hey, look. the kids have figured out how to water down fla (as if it wasn't already watered down) into a generic product that they can mass produce with little effort and sell at walmart.
yawn.
this was the least interesting major industrial act, but i think it's what you're looking for. the more substantial acts tend to be a bit more varied and less formulaic in their writing. FLA plasticity Zero Mix
Splooshii Thundersocks
I hate to be an asshole but I have to agree. This sounds like fla core from about ten years ago.
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deathtokoalas
bands this bad don't deserve breaks - unless you mean a break up.
ExquisiteDoom
I hate to be the annoying fuck who says +1. But, +1.
I really thought i would enjoy their music as i really love the concept of using raw metal on metal percussive samples with minimalist synth atmospheres (like in the 86's up to 95's industrial bands), but for one, for some reason, seeing just kids on stage fully knowing the audience will be a lot older than them makes it just weird as hell. Secondly, there is nothing really seriously catchy or genius or just worth mentioning, it feels pretty bland. The video's pretty stupid and cliché. There is no serious kickdrum to headbang to like the older bands, there is no atmosphere, and the kid vocals make me feel uncomfortable. 2.5/10 :l
Aaaaaand i don't like a single song. Not even one. They completely miss me and i fucking kill for old school industrial, which this is just a complete ripoff of as if they have no clue why the old bands used the sounds they used.
deathtokoalas
i think there's this sort of mystique that's grown up around it, as though this is the "devil's music" or something. it's really missing the point behind a lot of it. the best industrial from the period was legitimately musically innovative, but it was also highly politicized. the imagery wasn't empty shock rock to irritate your parents. some of it was legitimately reaching towards other value systems, but the bulk of it was a kind of agitprop that developed parallel to the tactics used in punk rock. one of the defining factors of the new generation of "industrial" bands is that they've dropped that rooting in punk rock for a lack of substantial messaging. it's all style, no substance.
the other thing is that you'll note that all the artists of the period expanded their sound as they moved to more advanced technology. they reached the limits of what they could do with 80s machines and moved on to react to those limitations. going back to the old technology entirely misses the point. this is supposed to be pushing boundaries and exploring the unknown, not regurgitating the same thing over and over again to appeal to a market.
what i'd love to hear is somebody pick up where skinny puppy left off about 1995. nobody's really done that. the genre just evaporated, leaving nothing in it's wake but some scene kids in costumes competing over who's a better corporate slave. and, as one generation has shifted into the next, it's become all that's really left of what was.
but, there's definitely a younger audience for this. unfortunately, the vast majority of that audience doesn't seem to understand the music at all, it just sees it as a a retro fashion trend to exploit.
Lee Scuderi
I agree with you on the Skinny Puppy comments but your previous comments make me realize why nobody has attempted to do that. Anytime someone even comes remotely close to sounding like Puppy people go ape shit and start trashing them as "rip-offs". A band could have the same energy, vision and vibe as Puppy but would never get passed the barrage of loyalists who would keep them from progressing or gaining any sort of publicity. I hate to say it but Puppy broke the mold so if you want a revitalization people have to stop holding acts down who make an attempt to capture that kind of energy. Ive seen it happen countless times. I mean there have to be musicians who have the same level of creativity but Im sure they are afraid to even make an attempt because they know what would happen. This genre has a very specific stigma and formula. I mean as far sound and vision goes and Puppy captured all of it. The only way to even get remotely close to being successful would be to take their formula....sound, image, vision and do it all over again because anything else just seems cheap and watered down.
deathtokoalas
if it sounded like puppy, it would be moving backwards rather than forwards. the idea is to carry on beyond puppy. if such a hypothetical project were to actually exist, the comparisons wouldn't stick because they wouldn't be accurate. and, if it actually were to sound like puppy then they'd be accurate...
so, i think you may have misunderstood what i said.
Lee Scuderi
Ok well what I'm saying is that its impossible to carry on beyond Puppy because they have pretty much broken the mold for this genre. Nothing in music is original anymore because everything has been done and if you get too far away from what makes a genre of music...as far as the nuances, sounds, vision, image then it starts to become something else. Basically my point is Puppy is the best thing that has and will happen to this type of music. You cant progress past it...you can only take the formula they have crafted and re-use it. Otherwise, in my opinion, whatever you produce will not be as good...just by default. Any other attempt to create music in the industrial genre will just end up being less appealing IMO. Say you use different instrumentation, sounds, etc. It will probably not be industrial anymore...and if you do use that formula...dark synths, atmosphere, visuals, distorted vocals people will cry foul and call you a rip off. Its really damned if you do, damned if you dont. I just dont think anything AS GOOD can exist in this genre unless you actually rip off the best...which would be Puppy. The comparisons will always be there.
I just think Puppy found that perfect balance of sound, image, vision and approach and anything else that is a variation to that will just be inferior. I hate to say that there is no hope for this genre but it's true. When a band creates music that is leagues beyond what anyone else has produced and also leaves no stone un-turned....that makes it near impossible for bands to compete or a genre to thrive. You cant use dark synth lines, horror movie samples, distorted vocals...any of that aesthetic will automatically be compared to Skinny Puppy. I hate to say Puppy killed a genre for being too good...but they kind of did.
deathtokoalas
see, here's the thing: it's hard to imagine how something that doesn't exist might exist. if it were that easy, it wouldn't be a hypothetical discussion.
you wouldn't be that far from it if you just added some vocals to some post-repetae autechre. i was exaggerating a little. but the basic idea is valid.
i think there's been a general collapse of abstraction in music since the mid 90s and it's root is in the cultural changes that ogre and like-minded people were warning us of. the cultural stagnation wasn't just predictable, it was predicted.
it exists in a weird electro-pop space, but check out pepepiano. i think it's next gen puppy, but it's also very different. see, it has to be to be next gen puppy...
as for reznor, he's been understood as a "borrower" for a long time but none of the specific accusations stick because none of them are true for more than a year or two. had he released five records that sounded like down in it, it would be fair to accuse him of ripping off puppy. instead, he ripped off ministry for a while and then went to ripping off idm and even spent a while ripping off radiohead. don't get me wrong with reznor: a few of the 90s remix discs are outstanding works of abstract art, but you have to give thirlwell and coil and dangers and the rest of them credit for the remixes that were done on those discs...
but, because you brought it up, i have to point to the tetsuo theme as another example of something that would be next gen. it's a short piece, but it's outstanding. i want hours and hours of it. nobody's doing it.
the little bit of truly original work that reznor has done (the quake soundtrack, the instrumentals on still, his recent film work and the remix discs in the 90s, to the extent he was involved) is for the most part outstanding and idiosyncratic.
but, he's based the bulk of his career on borrowed ideas and it's something that got worse and worse as he aged; he didn't find his own voice so much as he become more emboldened to use the voices of others. that's not a kneejerk reaction of any sort, it's merely a statement of fact.
Sinny
Some decent newer acts around. Mostly just fall into the noise category.
deathtokoalas
i've mostly been listening to punk lately. stuff comes up and down - more often than not in opposition to the prevailing trends. but, industrial music was at one time such a remarkable art form, how it's become just completely bereft of any kind of forward momentum, given that the tools are infinitely greater nowadays, is just beyond me. well, i guess it's not that beyond me, but it's a sad reflection of this first generation of kids raised in the neo-liberal reality, and the jerks that tossed them to the market wolves.
