subliminal Sandwich, Dangers put together an album called Original Fire that collected various studio rarities, B-sides, and fan favorites from the early years of MBM, in addition to some new remixes of the material. Also in 1996, the group contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip produced by the Red Hot Organization.
In 1997, Dangers recruited drummer Lynn Farmer and multi-instrumentalist John Wilson (MBM member 1995–1998, former Supreme Love Gods) to record and release Actual Sounds + Voices in 1998, which found the group's earlier flirtations with jazz fusion featured more prominently; the record included appearances by saxophonist Bennie Maupin. The album yielded the single "Prime Audio Soup" which was featured in the film The Matrix and its soundtrack. While Jon Wilson left the band prior to the 1998–1999 tour, Farmer remains with the band as of Spring 2007. Wilson was replaced by former Consolidated programmer Mark Pistel, who also remains a contributing member.
During these years, Dangers contributed a pair of remixes to high-profile Nine Inch Nails releases Closer to God and The Perfect Drug . After the release of Actual Sounds + Voices, Meat Beat Manifesto was let go by Nothing Records and once more appeared on independent labels.
In 2000, Dangers released a 12" MBM EP of four new songs called Eccentric Objects which demonstrated a shift in Dangers' output towards simpler song structure and less sonically dense layering. This evolution in form was full realized two years later, in 2002, with the release of Meat Beat Manifesto's seventh full-length album, RUOK? . This album prominently featured Dangers' newly acquired EMS Synthi 100, as well as guest contributions from turntablist Z-Trip and The Orb's Alex Paterson. In 2003 MBM released a remix album for Storm The Studio, followed by ...In Dub , a remix album of RUOK?.
At the Center was released on 29 May 2005. A part of independent label Thirsty Ear's 'Blue Series' fusing jazz with electronic genres, the album is a collaboration between Jack Dangers and jazz musicians Peter Gordon (flute), Dave King (drums), and Craig Taborn (keyboards). [13] While Dangers had, in the past, flirted with jazz instrumentation and sampling on a handful of Meat Beat Manifesto tracks, At the Center was a marked variation of the expected MBM sound and was more of a one-off experiment than a whole new direction for the band. The album has been well received by many critics, with one reviewer calling it "one of the best albums of the year in any genre." [14] An EP of outtakes, live tracks and a remix titled Off-Centre was released shortly after. [15]
From 2005 through 2006, MBM launched a worldwide tour, their first since 1999, making use of video sampling technology that allowed the band to trigger video clips in real-time, on two large screens positioned stage front, while the band performed either side-stage or behind the screens, out of the audience's view; instead, live video footage of the band performing was displayed onscreen alongside the pre-assembled clips. Many of the video clips used were the sources of samples previously used in various MBM tracks, such as footage of Elektro the Robot and clips from films such as Head and Dark Star. [16] Dangers and crew performed a wide variety of hits and fan favorites from the entire back catalog, though relatively little of the new jazz fusion material from At the Center was played.
In 2006, Meat Beat Manifesto's "Suicide" was released on the Underworld: Evolution soundtrack and is the only MBM track to date to prominently feature a guitar.
In May 2007 Dangers released a double CD titled Archive Things 1982-88 / Purged . The first disc contained many early Meat Beat Manifesto experimentations, including demos of what would later become seminal MBM tracks such as "I Got the Fear". The second disc was an instrumental version of the Perennial Divide album, Purge. [17]
MBM's ninth studio album, Autoimmune , was released on 7 April 2008 in Europe via Planet Mu Records and on 8 April 2008 in the US and Canada via Metropolis Records., [18] with each territory's issue featuring a different track listing. The album featured the first vocals by Dangers himself since 1998's Actual Sounds + Voices, as well as collaborations with DJ Z-Trip, MC Azeem, and Kenneth James Gibson. [19] The album has been described as a return to an older, harder MBM sound and as a dubstep album, though Dangers has stated that he prefers not to fall into any specific genre or category with his work. [4] The lead single, "Guns And Lovers" was released as a digital single via iTunes on 18 March 2008, while the track "Lonely Soldier" was released as a single via bleep.com. Meat Beat Manifesto once more toured to support the new album with the same stage setup as the 2005–2006 tour.
