What do you think?
Rate this book
Industrial Culture Handbook
Essential library reference guide to the deviant performance artists and musicians of the industrial culture movement. Features Survival Research Laboratories, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, Non, Monte Cazazza, Johanna Went, Sordide Sentimental, R&N, and Z'ev. Some topics discussed: new brain research, forbidden medical texts & films, creative crime and interesting criminals, modern warfare and weaponry, neglected gore films and their directors, psychotic lyrics in past pop songs, art brut. 10 interviews, essays, quotations, chronologies, bibliographies, discographies, filmographies, sources, and index.
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
19 people are currently reading
951 people want to read
About the author
V. Vale
47 books112 followersJapanese-American writer and publisher. He also played keyboards for the later famous power trio Blue Cheer.
In 1977 he started to publish the punk fanzine "Search and destroy" In 1980, he began publication of RE/Search, a tabloid format zine focusing on various counterculture and underground topics.
RE/Search later became always a format for books, of which Vale is a regular contributor.
In 1977 he started to publish the punk fanzine "Search and destroy" In 1980, he began publication of RE/Search, a tabloid format zine focusing on various counterculture and underground topics.
RE/Search later became always a format for books, of which Vale is a regular contributor.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 16, 2022
When I was at university in New Orleans, a well-used copy of "The Industrial Culture Handbook" could always be found lying around the student quad or in the cafeteria. Or someone was always reading it in the smoke-filled amber halls of the Rue de la Course coffee house. Or a friend would reference something they read in it while drinking a cold Dixie beer at the Saturn Bar, or the Mermaid. Trent Reznor would suddenly tell a story he remembered from it while we were doing our laundry on Magazine street or watching the Thoth parade. People like Jesus Jones, Ruth McCardle, and Edward Ka-Spel might tell you their own tales about some of the shows mentioned in the Handbook while relaxing in the back of the Red Eye.
Though New Orleans was certainly no industrial center like Chicago, my generation grew up with idols of the post-Industrial music world hanging out and working in our neighborhoods. It also helped that the house of William S. Burroughs served as a kind of monument just a ferry ride over the Mississippi. And though I had been too young to be attending live shows of Throbbing Gristle and SPK during the heyday of the first-wave of Industrial, I had been making my own noise music with my own backyard instruments since I was able to talk, and before I was 12, I was already starting to trade cassettes of bootlegged live recordings and sound loops from the original Industrial pioneers. So it was a wonderful time to be a young man and associate with the heirs of this movement when the Industrial Culture Handbook made it's way into the record stores and dormitories of American youth by the late 80s. Rereading it again after all these years brought back many fond memories, and inspired me to tell you all about it.
The Handbook is almost 150 pages of photos, poems, artwork, references, and interviews of the original purveyors of what would be coined "Industrial Music." At the time, "industrial" did not mean crunching heavy metal with buzzing electronic bass and deafening square wave snaps. It did not mean guys and gals with bleached hair and multiple piercings adorned in leather fetish wear like a Cenobite. No, it consisted of skinny nerds like me beating on modified trash cans, pipes, cooking pots, guy wires, sheet metal, cymbals, gongs, chimes, triangles, ethnic percussion instruments, empty oil drums, water cooler tanks, and dryer tubs. It was engineers splicing audio tape recorded with their homemade samples that they would input into their second-hand or self-built synthesizers. It was art students distorting the sound of their cornets through an electronic filter, or playing a guitar with a shoe polisher. They didn't play for large arena crowds, but usually for themselves or their friends, sometimes recording their happy accidents for posterity. Industrial wasn't trying to mimic the sounds of a factory, but it was using the products of modern industry and technology to find beauty and meaning. It wasn't about fashion, or being Woke, or anti-capitalist, or left-wing, or right-wing, or angry, or high on drugs, or hard-core. Industrial was, and is, a mindset of philosophical and psychological exploration of the urban landscape, modern Western society, the Information War, and magick. The Industrial Culture Handbook gives you a taste of like-minded people who had very different voices and styles but who became joined together by that same spirit that was coined by Genesis P. Orridge and Monte Cazazza as "Industrial."
