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emcv's review
informative
medium-paced
5.0
An excellent history of industrial music starting with the early 20th century experimentation that would lay the groundwork for the rise of industrial in the late 70s. Easy to read, incredibly well researched, and surprisingly concise for the information it contains.
ederwin's review
4.0
I listened to lots of Industrial music from the mid-80s to mid-90s. There were few resources (that I knew) for information about the groups and their albums. So I had little choice but to pick albums based on the artists name or even the label or distributor. This sometimes led to disappointment. Many of the associated artists changed styles from record to record (e.g. Ministry) or released similar music under different pseudonyms. So, I wish I'd had some guide like this.
It is dry and academic, so a bit of a slog. But until a comparable 'popular' book is written on this subject, this is probably the best you can get.
Factoids and thoughts:
Early industrial artists like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire were consciously and intentionally influenced by William S. Buggoughs, Brion Gysin, and Guy Debord. They weren't so much trying to make music that would be nice to listen to, but to use cut-ups and other techniques to bypass your conscious mind, open your Third Mind, and free you from control systems. Or something like that. I at least half-way understand their point, but I'm more interested in music that is enjoyable to listen to, and their early stuff is not. (Later TG never interested me much, either.)
The book claims Skinny Puppy helped open-up industrial to female audiences. I never noticed. But I admit they seem more female friendly than some of the militaristic acts. Apparently also Ogre (the singer) is physically attractive. If so, though, how did anyone know? They weren't the sort to have photos on their albums or in teen magazines. They were among my favorite artists for many years (along with Revolting Cocks) yet I never looked up a picture of Ogre until I read this book.
Due to the dry academic writing, there are some chapters where after I read it I realize I have no idea what point he was making. That happened to me, for example, in the chapters on race and on use of fascist symbols. I'd like a clearer treatment of that. I have no idea whether Death in June or NON are really racist Nazi-sympathisers, but they sure do seem that way. (Southern Poverty Law Center has gone so far as to condemn a record store for merely selling Death in June records. I'd like to think they know what they are doing.) I find their work dull, so at least I don't have to worry about trying to compartmentalize the 'art' vs. the 'artist' in their cases.
It was nice to get a history of Wax Trax records. I bought many things from that label, but never knew about the people behind it. I had no idea that Al Jourgensen was so involved, and even worked the counter. (I may have met him without knowing it.)
There was some interesting discussion of the cassette tape trading culture which mostly predated internet boards. I hadn't realized before that is probably how Skinny Puppy hooked-up with Legendary Pink Dots, so without that scene we wouldn't have had Tear Garden.
I wish I'd had this back when I was still listening to lots of music.
It is dry and academic, so a bit of a slog. But until a comparable 'popular' book is written on this subject, this is probably the best you can get.
Factoids and thoughts:
Early industrial artists like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire were consciously and intentionally influenced by William S. Buggoughs, Brion Gysin, and Guy Debord. They weren't so much trying to make music that would be nice to listen to, but to use cut-ups and other techniques to bypass your conscious mind, open your Third Mind, and free you from control systems. Or something like that. I at least half-way understand their point, but I'm more interested in music that is enjoyable to listen to, and their early stuff is not. (Later TG never interested me much, either.)
The book claims Skinny Puppy helped open-up industrial to female audiences. I never noticed. But I admit they seem more female friendly than some of the militaristic acts. Apparently also Ogre (the singer) is physically attractive. If so, though, how did anyone know? They weren't the sort to have photos on their albums or in teen magazines. They were among my favorite artists for many years (along with Revolting Cocks) yet I never looked up a picture of Ogre until I read this book.
Due to the dry academic writing, there are some chapters where after I read it I realize I have no idea what point he was making. That happened to me, for example, in the chapters on race and on use of fascist symbols. I'd like a clearer treatment of that. I have no idea whether Death in June or NON are really racist Nazi-sympathisers, but they sure do seem that way. (Southern Poverty Law Center has gone so far as to condemn a record store for merely selling Death in June records. I'd like to think they know what they are doing.) I find their work dull, so at least I don't have to worry about trying to compartmentalize the 'art' vs. the 'artist' in their cases.
