Industrial Videos - Various......

Sort of got me thinking about industrial music, followed this genre for many number of years. Got me thinking back to tracks that still sound good now. Most are Industrial Dance.



A Grumh if I remember correctly were from Belguim. Sort of were like a danceable coil, some of their lyrics were very off the walll and some of the record covers left alot to be desired. But boy they did release some classic elctro industrial dance . Like this.


SPK-Metal Dance - this was on a album called 'Auto De fe'. Amazing how brilliant this sounds as most of their early recordings were mono. Real Hypnotic synth on this one. There are live versions of this on a cassette(possible to download) on Angst pop. Which is more percussive and sounds even better.


Probably more famous in the Uk after their collabaration with Nitzer Ebb. This is from their album 'to Much History'. I like the bit towards the end wherer the mattlic percussion drives against a punishing drumsound.



A Offshot band from the ashes of Throbbing Gristle. This is a really good song with such a wierd drum tempo.



Nitzer Ebb-Join In The Chant....This was heavily influenced by DAf. but to Nitzer Ebbs credit they took it one stage further.



Skinny Puppy-Inqusition - the best remix of this song, this was from 1992. Such a brilliant single..

Front 242-Headhunter

Front 242 - Headhunter by Pegorink2


Front 242-Headhunter

Kraftwerk_tribal Gathering....1997

Kraftwerk - Live PA, Tribal Gathering, Luton, UK, Essential Mix, BBC Radio 1 1997-05-24 by +dB

Kraftwerk-Musique Non Stop(Minumum Maximum)

Killing Joke- European super state

Killing Joke - European Super State by UMGD

Killing Joke- European super state

Killing Joke - European Super State by UMGD

Killing Joke-their Legacy

Killing Joke -

Pure unadultered hard driving punk rock, post punk, dub, true heavy metal. So many varied descriptions can be used when describing Killing Jokes music. To be honest they are everything mentioned above and a whole lot more. With Killing Joke at the age of 12(about 1984) I was aware of them then but hadnt really listened to them , just sort of seen the artwork to the album covers but very little else. In an ideal world I would sday yes I first heard them when they on John peel in the 70s but I would be lying , I dicovered them more in 1985. I was blown away at the time by the Nightime album, just its pure power. As an album it was wonderfully produced very crisp sounding with guitars full up front in the mix. What suprised me was that 'Love Like Blood' was an excellent song, but there were so many other songs on that album that were brilliant.

As you are prone to do when your younger you get sidetracked by other bands and musics, Killing Joke I remember appearing ona radio show in 1986 to promote the album 'Brighter than a 1000 suns', rather than promote it Jaz Coleman was sort of like talking in statements, I remember his interviewer Terry Christian sort of laughing in the course of the interview. I always remember two things about it, Jaz Coleman was going on about buying property being the next thing, he was proved right. Sort of predicting things but not coming across as mad but putting forward informative discussions around the subject.

The History of KillIng Joke well there are lots of gaps. Killing Joke were formed in 1978 by Jaz Coleman and Paul ferguson, Youth and Geordie. Killing Joke released 'Turn to red' and numerous other singles at this time. Killing joke the album that came out in 1980 was really doomy sounding, not in a Joy Division way. Just such aggressive songs, the album was of that time in that in a post punk era, the artwork and the sound all came together at once to provide a real atrentaive to the post punk followers. Sort of pushing the boudnries that Public Image Limited had started two years earlier.



For me my favourite album is their 1981 album 'Whats this for'. Such a brilliant record, bass lines to the fore in this album. Youth's influence and some cutting guitar lines from Geordie. The album had a real energy. At this time Killing joke were building up a real following and this was built upon for the album 'revelations'. The album was a success and the band looked poised to move on still further, but at the very hieght of their immentent fame the band split into two with Jaz Coleman and Geordie left and stayed in Iceland. The outcome a year later was Youth had left and They recruited Raven on bass. They released a album called Firedances, which was a good album the songs were not as strong as previous albums but still a good progression on from what they had released before. I think their singles at this time were getting better, 'Blue feather ' and 'Lets all go firedances' and 'A new day' were brilliant songs, Eighties was such a powerful song, shame it instantly became dated once the new decade started.



'Brighter than a 1000 suns that came out in 1986 was in the press described as progressive, at that time the term was unflattering but listening to it now it still sounds good, if you can listen to the Chris Kimsey mix of the album which is available on spotify.
I have included some extra tracks on this page to show the diffrence in mixes, more driving and guitars were more soaring.