Upon rereading the Handbook, I was reminded of a couple of things. First, there are multiple influential figures in the movement who I've never yet familiarized myself with at all. And second, sometimes our heroes of adolescence and young adulthood who we idolized as geniuses could still say some pretty moronic stuff and still sound pompous.
For example, I've never knowingly listened to anything from the record label Sordide Sentimental, who worked with bands I had not experienced before such as Savage Republic. But industrial staples like Monte Cazazza, Throbbing Gristle, and Psychic TV also recorded with them, along with other influencers like the great Joy Division. You learn something new everyday, even from books you've read before! The editors interviewed the two founders of the company for the Handbook, and it is an interesting exchange, but both the interviewers and the interviewed frequently talked out of their ass about topics of which they clearly knew nothing. Did you know elephants have no brain cortex? Me neither. But then again, it could just be one of the many "theories" they were discussing that shape reality but don't necessarily represent the truth. I guess "theories" must have also been spoken with a heavy French accent, because it took a while for the interviewer to suddenly realize he was saying "theories" instead of "fairies!" Oh my.
The interview with Genesis P. Orridge is the first presented, and rightfully opens the gate into this world. But I also found myself disagreeing with much of Gen's comments. In particular, Gen goes on a rant about people "copying" the sound of Throbbing Gristle, mocking other industrial bands and artists as "maggots feeding off a dead corpse." I can't stand this kind of attitude among artists. My response to Gen would be if you don't want your message passed on, don't deliver it. Keep it a secret and your mouth shut. Don't make albums. Don't make videos. Don't strut your stuff on stage. Just make your music in your own private studio by yourself. What is wrong with people being inspired by what other artists are doing? Throbbing Gristle themselves were inspired by music much older than theirs, along with the electronic machinations of Brian Eno and the kraut rock phenomenon. Music is in everyone, and it is the music of their own minds, personalities, personal experience, electron vibrations, and souls. Sometimes that music is not translatable until a group of artists and technicians, like Throbbing Gristle, figure out a way to unlock it. And when people hear music from an artist that really speaks to them, that somehow communicates the music inside their souls, then naturally they are going to use the techniques and technology of that artist to tell their own story. To be inspired by a mentor or a hero doesn't make one a copycat, as the product of the student will be as unique as the individual. It may employ the same themes, aesthetics, and instrumentation (and after all that is what we call "genre"), but it will never be the same. To purposefully set out to create and label a genre, as Genesis P. Orridge wanted to do with Industrial Records, and then gripe that people are not only listening but CREATING thanks to your efforts, is a sign of deep internal psychological confusion within the artist about who they are and what they are trying to do. I understand this is just one snapshot of an artist at a point in time, and I share Gen's sentiments when it comes to "soulless" music created purely for profit. I certainly don't intend to lessen the integrity and brilliance of what Gen accomplished, but the comments came across as narcissistic. If you are a Throbbing Gristle fan like me, you'll enjoy this interview and it's insights into the variety of their musical output. But if you are new to first-wave industrial, or are a lifelong listener of the more popular post-industrial "maggots," you may have some negative feelings.
Not so with the interview with Boyd Rice, aka NON. I swear I could listen to him ramble on over a few Gibson martinis by the light of tiki torches any day. Alongside acts like Z'ev and 23 Skidoo, he truly encapsulates the childlike joy of experimentation and impish pranks that attract me to the genre and make me feel young again. He talks extensively about his love of weird low budget movies, and you will actually learn just as much about film here as you will music. He explains his fascination with the music of Martin Denny, who evidently collected a lot of unusual instruments from around the world and featured them as main characters in his songs. There's a lot of great stuff in this interview.
The Handbook offers much more to boot, with interviews discussing the technical wizardry of Cabaret Voltaire to the outrageous tribal performances of SPK. Be prepared for some uncomfortable topics, and the use of offensive language that was still in the acceptable vernacular of the day. Sometimes the interviews derail, reading more like the small print on a Dr. Bronner castille soap bottle. But they are always interesting.
