Nocturnal Emissions
Dear gay bearded man, I shall share my story, true or not if asking the band directly. It's still my understanding and might shed some light.
When I was getting into industrial music Nocturnal Emissions was one of the groups that served as an entrance. This was very much in direct opposition to several of my friends opinions who basically didn't have any interest in NE at the time. Their neglect was hidden by the fact that atleast one of them had purchased a recording called Viral Shedding which proved to be leaning more towards synth pop than industrial music. The year when it was put out was 1983, around the time SPK had turned into shit.
I think that the above example sums up the beginning of the rather unfocused plot in the history of NE. The group has been labeled "industrial" throughout their existance and the most obvious reason being that they initially belonged to the vast amount of groups hitch hiking on the sparks from punk and combining those possibilities with the interest of experimental music. My guess is that various psychedelic/leftfield rock together with electronic/musique concrete/contemporary in general set the ideas. It seems obvious. Tissue of Lies and Fruiting Body are interesting works from the early 80:s. I can't speak much about those recordings since it was a long time ago I heard them. However their magnum opus from this period is ofcourse Drowning in a Sea of Bliss. I find this recording among the most interesting "industrial" albums. The elements that we today easily point at and choose to name "industrial" are there. However there are a lot of activity on this recording – details which makes it survive several decades. What I dare to say is that the earlier recordings were more linear, less dynamic than the sort of fullfillment that Drowning... represents. I seem to recall an early live tape called Death Day. Even though it's very "industrial" and far from a rock recording, it got the elements of rock. Pushing it further like Neubauten but in another, more brute direction. These tendencies are evident on Drowning... as well, but blurred and juxtaposed to invite further experimentation.
Between around 83 and 86 they put out a number of synthoriented albums – Viral shedding, Songs of love and revolution and Shake those chains rattle those cages. I can't say anything about these recordings except that it was a great disappointment to my ears (and soul for that matter).
I remember buying a CD called Duty Experiment after reading a review in SOMA (for people outside Sweden this magazine was dedicated to experimental,noise, industrial, power electronics; all in swedish. It was done by a couple of gents from Segerhuva and a few more people). This CD collects works between 82 and 84. What's interesting about this particular collection is the development from experimental "industrial" toward a more clean, synthetic sound. It's got some beautiful tracks early brute tracks. The early days shows the infinite possibilities – it cracks and strains, the beat becomes a pulse to reach abstraction – while the later material tries to control, tame and make it accessible. Why? To make a living out of making music; new, less "artistic" drugs etc?
The world is my womb (1987) marks a new direction. I find this first example pompous, pretentious and absolutely unbearable. The worst by far is the voice. (sorry gay beard man, but i can't stand being objective about this recording) I get the sense Ayers wanted to create something totally different and he succeeds if different is something measured by checking the backcatalogue not finding it there (not something necessarily new in terms of universal percepts). This recording should appeal to a lot of people into 90:s "epic industrial" (whatever that means) works. Still, I rather have myself --(fill in any odd sexual behavior here thats's forced on me) than listening to this recording.
But this new direction also gave birth to some listenable recordings. Stoneface and Spiritflesh are examples of ambient music that has an OK sound. They might not be exciting works, but works allright. Not enough that I've kept them – I should add that I think I only had Stoneface. It's Satiesque music, music as furniture. The peak of the ambient oriented works is Invocation of the best gods. It's actually one of the very few ambient records I can stand and even find interesting (to put that in perspective I don't think I can come up with five recordings that's strictly ambient, dark ambient etc that I like). Anyhow, it's a beautiful, modest recording. (Hideous artwork though).
That was the eighties. What about the nineties? I used to have a few recordings. The early nineties was ambient in a very dull manner. Some experiments with rhythms, perhaps "techno". Not much to speak about, unless I've missed something?!
Beginning to 83 + invocation of the beast gods is basically what's interesting in my opinion.
Your question, happy beard man, demanded a long answer.
