Industrial Techno

[Balor/SS1535]

I haven't been paying much attention to new noise lately, but I am curious if there is any newer projects right now that lean towards utilizing beats or techno influences? Endangered Species has a few, but I'm definitely getting the bug again.

Not involving new acts, but Merzbow and Meat Beat Manifesto just did this: https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/extinct-csr330cd-lp

Thank you for the link! The second track, Burner, is pretty interesting.

While I didn't order a copy myself, I was very surprised by how good this combination sounded.

[GenitalStigmata]

i like some of the old school pcp planet core productions label
like mescalinum united - symphonies of steel
the mover etcet.
also stuff like
p.a.l
somatic responses
christoph fringeli
potere occulto
praxis label
caustic visions
ant-zen - hymen


also like Ueno Masaaki like one of the other users said
and Franck Vigroux

heading towards industrial cyber-fi territory though
but these all have elements of industrial within a techno realm

This dude gets it. Plenty to love here, P•A•L is a favorite of mine, and basically anything on Ant-Zen/Hymen is worth the time spent for any self respecting noise or industrial fan. WINTERKÄLTE, Imminent Starvation, Converter...all excellent extremely blown out and grating stuff that sits pretty perfectly next to any industrial or noise material in a library of albums/tracks.

I think a greater title for this thread would be "industrial electronic music" since "techno" is both oddly specific yet broad, as a signifier for style. As a person who has always loved both the extreme freedom and abstraction of noise and the often rigid structure of dance music, they both veer into each other pretty flawlessly despite any bounds put in place.

Chain Reaction is a great label for both the aggressive and the subdued sounds that can be crammed into the lexicon of "industrial techno"; a lot of it is straight up dub techno, slower BPMs, less aggressive, and then you'll listen to something else from a few months later in their release schedule and it'll be blowing your doors off their hinges.

I'm a huge Mick Harris head and his stuff as Lensman/Monrella/Eddy Masvoodler is some of my favorite straight to the point mixer-in-the-red no bullshit caveman techno (he even once told me in a message "nothing I do is complex, anyone can do it, no special gear no deep pockets"). I don't think those projects of his are talked about or appreciated nearly enough.

[BatteredStatesofEuphoria]

WINTERKÄLTE, Imminent Starvation, Converter...all excellent extremely blown out and grating stuff that sits pretty perfectly next to any industrial or noise material in a library of albums/tracks.

For myself, and many others I've talked to, that Ant-Zen/Hands "power noise/rhythmic noise" movement in the late 90s/early 00s was a pretty important stepping stone into the world of noise itself. Some might have dismissed it as just "distorted techno," and a fair amount was, but the best projects working in that space had a lot of interesting soundscape work going on under the beats that wasn't all that far off from a typical Tesco pe record. Those three were definitely some of the best that have stood the test of the time. I'd add the first few Sonar releases and Morgenstern as well. I always thought it would have been interesting if WINTERKÄLTE in particular had tried their hands at harsh noise. Add a bit more feedback and high end to some of their textures and it would fit right in.

Imminent Starvation's "Nord" album had the distinction of being banned from my car stereo for a time. While driving on the freeway late one night, I had that cranked on, specifically the track "Tentack One" churning along. Nothing seemed particularly amiss. And then I noticed the lights on the side of the road flying by me like meteor streaks. Turns out I had accelerated to nearly 100 mph (160 kmh) without even knowing it. After slowing down, I think I put something else on until I got home as an act of self-preservation....

[Zeno Marx]

Love when people talk Winterkalte, Hands, Ant-Zen.  I would imagine most of us in the US caught wind of Hands via Mr.Mantis/Malignant/Audio Drudge.  The closest I ever got to that world on my own was maybe...maybe...reading Industrial Nation, but I know Malignant was my introduction.  By Drums 'N' Noise, I sort of feel he lost his way, but Ant-Zen had picked up the torch and was drilling away at our earholes.  Back then, Ant-Zen was one of the powerhouse labels, but does the noise/power-electronics community of today recognize that?  The older folk know, but has it fractured away from noise enough, or for long enough now, that they're considered "over there" and not of interest?  I guess I'm sort of guilty of it in a way.  I have growing reverence for the label, and I get a bit jazzed to hear new releases by several of the artists on it.  Yet, I often file it away somewhere else in my mind...until I give a new release a listen and am reminded that those artists are smack-dab in the mix of most of everything we discuss on this board. We are mistaken.