From about 1987 onwards Killing joke were somewhat quiet and released the rather poorly recived 'Outside the gate'. You can look back with hindsight and realise that Killing Joke were under record company pressure to release better produced records, for example Chris kimseys production on Brighter. Also worth noting is that lyrics and songs were put together seperately, so the Outside the gate project was very disjointed.



At this time in about 1989/90 Paul ferguson left the band and the return to their roots and on a indie label and released ' Extremeites and dirt and various repressed' which was a very good al.bum and featured highlights such as 'Money is not our god'. In 1994 they released Pandemoinum which was another return to form and this was followed by 'Democracy'. In the 90s Killing Joke were influencing everyone from Nirvana to Nine Inch Nails, as their seem nto be an increase in industrial dance acts like Ministry. There were increased collabarations between Killing Joke and other artists at this time. In the last 10 years killing Joke have released about 4 albums and various compilations and live concerts.

The thing with Killing Joke is which is good for a band is that they released their best recorded moments at the time, but obviously alot of recordings were made and various alternative mixes have surficed, so for those of us who grew up with Killing Joke its like discovering new sounds on an old song. Although they actively dont encoruage bootlegging they have released some bootleg archives which are fascinating time pieces which show Killing Joke in transititon.
To the unconverted Jaz Colemans stage presence can be a bit disturbing as is the case on 1981 clips shown on italian Tv, where Jaz Coleman just stands their emotionless. But Killing Joke provide such brilliant music and Colemans performances are always memorable.



It is worth noting the sad loss of Paul Raven bass player of Killing Joke who sadly passed away in his sleep about 3+ years ago, to be honest I thought that was the end of the band at this time but Youth who was the original bass player has stepped in and the band has become more prolific , which is brilliant.

Tori Amos_Pretty good year

Tori Amos-Winter

Kraftwerk-Aerodnamic

Eagles-Witchy Woman

Gimlour and the orb

Such heavy rotation on my computer and hifi at the moment, love the dance feel combined with Gilmours guitar work. Youth is playing a big part in the production. Absolutely brilliant record.

Killing Joke-European Super state.

from their last album

Cabaret Voltaire-the Legacy

With all the recent thing in the press about 80s music and the resurgence of bands from that era, there is always one band that gets overlooked in my opinion and that is Cabaret Voltaire. To Be honest my knowledge of the cabs only starts on from about 1984 with the Microphonies album, however they had a recording career that went as far back as 78 and they existed in various forms from 1973 onwards.
Cabaret Voltaire were Stephen Mallinder(bass and vocals) and Richgard H Kirk(synths)and Chris Watson. Chris Watson left in 1981 and went onto form the Halfer Trio. For me Cabaret Voltaire were a revelation in the 80s and 90s. In the 80s there was a massive thing in the press that with the punk revolution and particularly in the mainstream music press there was very little being mentioned about music from before the late 70s, the only band at that time that I remember being reviewed favourably was the velvet underground. Bands like Pink Floyd and even Roxy Music were sort of seen as dinosaurs in music terms even though there music had been truly groundbreaking only 10 years earlier.

Cabaret Voltaire's early records had a feature of distorted vocalks often treated through things like a vecoder which almost synthisised the voice. The very early records were almost like stripped down funk. At the time the indie scene was like cottage industry with labels popping up everywhere and music being accepted on to various labels like Rough Trade and 4AD. Cabaret Voltaire toured with Joy division and were briefly assoicated with factory records, With the loss of Chris Watson they still recorded in a similar style but it was with the 1983 release the crackdown that they embraced the new technology and samplers that were availble at that time. What makes Cabaret Voltaire's music so brilliant of that time was they were using their cut up techniques and old sounds and merging them with hard hitting synth and drumbeats.



They released some other brilliant records like 'the covenenat ' album in 1985, in 85 and 86 the released 12" eps like The Draintrain and Drinking Gasoline. One thing of note worth adding is that where as the mid 80s album 'Mircophonies ' had a bit of record company muscle behind it at that time, Virgin If I recall. However by 1986 they released records indiependantly. Drinking Gasoline which came out in 1985 was a brilliant record and I have to admit the first record I brought by them, what was appealing at the time was that it was a 12" record(double) which was quite rare, it was also cheap to buy.

By 1987 They had managed to get signed to EMI and released a good album in Code, but after another album after that they were back to releasing albums on indie labels again. The sound of the last few albums incorparates the sounds of the dance music at times, but the drum sound had gone slightly lighter as opposed to the harsh drum sounds of the 1984-1987 era.