Each artist is featured with a selection of interesting black and white photography of the musicians and their inspirations. At the conclusion of each interview, you are treated to a tour of their living room shelves--the books they're reading, the albums they're listening to, and the films that inspire them. There's also included the discographies and live appearances of the artists up until the time the Handbook was published in 1982, with some humorous descriptions that don't always do justice to the actual work. For example, Monte Cazazza's resume includes mention of a show he did with Factrix called "Night of the Succubus" where he does dental surgery with a Dremel on an "organic robot." I've seen footage of that show, and believe me, the description gives you no idea what you're in for until you watch it.
Speaking of which, it is important to mention here that first-generation Industrial was as much a visual as a musical phenomenon, and one that has a profound impact on graphic design today as well as what is acceptable and interesting imagery to new generations. You have these artists to remember when you watch elevated horror films like "Possum," or whenever you play "Silent Hill," or watch the Blue Man Group at a casino, or even engage in a bit of tourism of urban decay. Much of the live visual aesthetics of Industrial come from the mind of Mark Pauline who founded Survival Research Laboratories and created moving robots and pyrotechnics for shows like the aforementioned Cazazza/Factrix show, and he is rightfully highlighted in the Handbook.
So Industrial is an audiovisual critique and deconstruction of our industrial history, present, and future--one that conjures up the ghosts of our past but also engages fully in the information war like no other genre to warn us about where we are headed. It is the rightful successor to the Blues, a genre born of the agrarian era, but which (like Industrial) has been translated into new subgenres over the years through the modern minds and technology of subsequent generations with their own unique story. And like the Blues, the original spirit of Industrial remains alive and well to be discovered and to inspire many more generations.
By no means is the Handbook a comprehensive discussion of the entirety of first-generation Industrial. I was disappointed that there was no interviews or even mention of acts like Nurse With Wound, Einstürzende Neubaten, 23 Skidoo, or Clock DVA, which are perhaps my favorite of the first-wave industrial musical groups. Perhaps that is because some of these artists never wanted a genre label put on their output, or to be associated with any one movement, and certainly their musical style has evolved with subsequent albums since their original "pure" first-wave industrial releases. Still, their absence is notable.
Also absent is much discussion of the music that influenced Industrial. Dada, futurism, musique concrete, electroacoustic music. Electronic experimentation of the 20s through the 60s. World percussion. Anything avant-garde. In fact, one could argue that through these lenses, Industrial brought us the entirety of Western music since the industrial revolution in one genre. Listen and you will hear free jazz and bebop, psychedelic and progressive rock, punk, funk, disco, show tunes, folk, rock 'n roll, heavy metal. Some of the music compulses you to dance, some of it is designed for meditation, some of it to stimulate the intellect, or to simply grab your attention with pure shock value. Sometimes it is happy and optimistic, other times it revels in all that is gloomy and dirty in the world, and it can even evoke visceral physical reactions of fear, disgust, or embarrassment. That is why it is hard to describe a particular "sound" of first-wave Industrial, or why just a few examples won't give a novice a full representation of the genre. Obviously, you won't get much of a sense of what these musicians were actually creating just from reading these interviews. You must listen to the music itself. Industrial certainly won't be to everyone's taste, and sometimes it is purposefully meant to be irritating or grating, but it is always mind-blowing.
So despite it's flaws, the Handbook remains a good primer for those interested in learning about the genre as well as a great piece of fan service for the veterans. And for me, though sometimes it reminded me that I'm glad to have made it to be a grown-up, it still brought back good memories while offering new discoveries.
So check it out to experience or reexperience a unique cultural and musical phenomenon.
