Fringes of PE?

[FreakAnimalFinland]

whatever you may see at the borders with other genres will have changed over time, and at times be meaningless.

My assumption is that vast majority of stuff what is now called PE, wouldn't have been in past.
And especially it seems to be true depending on which country you happen to live.

Little indication also comes from looking old catalogues of distributors, for example Tesco 1998 catalogue is full of "power electronics" term in use, but Artware catalogue it is much more rare. But this seems to apply as much to use of "noise" as genre. Whether noise is reserved to pure harsh noise, or is it used as wider description of a lot of noisy stuff.

I would say that these days, to find "pure" power electronics, is rare case. Pretty much everything exists somewhere in wide post-industrial / noise category than what could be seen as the "old PE sound".

You could say for example all the noisier electronic stuff on Posh Isolation, except Forza Albino and Caucasian Colony fits this topic. It may be noisy and electronic etc, but hardly "PE". It goes to different type of aesthetic and composition and themes, but still have connection.

I think it has been discussed in some topics before (was there post-power electronics topic, heh?!). If you put two groups next to eachother, like early Whitehouse or CONTROL (usa), then latter one would most likely feel entirely different musical genre? Multilayered and precise rhythms (although not beats) with heavy and "full produced" sound. More often dark and dense atmosphere than violently ripping lo-fi carnage and disturbing frequencies like heard in many old releases.

However, if Control is seen as "fringe", then question would be who and what exactly is the non-fringe PE? At least looking to Finland, there really ain't many bands who could be without doubt categorized as PE. Most fall under wider umbrella of some sort of industrial-noise.

[NIT]

whatever you may see at the borders with other genres will have changed over time, and at times be meaningless.

You could say for example all the noisier electronic stuff on Posh Isolation, except Forza Albino and Caucasian Colony fits this topic. It may be noisy and electronic etc, but hardly "PE". It goes to different type of aesthetic and composition and themes, but still have connection.

This is where I was going with the original question. I am familiar with PI, looking for other material that has similar relationship to PE as described above. After reading responses I think about the topic a bit differently now. Some great suggestions in this thread have lead to new discoveries.

[NO PART OF IT]

Setting aside the notion of "power dynamics" for second, I have been procrastinating about becoming more familiar with the times that label ANT ZEN embraced power electronics...   and if you are careful, you can see elements of it stylistically.  I wonder if they have snuck in any more adventurous electronic material lately.  The recent material by Michael Idehall is good. 

People mentioning Haus Arafna....   I'm not sure how much SUBLIMINAL is on the fringes or in the middle of power electronics, but I haven't really heard anyone as good as that in terms of rhythmic horrorscapes..... 

But more to the point, if anyone knows some artists that took Sodality into more avant garde areas, as I have always liked The Sodality's sense of movement, and of course would love to hear someone screaming about serial killers over a Stockhausen sensibility, for a variety of reasons....

[Human Larvae]

My general impression is, P.E. has become more musical?! Guilty as charged though

[Zodiac]

My general impression is, P.E. has become more musical?! Guilty as charged though

I guess your are quite right with that.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Or is it that more musical things get labeled as PE? Things that formerly were just some sort of industrial were called that.

I would say the 80's scene if full of quite rough industrial bands, what still have very musical qualities.
From bands, occasionally almost pe, but often something else, could use this opportunity to mention industrial project Maybe Mental!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uflnnHtFn_E
Would be great if there would be possibility for reissues, but diversity of material makes it quite challenging. Perhaps now time is more accepting of blending in industrial, almost pe type of stuff... and suddenly odd electro-pop tracks!

[noyearning]

Yes, it does seems that PE has became more "musical". On one hand I think it shows some form of evolution for the genre (for better or for worse) as in "not stuck in the same simple synth noise + shouted vocals formula". On the other hand, stuff like Damien Dubrovnik - The Light Of God Shines Eternal, for example, you could simply say it's just Industrial, if the definition of PE is strictly the aforementioned formula, and call it a day.

As for examples of "fringe" PE, I gave a number of them in the melancholic PE thread, if I remeber correctly. All nice, more "musical", examples.

[Zeno Marx]

My assumption is that vast majority of stuff what is now called PE, wouldn't have been in past...there really ain't many bands who could be without doubt categorized as PE. Most fall under wider umbrella of some sort of industrial-noise.

That about covers it for me.  It's more a loosening, or even simply re-branding, of the terminology than a change in the music.  How many skateboard tricks have been renamed?  Same trick.  New name.  I also think of "crust" in hardcore.  It was something relatively specific in the 80s, but then by the late-90s and 2000s, it covered just about everything that involved a black uniform.  Didn't matter much what the music was like.  Rendering it a pretty much useless, unhelpful term.  Without giving it a lot of consideration, I wonder how much it is related to retro everything.  Getting caught in the past with nostalgia.  Rather than creating something new, simply redefine the terms and "modernize" the lexicon.  I would guess this is normal in linguistics.