Cabaret Voltaire Split in 1994 . Which was probably the right thing to do, all though they had influenced many artists theyt had gone from experimental to dance to techno , from self financing record labels to indie labels to two major labels.

I see on a art site Stephen Mallinder is contruting articles and remixes of Cabaret Voltaire tracks from 2009 and Richard H Kirk is still releasing solo albums under various alias's.

Although I still like the occasional techno track, remembering Cabaret Voltaire and what they released of the time renders everything that followed after as slightly redundant.

Simple Minds-Spakle in the Rain Demos

http://symphonyofghosts.blogspot.com/2009/02/simple-minds-sparkle-in-rain-demos-1983.html

Not hosted on my site, but discovered this on the above web site, I like Simple Minds early work alot, from about 1980-1987 the released some groudbreaking albums. Its easy to forget how big they were in the mid 80s. This album above is basically a recording of the sparkle in the rain albumas work in progress. I think its might be recorded from the monitors, but it also sounds like this was what the album was to soundlike, of course they brought in Steve Lillywhite to produce and he gave the songs a more rockier feel. Two of the tracks are almost dance trance like, where Burchills guitar really soars above the mix. These tracks ought to be reproduced and reworked, would make a brilliant record. These kind of recordings are fascianting pieces of music as you realise what gets discarded in the recording process and what gets kept.

Fedora - New operating system, Linux...

About two weeks ago I finally had enough of working with Windows as an operating system, a few years ago I would of happily worked with XP which truth be told was quite a stable operating system however over the last few years with the advent of windows vista and windows 7, there seems to be a greater increase in ram usage and also in security issues. In the later case I had reinstalled vista about three times due to the fact that it was only letting me install the proper graphics if I installed the updates, but then obviously it would then make the system slow and unresponsive at times. I currently run a AMD computer which was also having problems with booting up, actually sending the picture to the monitor.

Anyway getting back to the point , I had tried many linux distributions over the years some good ones come to mind like Xandros and Ubuntu. I used Fedora before but I must say it is quite a good linux operating system and its very easy to install. Firstly I went to a Linux Distribution site and downloaded the ISO file. Then you use a software package like CDburner XP (which is free). Once you have the downloaded ISO file, just burn it to disc using the burn iso option. Once your disc is ejected from the drive. Restart your computer and make sure it boots from the CD drive and not the hard drive. This normally means pressing f2 of f12. The beauty about linux distros is that they run straight from the CD and mean that you can try the operating systems without losing your windows operating system. Which to me is a good way to go through all the various operating systems till you find the one best suited.

With Fedora I found it pleasing to the eye. The good things with fedora is that sound worked straight away. It also has flash player support(you go to flash player site and download rpm version). That was a little tricky to be honest but from then on its been really good. The plus points I would say would be ease of use, soundcard support, fast web pages speed, organisation of folders is cool as well. The only down sound is that to configure a sound site like Spotify is very complex, however sites like Last FM and Grooveshark and We7 work, but in a ideal world there is not a operating system that is completely faultless.Also its only compatible with certain printers.

A very good feature of note in Fedora is the add/remover programs feature which takes alot of the hard work out of installing new packages. For instance I wanted to play music so downloaded last fm application and then I wanted a word processor, two or three clicks they are there.

All though we have windows on a laptop, Linux exists on the base unit. I think Linux is almost there , I think it needs one distribution to come along with such easy ease of use and full windows and flash player capabilities to really take over the windows crown.

Phillip Glass-Glassworks

A clip I uploaded to youtube. Got a confirmation saying that music was owned by sony music , but it wasnt....

Messi

ZLATAN TOP 10 GOALS

Talking Heads-Road to nowhere

Pink Floyd-Pompei

This is a video I found on Google Video. This is a complete film of Live at Pompei , this features Pink floyd from about 1971 to 1972. Really driving rock and a brilliant statement of the times, however I noticed it features clips of abbey road studios in early 90s and not the 70s , so this must be from the dvd reissue

Kraftwerk - 23 Years on....

I have to admit Im really happy with the recognition Kraftwerk are getting in the serious music press over the last couple of years. I was working it out in my head the other day that I have followed them for about 23 years which is a very frightening statistic. I Always remembered them from the 'Tour De France' record onwards but I discovered the Computer World album in about late 88, it was so out of context with what I was liseting to at that time. It had frequencies of electronics that no other record of the time had. I mean at that time there was alot of good house and dance records of that time, but the computer World album was to me was such a complete peice of music which all sort of merged into one. Almost like a electronic concept album, actually I think all their albums from Autobahn to Computer World were based around concepts.