Though New Orleans was certainly no industrial center like Chicago, my generation grew up with idols of the post-Industrial music world hanging out and working in our neighborhoods. It also helped that the house of William S. Burroughs served as a kind of monument just a ferry ride over the Mississippi. And though I had been too young to be attending live shows of Throbbing Gristle and SPK during the heyday of the first-wave of Industrial, I had been making my own noise music with my own backyard instruments since I was able to talk, and before I was 12, I was already starting to trade cassettes of bootlegged live recordings and sound loops from the original Industrial pioneers. So it was a wonderful time to be a young man and associate with the heirs of this movement when the Industrial Culture Handbook made it's way into the record stores and dormitories of American youth by the late 80s. Rereading it again after all these years brought back many fond memories, and inspired me to tell you all about it.
The Handbook is almost 150 pages of photos, poems, artwork, references, and interviews of the original purveyors of what would be coined "Industrial Music." At the time, "industrial" did not mean crunching heavy metal with buzzing electronic bass and deafening square wave snaps. It did not mean guys and gals with bleached hair and multiple piercings adorned in leather fetish wear like a Cenobite. No, it consisted of skinny nerds like me beating on modified trash cans, pipes, cooking pots, guy wires, sheet metal, cymbals, gongs, chimes, triangles, ethnic percussion instruments, empty oil drums, water cooler tanks, and dryer tubs. It was engineers splicing audio tape recorded with their homemade samples that they would input into their second-hand or self-built synthesizers. It was art students distorting the sound of their cornets through an electronic filter, or playing a guitar with a shoe polisher. They didn't play for large arena crowds, but usually for themselves or their friends, sometimes recording their happy accidents for posterity. Industrial wasn't trying to mimic the sounds of a factory, but it was using the products of modern industry and technology to find beauty and meaning. It wasn't about fashion, or being Woke, or anti-capitalist, or left-wing, or right-wing, or angry, or high on drugs, or hard-core. Industrial was, and is, a mindset of philosophical and psychological exploration of the urban landscape, modern Western society, the Information War, and magick. The Industrial Culture Handbook gives you a taste of like-minded people who had very different voices and styles but who became joined together by that same spirit that was coined by Genesis P. Orridge and Monte Cazazza as "Industrial."
Upon rereading the Handbook, I was reminded of a couple of things. First, there are multiple influential figures in the movement who I've never yet familiarized myself with at all. And second, sometimes our heroes of adolescence and young adulthood who we idolized as geniuses could still say some pretty moronic stuff and still sound pompous.
For example, I've never knowingly listened to anything from the record label Sordide Sentimental, who worked with bands I had not experienced before such as Savage Republic. But industrial staples like Monte Cazazza, Throbbing Gristle, and Psychic TV also recorded with them, along with other influencers like the great Joy Division. You learn something new everyday, even from books you've read before! The editors interviewed the two founders of the company for the Handbook, and it is an interesting exchange, but both the interviewers and the interviewed frequently talked out of their ass about topics of which they clearly knew nothing. Did you know elephants have no brain cortex? Me neither. But then again, it could just be one of the many "theories" they were discussing that shape reality but don't necessarily represent the truth. I guess "theories" must have also been spoken with a heavy French accent, because it took a while for the interviewer to suddenly realize he was saying "theories" instead of "fairies!" Oh my.
The interview with Genesis P. Orridge is the first presented, and rightfully opens the gate into this world. But I also found myself disagreeing with much of Gen's comments. In particular, Gen goes on a rant about people "copying" the sound of Throbbing Gristle, mocking other industrial bands and artists as "maggots feeding off a dead corpse." I can't stand this kind of attitude among artists. My response to Gen would be if you don't want your message passed on, don't deliver it. Keep it a secret and your mouth shut. Don't make albums. Don't make videos. Don't strut your stuff on stage. Just make your music in your own private studio by yourself. What is wrong with people being inspired by what other artists are doing? Throbbing Gristle themselves were inspired by music much older than theirs, along with the electronic machinations of Brian Eno and the kraut rock phenomenon. Music is in everyone, and it is the music of their own minds, personalities, personal experience, electron vibrations, and souls. Sometimes that music is not translatable until a group of artists and technicians, like Throbbing Gristle, figure out a way to unlock it. And when people hear music from an artist that really speaks to them, that somehow communicates the music inside their souls, then naturally they are going to use the techniques and technology of that artist to tell their own story. To be inspired by a mentor or a hero doesn't make one a copycat, as the product of the student will be as unique as the individual. It may employ the same themes, aesthetics, and instrumentation (and after all that is what we call "genre"), but it will never be the same. To purposefully set out to create and label a genre, as Genesis P. Orridge wanted to do with Industrial Records, and then gripe that people are not only listening but CREATING thanks to your efforts, is a sign of deep internal psychological confusion within the artist about who they are and what they are trying to do. I understand this is just one snapshot of an artist at a point in time, and I share Gen's sentiments when it comes to "soulless" music created purely for profit. I certainly don't intend to lessen the integrity and brilliance of what Gen accomplished, but the comments came across as narcissistic. If you are a Throbbing Gristle fan like me, you'll enjoy this interview and it's insights into the variety of their musical output. But if you are new to first-wave industrial, or are a lifelong listener of the more popular post-industrial "maggots," you may have some negative feelings.