this is a good thread about it too
https://special-interests.net/forum/index.php?topic=3518.0

[BatteredStatesofEuphoria]

Love when people talk Winterkalte, Hands, Ant-Zen.  I would imagine most of us in the US caught wind of Hands via Mr.Mantis/Malignant/Audio Drudge.  The closest I ever got to that world on my own was maybe...maybe...reading Industrial Nation, but I know Malignant was my introduction.

Being into the electro-industrial club scene at the time (by that I mean labels like Metropolis/Off Beat/Zoth Ommog, not the more pure form of industrial), I first caught wind of it through Noisex's involvement with Wumpscut's label. It hit at the right time for me, as I was getting starting to get restless with the former sound and looking for something more out there. Its funny though, looking back, because nowadays Noisex just seems "meh" to me, but credit where its due, he opened the door to that world. There was a shop in Philadelphia where I lived at the time called Digital Underground that actually stocked a lot of imports, so I was able to find some Ant-Zen stuff there (albeit at exorbitant prices), so I was lucky to have easier access than most. There were a few people talking about the "power noise" sound on the old rec.music.industrial USENET group at the time as well. Converter was getting a lot of buzz due to Scott's previous involvement in the well regarded Pain Station project. I distinctly remember someone on there saying to go get the sheet metal packaging edition of "Shock Front" from some distro in Maryland called Malignant. And that's how I started ordering from Jason.

Incidentally, that first edition of "Shock Front" (https://www.discogs.com/release/17769-Converter-Shock-Front) was such a revelation to me at the time, having only seen typical CD packaging and the occasional box set. Of course, I'd experience far more elaborate packaging and presentation as time went by, but that particular CD is still one of my favorites, just for how it takes the mundane jewel case and does so much more with it. Its the perfect encapsulation of what you get with that CD, and of S.alt's aesthetics with a typical Ant-Zen release in general, really. Simple and powerful.

Back then, Ant-Zen was one of the powerhouse labels, but does the noise/power-electronics community of today recognize that?  The older folk know, but has it fractured away from noise enough, or for long enough now, that they're considered "over there" and not of interest?

I do think A-Z maybe fell out of the "noise zeitgeist" a bit, if only because the most well-known time for the label was when they got away from that and towards more rhythmic, beat-oriented material. Still, they were pretty damn important in their early years. Releases from Aube, Con-Dom, Law...they certainly should be mentioned.

A-Z's has sort of returned to those roots as of late. He put out all those Control CDs, and more recently material from Am Not and Grim among others, so they're (re)recognition should continue to grow.

[GenitalStigmata]

I do think A-Z maybe fell out of the "noise zeitgeist" a bit, if only because the most well-known time for the label was when they got away from that and towards more rhythmic, beat-oriented material. Still, they were pretty damn important in their early years. Releases from Aube, Con-Dom, Law...they certainly should be mentioned.

Yeah, this. I had originally found out about Ant-Zen thru being younger and getting into Venetian Snares, discovering the Hymen sublabel, and being put onto A-Z that way. Converter caught my eye immediately and from there the rest was history. Funny enough I ended up discovering a Hymen artist Terminal 11 is from my city and booked a ton of IDM stuff I was too young to have attended sadly, also became aware that Converter had played here more than once around that same time after I had discovered him from looking around discogs a ton. Several years ago I had pleasantly come into the knowledge that the A-Z labelhead already mentioned has been a visual artist for a bunch of notable influential industrial/noise acts. I think my favorite and possibly most mundane has to be the Merzbow CD that comes in a leatherbound calendar with a business card. The meeting of the two worlds of rhythmic and freeform artistry Ant-Zen has always facilitated has always been a reason I find people who are so outspokenly against anything with """beats""" to be false music and art fans. Maybe that's brash of me but really it's just in hopes they'll come around and eventually ditch the elementary school punk kid mentality.