What I find fascinating is a band that strives for studio prefection, wouldnt it be great to sort of hear almost all their album in demo form and what about tracks that didnt make it. It would be fascianting to hear. I see on the Internet their is a file called Led Zeppelin -Outakes'. That features alternative tracks and studio mixes, if only one existed for Kraftwerk

Wierd Photo of John Lennon, Yoko and Warhol

Robin Guthrie-Imperial

What i respect the most about Robin Guthrie is that he hasnt stayed still after the Cocteau Twins broke up. He has released some really beautiful records. I think his music moved more away from the indie/etheral to the almost ambient. This is brilliant tyrack that just glides along

Wayne Rooney Overhead kick

Trawling through discs and how it came to be..

Over the last week I have decided to do something really stupid and try and catalogue my entire collection. Over the years I have amased a massive collection of recordings from cds to tape to vinyl and more besides, as a result I am now working my way through discs upon discs of stuff. I find myself asking a question how come did I come to be in this position.

I can trace my desire for music right back to when I was about 6/7 years old, my brother who was considerably older than me at that time would come back with a seven inch single most days and I used to look forward to seeing what he had picked up. At that time football was the main thing but by the time I was 12 I got the music bug, I realised quickly that my intrest in music was not confined to recording or playing(although that would have been good), I think what I got into was how broad a thing it was. Say for instance someone who likes cars, after a while you know most brands of car. With music it was the sheer diversity of music that got me hooked.Over the years my musical taste has moved from many different genres. At this moment in time I can listen to music from a variety of genres. Where as say 10 years ago I could only listen to one style. Like Electronic as opposed to. If my musical taste were to be logged it would be something like this

1984-1985 pop music-chart
1985 -1986 Heavy Metal
1986-1988 Indie Music
1988 -1992 Industrail / Indie Dance
1992 - 1994 Guitar rock
1994-1999 70s rock (almost AOR)
2000 - trance
2003 - rock (progressive)
2005-ambient

At this moment in time I can listen to music from any genre and sort of listen to it back to back, where as about 10 years ago I would just stick with the music and shut out other forms.

Gary Moore-RIP

One of those artists that I was always familar with from the mid 80s. But never really discovered until quite recently. Gary Moore was a twice member of Thin Lizzy and released over 20 albums over the years. My favrioute music by him is at his phil Lynott tribute gig, the guitar playing is definately better than on the originals. In one performance he carries Brian Rbertson along, such a truly talented guitarist who will be missed by rock fans everywhere.....

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/metallicas-kirk-hammett-remembers-thin-lizzys-gary-moore-20110209

Kate Bush-Sat in your lap

Peter Gabrielk-More than this

From top of the pop 2, luckily steve wright didnt spoil it to much by talking over it

orbital-glastonury

the grid-rollercoaster

Muse-Knights......2007 abbey road

muse-new born

Image grabber on Fedora

Like the way you can sort of take parts from any part of a web page and effortlessly paste it to your web site, This is from the Thin Lizzy reunion of gary moore and scott gorham....

Killing Joke-Nervous System

From 1979/80. Quite liked its vibe feel...

Facebook groups.....Totals

Created some facebook music groups.....as of today 5th Febuary 2011. the readers are..

Kraftwerk - 688
King Crimson -133
Roxy Music -1070
The who -10?
Rychui Sakamtoto-709
Simple Minds- 37.
New Order-94
Goldfrapp -21
Siouxsie and the banshees-181
David Bowie -143

3086....subscriptions

Mike Oldfield -20...
Killing Joke - 19.

Amazing Really but its the acts that I thought would have a greater readership that are actually quite poor and the lesser knbown artists lkike sakamoto that have really took off. I will do some work towards some other music links and maybe run about 20 music related sites. I think Banshess and cure are ones who I will always like and remember alot from a previous time of liking them , however you can see a move towrds progressive tastes in my groups.

The Artwork of Brian Eno....

http://www.printmag.com/article/the-album-covers-of-brian-eno

Intresting to see someone reviewing the artwork of Brian Eno's albums, Im listening to alot of Eno at the moment. Really relaxing music which is great to work to.

FFWD-Robert Fripp and THE FSOL

I remember hearing this on the radio in about 1994, I remember the dj Anne Nightingale was really pushing it. Very laidback and almost non music if you know what I mean but it does convey a mood or as Fripp reffers to it 'Soundscape'

Sharon Shannon and Mike Scott

Seth Lakeman-hearts and minds

Killing Joke-Europe

from Nightime in 1985

Porcupine Tree-Anetahaise

above and beyond-stealing time