Not so with the interview with Boyd Rice, aka NON. I swear I could listen to him ramble on over a few Gibson martinis by the light of tiki torches any day. Alongside acts like Z'ev and 23 Skidoo, he truly encapsulates the childlike joy of experimentation and impish pranks that attract me to the genre and make me feel young again. He talks extensively about his love of weird low budget movies, and you will actually learn just as much about film here as you will music. He explains his fascination with the music of Martin Denny, who evidently collected a lot of unusual instruments from around the world and featured them as main characters in his songs. There's a lot of great stuff in this interview.
The Handbook offers much more to boot, with interviews discussing the technical wizardry of Cabaret Voltaire to the outrageous tribal performances of SPK. Be prepared for some uncomfortable topics, and the use of offensive language that was still in the acceptable vernacular of the day. Sometimes the interviews derail, reading more like the small print on a Dr. Bronner castille soap bottle. But they are always interesting.
Each artist is featured with a selection of interesting black and white photography of the musicians and their inspirations. At the conclusion of each interview, you are treated to a tour of their living room shelves--the books they're reading, the albums they're listening to, and the films that inspire them. There's also included the discographies and live appearances of the artists up until the time the Handbook was published in 1982, with some humorous descriptions that don't always do justice to the actual work. For example, Monte Cazazza's resume includes mention of a show he did with Factrix called "Night of the Succubus" where he does dental surgery with a Dremel on an "organic robot." I've seen footage of that show, and believe me, the description gives you no idea what you're in for until you watch it.
Speaking of which, it is important to mention here that first-generation Industrial was as much a visual as a musical phenomenon, and one that has a profound impact on graphic design today as well as what is acceptable and interesting imagery to new generations. You have these artists to remember when you watch elevated horror films like "Possum," or whenever you play "Silent Hill," or watch the Blue Man Group at a casino, or even engage in a bit of tourism of urban decay. Much of the live visual aesthetics of Industrial come from the mind of Mark Pauline who founded Survival Research Laboratories and created moving robots and pyrotechnics for shows like the aforementioned Cazazza/Factrix show, and he is rightfully highlighted in the Handbook.
So Industrial is an audiovisual critique and deconstruction of our industrial history, present, and future--one that conjures up the ghosts of our past but also engages fully in the information war like no other genre to warn us about where we are headed. It is the rightful successor to the Blues, a genre born of the agrarian era, but which (like Industrial) has been translated into new subgenres over the years through the modern minds and technology of subsequent generations with their own unique story. And like the Blues, the original spirit of Industrial remains alive and well to be discovered and to inspire many more generations.
By no means is the Handbook a comprehensive discussion of the entirety of first-generation Industrial. I was disappointed that there was no interviews or even mention of acts like Nurse With Wound, Einstürzende Neubaten, 23 Skidoo, or Clock DVA, which are perhaps my favorite of the first-wave industrial musical groups. Perhaps that is because some of these artists never wanted a genre label put on their output, or to be associated with any one movement, and certainly their musical style has evolved with subsequent albums since their original "pure" first-wave industrial releases. Still, their absence is notable.