It was nice to get a history of Wax Trax records. I bought many things from that label, but never knew about the people behind it. I had no idea that Al Jourgensen was so involved, and even worked the counter. (I may have met him without knowing it.)
There was some interesting discussion of the cassette tape trading culture which mostly predated internet boards. I hadn't realized before that is probably how Skinny Puppy hooked-up with Legendary Pink Dots, so without that scene we wouldn't have had Tear Garden.
I wish I'd had this back when I was still listening to lots of music.
whitehousedotcom's review
5.0
Who knew Sarah Mclachlin used to be goth? I learned so much.
Other reviewers have kvetched about how this book focused too much on Throbbing Gristle, ~tarnished industrial's image~ by talking about the longstanding racism and racial segregation in the scene, and blunted its impact through engaging in academic rhetoric. I'm sympathetic with readers who find academic texts repellant--I can imagine Reed presenting this information more accessibly without compromising historical rigor, however this is a book 1) published by Oxford University Press (what were you expecting?) and 2) written by a scholar attempting to secure tenure (which, congratulations to Reed, he succeeded in. Ithaca College is lucky to have you!)
I would applaud Reed for honestly addressing the overwhelming whiteness and sometimes explicit/mostly implicit racism of industrial, however to write this book any other way would have been negligent. He doesn't get applause for being decent, but I will stand on the mountain top loudly booing these reviewers averse to getting called out on their shit. This topic isn't exhausted; there needs to be another book exclusively dedicated to reading industrial through race studies, but this is a good start. I remind readers that this is a *critical* history, not a *complete* history of the genre; this book doesn't do everything, but it does enough. I'm thankful for the labor and love that has crafted it.
I'm a young fan born after most of these artists had overdosed or quit the scene to make corporate jingles, but I see deep parallels of affect and aspiration in my contemporaries, in the punk scenes of DC, Olympia, and Seattle that I've called home since high school. A similar book could be written about us--or at least incorporate the work we do as a subchapter in the last ~100 pages--but probably won't be. Future teens likely wont know about the historical envelope that led to GLOSS or Turboslut, and these works will be forgotten just as Jourgensen wants us to forget With Sympathy. So yeah, I don't know. So much horizontalist reverence to Reed for writing this book. Thanks for doing that thing where you keep an idea alive by writing it down, thus displacing temporalities long enough for the idea to get to me.
Other reviewers have kvetched about how this book focused too much on Throbbing Gristle, ~tarnished industrial's image~ by talking about the longstanding racism and racial segregation in the scene, and blunted its impact through engaging in academic rhetoric. I'm sympathetic with readers who find academic texts repellant--I can imagine Reed presenting this information more accessibly without compromising historical rigor, however this is a book 1) published by Oxford University Press (what were you expecting?) and 2) written by a scholar attempting to secure tenure (which, congratulations to Reed, he succeeded in. Ithaca College is lucky to have you!)
I would applaud Reed for honestly addressing the overwhelming whiteness and sometimes explicit/mostly implicit racism of industrial, however to write this book any other way would have been negligent. He doesn't get applause for being decent, but I will stand on the mountain top loudly booing these reviewers averse to getting called out on their shit. This topic isn't exhausted; there needs to be another book exclusively dedicated to reading industrial through race studies, but this is a good start. I remind readers that this is a *critical* history, not a *complete* history of the genre; this book doesn't do everything, but it does enough. I'm thankful for the labor and love that has crafted it.
I'm a young fan born after most of these artists had overdosed or quit the scene to make corporate jingles, but I see deep parallels of affect and aspiration in my contemporaries, in the punk scenes of DC, Olympia, and Seattle that I've called home since high school. A similar book could be written about us--or at least incorporate the work we do as a subchapter in the last ~100 pages--but probably won't be. Future teens likely wont know about the historical envelope that led to GLOSS or Turboslut, and these works will be forgotten just as Jourgensen wants us to forget With Sympathy. So yeah, I don't know. So much horizontalist reverence to Reed for writing this book. Thanks for doing that thing where you keep an idea alive by writing it down, thus displacing temporalities long enough for the idea to get to me.
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