Torch Song - “Prepare To Energize (12” Version)” from single of same name.

Before William Orbit became a known name later in the 80s, he was one half of Torch Song, the other half being Laurie Mayer. If you remember the 1984 movie Bachelor Party’s infamous donkey-on-drugs scene, this song is somewhat familiar. A much tamer, shorter version of this song was used for that scene.

This is the 12” version, which is mixed much more for the club scene than for the background. The bizarro electro-noise sounds that begin the track and start up at the 3:00 minute mark are quite ahead of their time.

Torch Song are still around today, now featuring former member of The Lines and known remixer and producer Rico Conning.

S’Express - “Superfly Guy (The Fluffy Bagel Mix)” (1988)

303! 303! 303!

This was the first song I heard that bludgeoned ears with that infamous 303 bass synthesizer sound, very popular in acid house.  Initially, I heard *of* the track via a Bomb The Bass track (“Shake It”) that teased with a sample of this, leaving me wondering where the hell to get the full thing.  I found the “Superfly Guy” Cd-single shortly after, used, which had this as its final track.

If there’s such a thing as wearing out aluminum pits and valleys, this CD single was one of the first for me.

All that and a Texas Chainsaw Massacre sample to boot! 

“Strap Down - Part 3” from the U.S. 2-LP Storm The Studio by Meat Beat Manifesto (1989) - related to the #17 Best Industrial Art entry in that countdown.

This is a rarity with an unnecessarily confused story behind it. Almost every Meat Beat Manifesto fan knows that “Strap Down - Part 3” never made it to CD, despite the numerous reissues of Storm The Studio on CD since its initial release, and despite it being able to fit on a single CD just barely. (Its inclusion would bring the CD length to just under 80 minutes.)

What’s less known and understandably falsely inferred and reported — even on Brainwashed’s site(!!) — is that “Strap Down - Part 3” never made it on the UK Sweatbox 2-LP release either. There is a “Part 3” on it, however its track separator occurs right after “Strap Down - Part 2“‘s false stop, hence making a tiny “Part 3”… What got sadly lost was a full 8 minute track that’s not only completely different than the first two Parts of “Strap Down” but is arguably the finest track on Storm The Studio.

(Trust me, I’d be the first to say “OF COURSE THE RAREST TRACK IS THE BEST. HMMMPH.”  In this case, it’s actually true!  Really!)

Unfortunately, the faux pas on Sweatbox’s vinyl mastering may have translated over to its CD mastering, of which was likely transferred directly to Wax Trax! in the U.S. — despite “Strap Down - Part 3” making it onto the Wax Trax! vinyl.

Its exclusion since — even from the recent Meat Beat Manifesto/Perennial Divide rarities compilation from two years ago, apparently — can probably be explained easily: Jack Dangers thinks the track is weak.  I strongly disagree, but hey, if he doesn’t want to bother reintroducing the track, that’s clearly his choice. (OK, disclosure: I interviewed Jack backstage at the Organic ‘96 festival near Lake Arrowhead in the fall of 1996.  I asked Jack about “Strap Down Part 3”, and he politely dismissed it.  I will say that Jack Dangers is a wonderful interview subject and would not hesitate to interview him again.)

“Strap Down - Part 3” is a loopy mid-tempo ride that builds and builds. The momentum really kicks in just after the 4.5 minute mark. The track goes completely mad just before the 6 minute mark.

This track is the best proof of concept that is the album Storm The Studio — noise textures, highly danceable, messed up vocal samples ranging from “Beat” to “Blood” to “Death”.  The oscillating percussive sounds are very reminiscent of Coil at their most danceable, though Coil wouldn’t do that sort of thing often until a year after this track.

In brief, this is an amazing track that doesn’t deserve to be forgotten. Listen and listen loud.

#17 Top Industrial Album Art - Meat Beat Manifesto - Storm The Studio (1989)

The day I blindly bought Meat Beat Manifesto’s Storm The Studio in early 1989 was the day I thought Wax Trax! was certainly the label of the future. In retrospect, it was a foolish thought. In other ways, it wasn’t inaccurate.

While I was a fan of groups such as N.W.A. and Public Enemy by the turn of 1989, I wasn’t sold on hip-hop overall until I forced myself into Storm The Studio.  My introduction to Meat Beat Manifesto was actually the “God O.D.” 12”, released in late 1988, shortly before.  Like many purchases, Wax Trax! was a label I could buy anything from. Chances are I would either love it, like it, or learn to do either.

Meat Beat Manifesto immediately stood out from the rest of the label roster by accenting its heavy use of breakbeats.  The 12” version of “God O.D.” was fun, playful, and decidedly non-sinister — at least in a way that deviated from other Wax Trax! groups like Front 242, KMFDM, or whatever side project the Ministry frontmen whipped up that month. (Ministry had since signed with Sire records, though continued being a major presence at Wax Trax! for a while.)  That said, Meat Beat Manifesto were far noisier.  Their use of loud white noise as a percussive sound they warped, flanged, and stuttered throughout the groove was nothing like the more 4/4 darker synth-pop of their peers.

I picked up Storm The Studio double-LP on its release date.  Looking at the front cover, the inner sleeves, and the arrangement of four main songs each divided into four parts — save “Strap Down” divided into three, I knew this was going to be different. Good different or bad different, I had no clue.

The first track, “God O.D. Part 1” was a much nastier version than the one on the 12”. It turns out that “God O.D.”, “Strap Down”, and “I Got The Fear” had been previously released on 12”, though in far more benign forms than on this.  Meat Beat Manifesto were out to cause damage with these new versions, while having a bit of fun with funk/dance samples, vocal samples, slow & fast breakbeats, and noise.

The aesthetic was closest to that of the Tackhead side of On-U Sound records. However, that was still inaccurate. By the time I let the record play through the clipping dub of “Re-Animator Part 4”, then flipped over to the high energy jackhammer-filled chaos of “Strap Down Part 1”, I was a changed kid. This was the next level I was involuntarily and happily lifted upon.

Storm The Studio is a complete mess — an amazing mess in all respects. There were four members at the time. However the inner sleeve, side “Strap Down”, had a Press Your Luck style arrangement of random people, any of which could have been the band members. I could only guess three of the members from the “God O.D.” 12” cover. I was convinced that the slightly embarrassing and invigorating rapping was done by the fellow with the micro-dreads on his shaved head. I was wrong.

Jack Dangers was the vocalist, one of the short dark haired fellows on the inner sleeve. DJ Greg Retch (real name: Colin James) was Meat Beat Manifesto’s “DJ”, although that was likely another role chosen by the designer and choreographer of the group, Marcus Adams. He was the micro-dreaded one whose image was most prominent in promo material. It turned out he never uttered a word. However, he did add a surreal and absurd element to the troupes seen at the group’s earliest live shows.

The most important influence Meat Beat Manifesto bestowed was giving me a back door to appreciate the explosion of creativity happening in hip-hop circa 1989. I was a couple of years late to the first major hip-hop renaissance, though. While Meat Beat didn’t always use hip-hop tempo breakbeats in their music, my favorite tracks on Storm The Studio were primarily in that category.

One clear influence I detected in Meat Beat Manifesto was Public Enemy. The Bomb Squad’s wall-of-noise style certainly influenced Meat Beat, as did the heavy sounds from the more caustic side of Adrian Sherwood’s 80s beat projects, notably Mark Stewart + The Maffia. From there on, it seemed almost every new genre of dance music, fast or slow, had some dots that could quickly be connected back to this early period of Meat Beat Manifesto.

A few months later, college radio DJs would be going nuts over the release of the long awaited Beastie Boys second album Paul’s Boutique. To be fair, it was primarily long awaited by those who wanted a Licensed To Ill, Part II, not nearly as much by college radio DJs. Paul’s Boutique is now considered the group’s best album by far, even if it sold poorly at the start.

Why the mention of Paul’s Boutique? As much as I would later love this album, Storm The Studio had trumped this album, in time, in sound, in dance — even if only a small fraction of Paul’s Boutique’s lovers cared. Paul’s Boutique has and deserves a huge legacy in hip-hop’s history. Both Storm The Studio and Paul’s Boutique committed the same techniques of obscure and not-so-obscure dance/funk samples, fragmentary/collage arrangements, and a kaleidoscopic clash of fun and hard work to achieve two completely different beasts. All in all, 1989 may be the greatest year in dance music and hip-hop experimentation ever.

Around this time, with the notable critical acclaim Meat Beat Manifesto and Greater Than One brought, Wax Trax! started experimenting more, fighting the “industrial” label. A year later, the label would be the very brief home of The KLF. However, it was great timing, as Wax Trax! can claim to be the first US label to release the classic godfather of New Ambient album Chill Out. A couple of years later, when Industrial had already decayed, the label quietly released Polygon Window, a project by someone who would also form a little known alias named Aphex Twin. A year after that, Autechre’s first release. 

Storm The Studio plus the final days of Wax Trax! would form the largest prototype of 90s and 00s dance music, years before “electronica”, “IDM”, and much more. (Notably, nothing Industrial.)

Storm The Studio has received a few serious makeovers since Meat Beat’s signing with Trent Reznor’s Nothing label in the late 90s. The album itself became a remix project in 2003.

Meat Beat Manifesto have released several albums since, each one very different than the previous. Jack Dangers, long since the only original member, has done innumerable remixes. Meat Beat are still at it.

#18 <— #17 + (“Strap Down Part 3” audio link) —> #16

Front 242 - 06:21:03:11 Up Evil and 05:22:09:12 Off (1993): #18 Best Industrial Album Art:

Front 242 were one of the most influential groups in Industrial and electronic dance, though certainly owing much to Cabaret Voltaire and, most of all, Kraftwerk. Their debut album Geography from 1982 presented the band as a more noir late 70s Kraftwerk. Their popularity rose throughout the 80s as they enhanced and twisted that noir element, adding guitars as textures, making them the go-to band for those who wanted to hear the Blade Runner aesthetic as dance music. They hammered on the latter like they were the Ramones of sinister dance — several permutations based on the same set of bass notes and beats, but working those permutations so well.  For whatever reason, this particular strain of Industrial dance music produced the genre name “Electronic Body Music”, an embarrassingly vague genre name though ostensibly specific to this neo-noir soundtrack style of dance music.

Their 1993 albums, 06:21:03:11 Up Evil and 05:22:09:12 Off (translating to “Fuck Up Evil” and “Evil Off” respectively if de-indexing the numbers as letters in the English alphabet) were Front 242’s greatest and most awkward releases. For all intents and purpose, these two were their last albums.  The greatness in the art of these albums isn’t so much what’s on the cover, but how they were released and presented.

After helping put their first U.S. label Wax Trax! on the dance canon, Front 242 signed a deal with Sony/Epic in 1990. Their first album for Sony, 1991’s »Tyranny« For You, was primarily a fan reassurance album. It was their most one-dimensional album since their earliest days, though a well produced one. “Sell Out” was a knee-jerk response to any independent label band signing to a major in the early 90s. »Tyranny« For You stoked that fire very quickly. However, one notable change in Front 242 was their new willingness to have other popular artists remix their singles, such as having The Orb remix their single “Rhythm Of Time.”

That openness was just a sliver of a hint of what would come with Front 242’s next project. By the time their Evil twin albums were released, everyone invested in Industrial had seen a large crossover of Industrial into hard rock, and vice versa.

When 06:21:03:11 Up Evil dropped in early 1993, Front 242 fans had a lot to sift through. This album was a stylistic gamble that paid off in critical acclaim. This was their hardest, most rocking album but far more experimental as well.  Not everybody was necessarily on board, as it was difficult to note an obvious and accessible dance club stormer. Singer Jean-Luc De Meyer was singing more passionately and with less monotony. Richard 23 was barely to be heard.  Dare it be said that Nine Inch Nails had an influence? The hard rock din pounded as hard as KMFDM at the time. However, there were many new electronic noises and glitches buried in the more atmospheric synths, such that would prototype what would later be called “IDM” (Intelligent Dance Music — more on that in a later entry.) 

Despite releasing the densest album of their career, it was well publicized that Front 242 were releasing a “Part 2” album later in the year.  Fans were ecstatic.

However, when 05:22:09:12 Off was released in late 1993, most fans were confused, the primary reason being that the vocals were primarily sung by a 99 Kowalski a.k.a. Kristin Kowalski who was then in a New York group called Spill that had previously worked with Front 242 members in the studio.

Front 242 were partially known for carrying a macho image and vocal delivery, so the prominence of an aggressive female singer on a highly anticipated followup album was a gender-bending mindfuck. Discreetly putting a female lead singer front & center in an Industrial band was relatively unprecedented, even though groups like Ethyl Meatplow and Lords Of Acid would do similar that year. In hindsight, it was a sign that as much as Front 242 were cryptic about their motives, these two albums were the result of inner band tensions.

Being able to put the albums literally side by side, what was the Evil to which Front 242 referred? Now, it clearly seems that the Evil was the tension in the group. At the time, many interpreted, more literally, that Evil was man, and Good was female, despite that the singing on both were highly aggressive and brutal.  Never mind that despite its title, 05:22:09:12 Off looked far more evil looking than its predecessor.  An angry demon thing with curled horns vs. a bloodied skeleton angel? The latter wins.

After 1993, the band would break up and splinter off into too many side projects to name. The original lineup would reform in the late 90s, but to disappointment. Even their latest digital album Moments… from two years ago is more Front 242 nostalgia. 

Which is really too bad, given that Front 242 could have reunited as a way to temporarily dismiss the past and continue to make groundbreaking dance music, which they surely had the means to do.

They virtually ended their career on two albums that still unveil new elements upon each listen. Front 242 went beyond making music for Blade Runner fans. In 1993, coincidentally the same year Blade Runner was preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, Front 242 made two albums that were convincingly of the time depicted in Blade Runner —2019.  Now that this year is less than a decade away (CRINGE), one could bet that Front 242 will still be remembered, hopefully for these two albums in particular, by 2019.

#19 <— #18 + (“Animal” video link here) —> #17

A Guy Called Gerald “Voodoo Ray” from 1988’s Hot Lemonade.  Not too many acid house songs made it across the Atlantic, and fewer videos made it across. This track does sum up everything I liked about electronic dance (outside industrial) in the late 80s. The video is amazing.