Also absent is much discussion of the music that influenced Industrial. Dada, futurism, musique concrete, electroacoustic music. Electronic experimentation of the 20s through the 60s. World percussion. Anything avant-garde. In fact, one could argue that through these lenses, Industrial brought us the entirety of Western music since the industrial revolution in one genre. Listen and you will hear free jazz and bebop, psychedelic and progressive rock, punk, funk, disco, show tunes, folk, rock 'n roll, heavy metal. Some of the music compulses you to dance, some of it is designed for meditation, some of it to stimulate the intellect, or to simply grab your attention with pure shock value. Sometimes it is happy and optimistic, other times it revels in all that is gloomy and dirty in the world, and it can even evoke visceral physical reactions of fear, disgust, or embarrassment. That is why it is hard to describe a particular "sound" of first-wave Industrial, or why just a few examples won't give a novice a full representation of the genre. Obviously, you won't get much of a sense of what these musicians were actually creating just from reading these interviews. You must listen to the music itself. Industrial certainly won't be to everyone's taste, and sometimes it is purposefully meant to be irritating or grating, but it is always mind-blowing.
So despite it's flaws, the Handbook remains a good primer for those interested in learning about the genre as well as a great piece of fan service for the veterans. And for me, though sometimes it reminded me that I'm glad to have made it to be a grown-up, it still brought back good memories while offering new discoveries.
So check it out to experience or reexperience a unique cultural and musical phenomenon.
June 30, 2007
Know your roots, rivetheads.
Has some great interviews and articles with/about the founding musicians, writers, and performance artists of the industrial scene.
Has some great interviews and articles with/about the founding musicians, writers, and performance artists of the industrial scene.
May 28, 2008
Back in the halcyon '80s when things just couldn't get weird enough for my taste, this little book opened a world of experimental music and art to my hungry brain. I so immersed myself in the likes of SPK, Rhythm & Noise, Cabaret Voltaire and Ralph Records that I missed a lot of '80s pop. To this day, this book is special to me with all of its reading lists, deranged bands, disgusting performance art and obsessive eccentricity. It's hard to believe that this was such an unusual time in retrospect, but this book convinces its readers that much was stirring under the ground way back then.
May 13, 2018
Open. Read. Ideologize. Close. Reference. Dream. Repeat.
November 6, 2014
This is my favorite of the RE/Search books. They are all cool but I like this because it's a good little survey of some of the more interesting people in the first wave industrial scene. Vince Vale's interviews really shed light on the subject matter these artists were interested in, and what early industrial music/art was all about. The recommended reading lists from the artists are great.
Information on Monte Cazzaza is scarce, his interview here is very enlightening, he has a lot to say on topics ranging from mind control, human sexual response, criminality, pornography...Throbbing Gristly is here of course. Genesis does most of the talking, as always. You can see the beginning of the TOPY philosophy taking shape. Wish there was more from Sleazy and Chris n Cozy but oh well.
Maybe the best part of this book is the Mark Pauline interview, the guy is unstoppable. He blew off his hand and was burned attempting to synthesize home made rocket fuel. I like how much his art art directly challenges authority and the audience. His contempt for the police is inspiring! If you're performances are banned everywhere you must be doing something right.
Information on Monte Cazzaza is scarce, his interview here is very enlightening, he has a lot to say on topics ranging from mind control, human sexual response, criminality, pornography...Throbbing Gristly is here of course. Genesis does most of the talking, as always. You can see the beginning of the TOPY philosophy taking shape. Wish there was more from Sleazy and Chris n Cozy but oh well.
Maybe the best part of this book is the Mark Pauline interview, the guy is unstoppable. He blew off his hand and was burned attempting to synthesize home made rocket fuel. I like how much his art art directly challenges authority and the audience. His contempt for the police is inspiring! If you're performances are banned everywhere you must be doing something right.
May 28, 2016
It's a hard book to find but worth the read, this is a book about the early, early industrial scene, featuring Throbbing Gristle, Survival Research labs, Monte Cazaza, and Caberet Voltaire among other suspects.