Meat Beat Manifesto released Answers Come in Dreams in late 2010, once more via Metropolis Records in the US and via Hydrogen Dukebox in the UK. Answers Come in Dreams continued to reference dubstep as had its predecessor Autoimmune, but overall was a darker, denser album, at times descending into beatless ambient noise passages reminiscent of the experimental second disc of 1996's Subliminal Sandwich. [20] [21]
After the release of Answers Come in Dreams, Meat Beat Manifesto entered a period of limited activity lasting several years. Between 2011 and 2016, a small handful of EPs were released, and MBM only performed live sporadically. They appeared at the Cold Waves V festival in Chicago in 2016, the first live Meat Beat Manifesto show in five years. [22] The following September they performed at Cold Waves LA.
In January 2018, Meat Beat Manifesto released their eleventh studio album Impossible Star on the label Flexidisc. [23] First single "We Are Surrounded" was premiered online by Igloo Magazine on 24 October 2017. [24] The album has been called a "proverbial return to form" after the dalliances with dubstep on Autoimmune and Answers Come in Dreams. [25] MBM also contributed an original track to the Cold Waves VII benefit compilation later that year, and a limited U.S. tour took place in the fall.
Opaque Couché, Meat Beat Manifesto's twelfth album, was released on 10 May 2019 via Flexidisc. The track "Pin Drop" was released as a video single on YouTube on 6 March, with "No Design" following on 1 April. Considered a companion album to Impossible Star, Opaque Couché was named after "the world's ugliest color". [26]
MBM debuted a brand new song and video and contributed a pre-recorded performance set to the Cold Waves 2020 "Lost Weekend"; the entire festival was streamed on Twitch due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States. The new song also appeared on the corresponding Cold Waves 2020 compilation. [27]
Meat Beat Manifesto have released a number of albums and singles, and participated in remixes and compilation albums.
Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some small degree of independence within a larger parent company, in this case the larger company being Interscope Records.
Armed Audio Warfare is the second full-length release and first compilation of electronic music group Meat Beat Manifesto. It was originally scheduled as the group's first album for release in May 1988, but the master tapes were damaged in a fire, necessitating the rewriting and recording of the material, which was released as Storm the Studio. Armed Audio Warfare is actually a compilation of unreleased and rare tracks that give an insight as to how that first album may have sounded had it been released as planned.
Satyricon is the fourth studio album by British electronic music group Meat Beat Manifesto.
Charles Alexander Clouser is an American keyboardist, composer, record producer, and remixer. He worked with Trent Reznor for Nine Inch Nails from 1994 to 2000, and is a composer for film and television; among his credits are the score for the Saw franchise and American Horror Story. Clouser was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance in 1997.
Orbital is the second studio album by English electronic music duo Orbital, released on 24 May 1993 by Internal and FFRR Records. Like the duo's debut album, the album was officially untitled.
Bomb the Bass is an electronic music alias of English musician and producer Timothy Simenon.
Subliminal Sandwich is a 1996 double album released by Meat Beat Manifesto on Interscope Records. The album is often more experimental than the group's prior material, composed of lengthier pieces that incorporate more ambient textures and drones with and fewer samples or defined song structures.
Jack Dangers is an English electronic musician, DJ, producer, and remixer best known for his work as the primary member of Meat Beat Manifesto. He lives in San Francisco.
Storm the Studio is the debut album by English electronic music group Meat Beat Manifesto, released on 20 February 1989 by Sweatbox Records in the United Kingdom and later that year by Wax Trax! in the United States. Recorded in three recording studios, the album contains four compositions, each split into separate parts, that mostly originated as twelve-inch singles the band released in 1988. The record's inventive musical style features elements of industrial music, electro, dub, noise rock and hip hop music, and incorporates breakbeats, noise and sporadic rap vocals. The group also incorporated heavy usage of sampling in a fashion they compared to pop art. Television was a further influence on the record, and numerous items of television dialogue appear throughout Storm the Studio as samples.
Actual Sounds + Voices is the sixth studio album by electronic music group Meat Beat Manifesto, released in 1998.
RUOK? is a 2002 album by the British industrial techno group Meat Beat Manifesto. Some editions included the mini Enhanced CD Free Piece Suite. The album was recorded at Tape Lab Studios in California and was mastered at The Exchange in London. It features the rare EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer.
Windowpane & The Snow was a CD released by the band Coil. This release compiles the two EPs, "Windowpane" and "The Snow". The original versions of the songs "Windowpane" and "The Snow" appear on the album Love's Secret Domain.
Battersea Shield is a 2004 EP by The Orb and Meat Beat Manifesto. It was sold in an embossed tin based on the design of the Battersea Shield, instead of a standard jewel case.
...In Dub is a dub remix album by Meat Beat Manifesto. ...In Dub is mostly remixes of RUOK? material with select songs featuring vocals by DJ Collage; however, there are some original tracks. The album was issued as both a CD and a DVD which contains minimalistic music videos. Both versions also have separate track listings.
Variaciones Espectrales is the first proper album credited to Jack Dangers. It was recorded as part of the Series 7 collection for Bella Union, an independent record label, the directive being that Dangers had to record one song a day for seven days. Lynn Farmer is credited to playing drums on tracks 2, 3 and 4. The material present often sounds very reminiscent of the Meat Beat Manifesto album RUOK? which appeared later in the same year, and it is likely that some of these tracks represented early sketches of RUOK? material; the last track "Echo In Space", in particular, is nearly identical to "No Echo In Space" from RUOK?
This is the discography for Meat Beat Manifesto.
Hovercraft was an American instrumental experimental rock group that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1993. It was co-founded by its core duo of guitarist/samplist/tape-looper Ryan Shinn and bassist Beth Liebling. Shinn and Liebling would use the pseudonyms "Campbell 2000" and "Sadie 7", respectively, throughout the duration of the band's history. Hovercraft has been cited as one of the most abrasive, non-commercial sounding bands ever to receive major-label distribution for its albums. Though somewhat overlooked and sometimes heavily criticized because of the band's early association with Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, the group was largely well respected and well received by critics and developed a cult following.
Autoimmune is an album by Meat Beat Manifesto. Though the album was originally announced as a 20-track double-CD release, frontman Jack Dangers decided to shorten the album to a single disc with different track listings between the US and European releases. Stylistically, it steps up the pace from other recent Meat Beat Manifesto albums, using elements of dub, hip-hop, industrial, breakbeat and more, and it is regarded as a partial return to the early industrial sound of the band in the late 1980s. The album has also been described as Dangers' take on dubstep, though he has stated that Meat Beat Manifesto has always utilized the underlying concepts of that particular genre. Autoimmune is the first Meat Beat Manifesto album with Danger's vocals since Actual Sounds + Voices in 1998; he appears on the track "Solid Waste". The album cover continues the checkerboard/grid theme also seen on earlier Meat Beat Manifesto albums Actual Sounds + Voices, RUOK? and the Off-Centre EP. Most of the remaining songs that were excised from the original double-disc concept were later released on an EP available only on the Autoimmune tour.
Dave Janusko is an American songwriter, musician, producer, DJ, and remixer. He lives in San Francisco, California, United States.
Answers Come in Dreams is an album by Meat Beat Manifesto. It consists of lengthy ambient, glitch, and dubstep-focused pieces, with an attention to texture rather than the raw sampling and breakbeat rhythms seen on many of the group's previous releases.