#90s experimental

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Analog Worms Attack by Mr. Oizo F Communications 1999 Breakbeat / Techno / Experimental

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Today’s compilation:

Invisible Route SixSixSix 1995 Industrial / Rock / Experimental / Ambient

[mikepatton-confessions]

“Back in the 90ies, I loved the Angel Dust-Album. I didn´t know much about the band nor anything about Mr Bungle´s existence, just thought that Mike was a pretty cool guy with a great vocal style. A few months ago I recognized his genius incidentally by researching what happened to the bands of my youth. I´m stuck to him since then, now being well informed about at least a few of his innumerable musical projects and I have to admit that today, I even love Bungle´s California more than Angel Dust.”

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The Sidewinder - “Implant 7″ The Lo Fibre Companion Song released in 1997. Compilation released in 1998. Experimental Techno / Minimal Techno

I’ve posted about both members of The Sidewinder, Kevin Martin and Justin K. Broadrick, before, but I’ve never posted about any of the music the two have made together. Martin and Broadrick are peas in a pod. They’re both British and they were both the driving forces behind their respective pioneering industrial metal bands. And both bands have similar names. Martin was in a group called GOD and Broadrick is in Godflesh. On top of that, and probably most importantly, they both love to experiment with hip hop and various styles of electronic music. There might not be a pair of musicians more suited for each other than these two blokes.

Kevin Martin and Justin K. Broadrick’s relationship dates back to 1988. Godflesh had just appeared on John Peel’s BBC radio show and Martin had dug what he had heard. The pair met and hit it off, and Broadrick ended up producing some of GOD’s earliest records. By 1992, he counted himself as an official member of GOD while also playing in Godflesh. 

But prior to Broadrick joining GOD, he and Martin formed their first project as a duo, Techno Animal, in 1990. The name was a bit of a misnomer since they didn’t produce any techno, but instead made what can be best described as genre-bending and trailblazing industrial hip hop. To date, Techno Animal has been the pair’s most successful project, having released four albums and nine 12-inches. Although they had put an end to Techno Animal by 2004, Martin and Broadrick picked it back up with the same vision under Zonal, a name they released an album under in 2000 that remained dormant until just last year. Since then, as Zonal, they’ve released an album and two 12-inches.

Broadrick and Martin have had more visions than just Techno Animal and Zonal though. One of those culminated in a project called The Sidewinder. Originally an industrial techno effort, they released an album called Colonized in 1996 on German experimental electronic label Mille Plateaux. That same year, Broadrick launched his own record label called Lo Fibre, which solely released 12-inches in a minimal techno / drone / noise / ambient type of vein. In 1997, as The Sidewinder, Broadrick and Martin followed up Colonized with Implant EP on Lo Fibre. Shifting from industrial techno, they were now crafting darkly sparse and eerie beats, consisting of different types of strange, unorthodox sounds and noise. 

Lo Fibre unfortunately folded in 1998, but the Chicago-based industrial label, Invisible, put together a double CD of both Lo Fibre’s released and unreleased material called The Lo Fibre Companion. Appearing on the compilation are a few tracks from the Implant EP, including “Implant 7″.

The overarching theme of “Implant 7″ would have to be graininess. Just about every weird sound that went into making this song seems to be covered in a coat of creepy, hissing white noise. Gradually building from just a combination of a beating 4/4 kick drum, a looped piece of static, and an ambient spin-cycling hum, over time, this song transforms into a cacophonous piece of minimal, experimental techno led by 808 clap-happy stacks, which, when introduced, continue to increase in speed, so much so, that at the end, their strung-togetherness sounds more like the imposing beat of spinning helicopter blades than the claps from RUN-D.M.C.’s “Sucker MC’s.” Of course, that was the type of thing Martin and Broadrick were going for: playing around with sounds until reaching a unique eureka moment. They’re pretty good at that type of thing and “Implant 7″ shows just what their adventurous minds are capable of producing.

Some weird and grainy experimental techno from a pair of industrial metal titans who consistently love to ride on some of the darkest fringes of electronic music. Stay the fuck inside you freaks.

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Intron - “Intron” MASK 200 1997 IDM / Breakbeat / Experimental

Intron is the once-only-used alias of Manchester, UK’s Jega, one of the maddest IDM producers to have ever created this music. His very unique style is known to mix IDM, breakbeats, electro, and drum and bass, sometimes through the use of lo-fi equipment, which has produced some absolutely wild sound experiments. Throughout his career, he has released four albums, three solo 12-inches, and three split-release 12-inches. One of Jega’s songs can be heard in a BBC Radio mix by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, which consisted of music that influenced the sound and direction of Kid A. 

Jega’s career dates back to 1996, when he landed on the Manchester-based Skam label, a very small outfit at the time that was known for releasing Autechre-related projects like Gescom and Lego Feet, as well as Freeform (if these names are foreign to you, then you’re missing out, friend). In addition to releasing his debut 12-inch in 1996, Jega appeared on Skam’s highly-coveted MASK 100, a four-song 12-inch compilation that had only 100 total copies pressed. Interestingly, 151 people on Discogs claim to own it(???), and only a single copy is currently for sale, fetching for an absurd $912.55. 

In 1997, Jega released his second 12-inch on Skam and also appeared on the follow-up to MASK 100, which was MASK 200. This compilation has five songs and had 200 copies pressed (Each subsequent release in the MASK series increases the number of pressings by 100). There is currently only one copy for sale on Discogs, asking for $391.30.

The song to close out MASK 200 is called “Intron” and it has to be the most lo-fi track Jega has ever made. Sounding like what you’d imagine a black box from a nuclear meltdown might sound like, Jega uses static, distortion, and white noise to his advantage by celebrating these residual, usually unwanted effects and sounds that are left by shitty equipment. He blends this nebulous cloud of sounds with pummeling and frenzied percussion, including hard kicks and splattering snares, as the white noise constantly changes frequency and crackling static seeps its way in.

A very strange, experimental track by this UK IDM master.

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The Bug - “Low Rider” The Lo Fibre Companion 1998 Trip Hop / Illbient / Industrial / Experimental

The Bug is the main moniker used by the UK’s Kevin Martin, a diverse electronic musician who performs under multiple electronic subgenres, including dub, illbient, industrial, hip hop, trip hop, dubstep, dancehall, and jazz-punk. Martin tends to ascribe a different alias to each subgenre he produces under. In the 90s, when the name The Bug was first introduced, he used it for his trip hop creations.

The Bug’s first album was 1997′s Tapping The Conversation, conceptually meant to be an alternate soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film The Conversation. And at that point, The Bug was not just Martin. He also had the amazing DJ Vadim co-producing with him. 

A year later, “Low Rider” made its first appearance on Invisible Records’ Lo Fibre Companion. This is some heavy and hard type of stuff. Martin uses rumbling and revving bass distortions, a ton of static, and a metallic trip hop drum break. He complements this with clapping metallic snares, varying white noise, and hints of acid.

HEAVY late 90s trip hop instrumental. Something to blow out your speakers with. 

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Today’s compilation:

Female of the Species 1999 Experimental / Downtempo / Abstract / Noise

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Nudge - ”Duplo” The Law & Auder Assembly 1998 IDM / Experimental

Throughout the life of this blog, I have, a number of times, written effusively about the amazing work of Britain’s Simon Pyke, also known as Freeform. Pyke is perhaps weird electronic music’s most underappreciated craftsman, blessed with the unmatched ability to create such layered and wonderfully textured IDM soundscapes.

Pyke has used the name Nudge for just a few compilation appearances dring his career, including “Duplo,” a song from The Law & Auder Assembly EP, released by experimental electronic UK label Law & Auder in 1998.

“Duplo” presents a fantastic blend of various unorthodox tribal drum rhythms, percussive blips, and long, warm organ synths. Just before the 2:40 mark, Pyke adds in a spiritual and high-pitched vocal melody. It sounds like it could be a sped up sample of an eastern religious chant of some kind, but its provenance seems unknown. This element is the crowning piece of the track, making it both whole and magnificent.

Throughout the remainder, Pyke experiments with his drums by exploring new rhythms and patterns, with the final 2 minutes and 45 seconds consisting of a long, extended deconstruction.

Just another song showcasing the musical genius of Simon Pyke.