For me it was a very well done read with interviews with the subjects in question that fit the time they were made and captures the reckless energy of the artists. For someone looking for a different perspective on art and music this is an excellent place to begin.
For me it was a very well done read with interviews with the subjects in question that fit the time they were made and captures the reckless energy of the artists. For someone looking for a different perspective on art and music this is an excellent place to begin.
August 17, 2013
An incredible achievement. A blasphemous holy book for industrialist and transgressive art, music, lit: TG, SPK, Survival Research Labs, Boyd Rice/NON..etc.
The lists at the back of each artist chapter are a great place to learn of obscure brilliant and strange music, books and films. {A priceless feature before the web...}
The lists at the back of each artist chapter are a great place to learn of obscure brilliant and strange music, books and films. {A priceless feature before the web...}
October 21, 2008
I consider this an essential introductory text. Like others, this work is influential and changes the way you examine your surroundings. Call it a phase, or a fad if you like, but Industrial culture is exactly that, a culture with deeper roots than you may think.
June 16, 2007
When I was wee, an older, wiser, grizzled goth friend gave me this book, and I learned many things.
February 8, 2023
Absolutely essential for anyone into industrial music, fringe political theory, performance, or the development of transgressive art and the avant-garde. My only complaint is that it didn't have more, longer interviews! The pictures throughout it really did supplement the interviews wonderfully, and the formatting was excellent. Each artist (with the exception of Johanna Went) has a reference page that is arranged with media suggestions of the artists' choosing. Generally this means their favorite fiction/nonfiction/theory books/films/songs but it can also mean a mini-bio, some logos, a chronology (incl. performances and descriptions), and in one case a long list of fun-facts. It also includes the manifesto 'The Post-Industrial Strategy' by the theory-heavy industrial group S.P.K.. Altogether I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to anyone I think would be remotely interested. It is certainly a thing to proudly (and somewhat provocatively) adorn one's shelf with.
April 14, 2025
Seeing others liking this on here and I just had to, had to, say that I’ve gotten it long ago, read it. It’s a great cross section of 80s “industrial culture” not exactly the music as it reared its ugly mass-culture head in the 90s but the true underground sources in the late 70s and 80s. Some of the best parts are the tallying of all the books and movies in Genesis P-Orridge’s collection, Boyd Rice’s musical influences, addresses where you could (or could have in the past, probably defunct now) sent away for VHS tapes of illegal Survival Research Labs performances. This is some real underground history. RE/Search Books are great, he’s still doing it, selling books on the streets in San Francisco.
June 14, 2017
read it in the eighties and it set me on a road to ruin. it wasn't until 2003-5 that someone said I was a self-loathing goth that I realize now that book is a gateway drug.
May 9, 2022
A limited hardback version is currently available from RE/Search!
https://www.researchpubs.com/shop/p/r...
https://www.researchpubs.com/shop/p/r...
April 19, 2025
Quite possibly the best documentation of the foundations of Industrial culture.
April 23, 2025
Absolutely essential.
Read
September 30, 2025Very enlightening, Re/Search makes a wonderful interviewer and...well, researcher.
September 16, 2024
v. vale on nurturing a "glowing orb of curiosity" (this term is from 'the now' by lucy sante -- an amazing read and this line just GETS me):
Research SURREALISM and its precursors. Research the history of BLACK HUMOR. Research the history of PUNK and its precursors. Also keep in mind Bucky Fuller’s statement “I’m interested in the future, because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there” so be open to new ideas, language, thoughts, worlds.
Also, ALLOW CHANCE INTO YOUR LIFE. Protect yourself, of course, but … life is very tricky and very mysterious. Don’t rely on logic, which is essentially superficial and non-inclusive. Heed your first intuition! (regarding people, projects, ideas, etc). And try to keep learning NEW WORDS! Having a cat around can help keep the prison of logic at bay! And remember, AESTHETICS DETERMINES CONSUMPTION. But, what are your “aesthetics”?!? Most people don’t even know!!!
A pen and notebook can be your best friend… having ’em scattered all around your house, because epiphanies and insights just ‘show up’ at the most inconvenient times and places. If you don’t write it down immediately, you will forget it. The more notebooks you fill up, the more you become ‘yourself’!!! Not just words, but drawings, images… a blank notebook offers infinite possibilities!
Research SURREALISM and its precursors. Research the history of BLACK HUMOR. Research the history of PUNK and its precursors. Also keep in mind Bucky Fuller’s statement “I’m interested in the future, because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there” so be open to new ideas, language, thoughts, worlds.
Also, ALLOW CHANCE INTO YOUR LIFE. Protect yourself, of course, but … life is very tricky and very mysterious. Don’t rely on logic, which is essentially superficial and non-inclusive. Heed your first intuition! (regarding people, projects, ideas, etc). And try to keep learning NEW WORDS! Having a cat around can help keep the prison of logic at bay! And remember, AESTHETICS DETERMINES CONSUMPTION. But, what are your “aesthetics”?!? Most people don’t even know!!!
A pen and notebook can be your best friend… having ’em scattered all around your house, because epiphanies and insights just ‘show up’ at the most inconvenient times and places. If you don’t write it down immediately, you will forget it. The more notebooks you fill up, the more you become ‘yourself’!!! Not just words, but drawings, images… a blank notebook offers infinite possibilities!
March 11, 2023
Although framing itself as some guide to the industrial movement, I don't feel like it provides much of a talking point for an unenlightened reader (i.e. not me) to understand what the industrial movement was - rather than a manifesto, this is more like a behind the scenes appendix, entirely consisting of interviews with the unlikeliest transgressive pseudo-rockstars of the 70s and early 80s (who clearly hate that designation, by the way). In many ways this is rather antiquated by now, but it still might be of historical interest to get a glimpse of what passed as peak counter-culture back in the day, and to see that beyond the new technological possibilities, the general points of conflict haven't changed much in the last 40 years at all - though you'd be hard-pressed to get away with stealing factory equipment these days. After each interview, there's a 1-2 page feature where the interviewee namedrops some of their influences (books, music, film), and they mention enough gems in them to serve as a worthwhile reference. The Sordide Sentimental guys and SPK strike me as the most interesting people of the bunch, as they are/were more well-read than most (though not without dropping some discredited science hiccups) and prefer to discuss ideas in the abstract as opposed to describing their childhoods or early gigs or whatever. SPK's brief comment on telepaths is worth stealing for a short story.
April 3, 2008
This book fundamentally shaped the way that I look at art, music, and all things creative. During the 80's when I was all consumed with watching wrestling and listening to Twisted Sister, I was too young to realize that exciting things were afoot in other parts of the world. This book profiles many of those things, such as Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Survival Research Labs, Boyd Rice, and many others. Of course you could google any of these names today and find out alot, but these books were published pre-Internet. Does anyone else over the age of thirty remember the rampant misinformation about artists and musicians that thrived in the pre-Internet world? This was a time when your dumb college buddy would swear that Genesis P. Orridge ate babies and turned into a werewolf on every third Tuesday of the month and part of you believed him. Books such as these served to clear the air and present intelligent facts. Concerning the subjects in this book that fall under the category of band/music, are there many bands out today that make it their mission to change how their audience looks at all aspects of life? If so, do they have a forum to promote this view? I think that all of the RE/Search publications are well written and have a tremendous depth for what was basically an overly ambitious zine.
June 17, 2007
valuable information, great interviews. I just wish, it wasn't so expensive and the binding wasn't total shit! Those are the only complains from me though.
Read
August 16, 2007In the days before Industrial was an art asthetic, not another 'look' to be purchased at Hot Topic, this was essential fist person reading regarding it's early advocates and creators.
Read
October 24, 2014currently-reading
Read
January 15, 2015Groundbreaking, incredibly influential work, had a massive impact on me way back when. Re-Search was a unique publisher and its model was ahead of its time.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews