Creating an unyielding audio assault since a multimedia performance in 1984, Kein Mehrheit Fur Die Mitleid (No Pity for the Majority) have taken dance track tactics to their extremes. A crushing synthesis of hip-hop beats and Industrial percussion is used as a concrete foundation for sinister instrumentation. Guitar riffs as dark and violent as Slayer’s more hellish moments are strung tightly from oppressive washes of heavy synths. What separates KMFDM from most other Industrial Dance groups is their radical political content. Terrorizing, distorted vocals and spoken word sample arrangements posit that their position Is a Drug Against War.
- Marc Kate

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Nine Inch Nails is a one-man industrial-rock band whose symphonic noise and intense lyrics articulate an alienation and rage that have attracted a wide audience. The diviner of this millenarian angst is Trent Reznor, who writes, arranges, performs, and produces all of Nine Inch Nails’ material.

Reznor grew up isolated in small-town Pennsylvania, where he studied classical piano as a kid, switching to keyboards and playing in garage bands as a teen. He dropped out of Pennsylvania’s Meadville College, moved to Cleveland, and recorded a self-made demo. That tape got him signed to TVT, an independent label best known for compilations of TV jingles.

Pretty Hate Machine was coproduced by Flood (Depeche Mode, U2), John Fryer (Love & Rockets, Cocteau Twins), and Adrian Sherwood and Keith LeBlanc. It yielded three college-radio hits, most notably “Head Like a Hole,” the video for which got extensive MTV play. Although the album vented an extremely dire, introspective outlook, it sold a million copies. This was at least in part due to the fact that Reznor assembled a band that spent three years on the road promoting Pretty Hate Machine, in the process dazzling audiences at the 1991 Lollapalooza Tour and opening for Guns n’ Roses in Europe. NIN spent so long touring because Reznor was suing to be released from TVT, who he said didn’t support him artistically or financially. Several other companies were interested in NIN, and when TVT wouldn’t let Reznor go, Interscope negotiated an agreement to corelease the band. Interscope also gave Reznor his own label, Nothing. Broken (Number Seven, 1992) was recorded during this period in a number of locations “without the permission of The Record Label,” as the liner notes say. The EP is an intensely devastated and devastating document, once again entirely masterminded by Reznor, with three tracks coproduced by Flood. NIN had Coil and Foetus’ Jim Thirwell remix tracks from Broken on Fixed.

Broken debuted at Number Seven on the pop albums chart, while “Wish,” a track from the record, won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. Reznor tested the freedom granted by his new record company on the video for “Happiness in Slavery,” which showed a man being sexually tortured and ground into a pulp by a machine – a visualization of NIN’s own tortured nature as a synth band venting human emotions and an apt metaphor for Reznor’s feelings about the music business. This was not the first controversial NIN video: “Sin,” from the first album, was refused by MTV for its images of genital piercing and gay men smearing blood on each other, while outtakes from “Down in It” were investigated by the FBI, which suspected that they were culled from a snuff film.

Working on his next album in L.A., Reznor moved into the house where Charles Manson’s followers murdered Sharon Tate. Flood again coproduced, and the album featured guitarist Adrian Belew. The Downward Spiral (1994), a dense, depression-filled, and uncompromising work, debuted at Number Two on the chart and went on to sell 5 million copies.

In the summer of 1994, NIN appeared at the Woodstock ’94. A version of “Happiness in Slavery” from the live album culled from performances at the festival earned NIN its second Grammy for Best Metal Performance. In 1996, Reznor coproduced shock-rocker Marilyn Manson’s Antichrist Superstar (the two men later had a falling-out). Reznor also produced the soundtracks for Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994) and David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997).

Accolades from both the rock and mainstream press were pouring in by this time, with Time magazine naming Reznor one of the 25 most influential Americans. In 1999 NIN released its first studio album in five years, a despairing double CD called The Fragile (Number One). Working with a broader sonic palette than before, Reznor tempered his throbbing cacophony with moodier, subdued moments; ROLLING STONE hailed the record “a brutal and delicate masterpiece.” “The Day the World Went Away” debuted at Number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart to become the first Top 40 single of NIN’s career.

All that Could Have Been, a live disc and video documenting the Fragile tour cycle, followed in 2002. Reznor resurfaced three years later with another Number One studio album from Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth, which included the Number One Modern Rock singles “Every Day is Exactly the Same” and “Only.” NIN was slated to perform the anti-George W. Bush song “The Hand That Feeds” at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards but dropped out when the channel refused to allow the group to perform in front of a large image of the president. The group toured through 2006, stopping briefly for Reznor to put together another set of studio tracks, and resumed touring in 2007. The bleak Orwellian concept album Year Zero (Number Two) arrived in April, spawning the Number One Modern Rock hit “Survivalism.” The album included a pre-release marketing campaign that involved an elaborate online alternate reality game offering fans clues to the album’s storyline, and a remixed version (Y34R Z3R0 R3M1X3D), offered fans the opportunity to contribute their own remixes of the tracks online. Reznor, long unhappy with the music industry, announced that October that Year Zero had been his contract-ending release for Universal Music Group and that he would release all future music independently. In 2008, within two months of each other, Reznor released two albums: Ghosts I-IV, an entirely instrumental album, was released in March and The Slip, released in May, was given away as a free download.

Updated from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)

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• Ant-Zen – Audio and visual arts label featuring industrial music, chilling ambient, technoid rhythms and power electronics.
• Artificial Noise Records – Based in Los Angeles, California, USA. Focus on Industrial Rock, and Experimental, Ambient. Artists include Skinprobe, godkomplex and Chaos Frequency. Websit includes news, releases, message board and links.
• Brainscream – Music label featuring artists Alien Vinyl, Seth, Pippilina, Vanishing Voices and Waking Born.
• Ceiling, The – Canadian label with experimental, industrial, noise and drone releases on vinyl, CD and cassette.
• Cold Meat Industry – Swedish Industrial and Post-industrial label. Artists include Sophia, Institut, and Arcana. News, artist bios, audio samples, discography.
• Cop International – San Francisco based industrial label. Featured artists include Index, Sonar, Pain Station and Razorskyline.
• Cyberdelia Records – Greek industrial record label.
• Cyberware Productions – Finnish label specializing in EBM, industrial gothic and darkwave.
• D S B P – Distributes and releases electro, industrial and EBM music. Features mail order service.
• Darkshovels Records – An independent industrial, rock and experimental label. Also offers custom vinyl decal creation services.
• DDV Laboratories – Specializing in dark, industrial/gothic-influenced and experimental music. Signings include Jordan Reyne, Dr Kevorkian & the Suicide Machine and Genevieve.
• Dependent Records – German electro-industrial label.
• Dis Productions – Located in Belarus, offers Industrial and Dark Electronic. Catalog and contact information.
• Extrinia – Australian industrial label.
• Frozen Empire Media – New York based label/mailorder dealing in post-industrial, powernoise, dark ambient, IDM and other forms of experimental electronic music.
• Hermetique – French industrial music label.
• Hymen – Record label for rough technoid and ambient noises. Includes catalog of releases.
• Invisible Records – Chicago-based label promoting bands including Dead Voices on Air, Killing Joke, Genesis P. Orridge, Sheep on Drugs and F.M. Einheit. Contains news, links to artists’ sites, catalog and articles.
• Kaos Kontrol – Finnish label and distributor for industrial music. Features releases, events and magazine information.
• Ladd-Frith – Promoting industrial, punk, noise, experimental and dark ambient artists such as Blackhouse, Psyclones, Lilith and Orbitronik.
• Luminal Records – Record label discovering and promoting dark music.
• Mandarangan Recordings – An industrial/power electronics/noise label based in Chicago. Also home to experimental recording project Insomnia. With catalog and distribution information.
• Maschinenmusik – Label for industrial, EBM and dark ambient music. Featured artists include Cai777, Jana, Sekret, Steelcrush, Psaiclone and Cult of Consciousness.
• Maschinenwelt Records – German label covering industrial, dark-electro, synthpop, gothic and EBM artists. Includes band information, MP3 downloads and online purchasing.
• Metropolis Records – Domestic label for a large number of well known industrial, power noise, dark ambient and other electronic music acts.
• M.I.R. Records – Industrial label based in Central America.
• Mobilization Records – Home to artists including F-Space, Savage Republic, Wonder, Ethan Port and Scot Jenerik. With press, audio clips, online shopping, and links.
• Mute Records – London based label promoting a variety of industrial, electronic and alternative artists. Featuring Recoil, Laibach, Moby and Barry Adamson.
• Myotis Records – A Belgium-based label and mail order house for industrial, ambient, noise, and experimental electronic music.
• Nilaihah Records – Industrial, darkwave and electronic record label.
• Razor Records – A young label from Massachusetts looking to sign local New England metal, gothic, industrial and synthpop bands.
• Reality Records, Inc. – Independent record label featuring many genres. MP3, video, and audio clips.
• Redstar Bp. Label – An Hungarian label releasing Industrial and Rap.
• Staalplaat – An organization that includes a record label, print publisher, radio show, shop, mail-order and distribution for ambient dance, dark experimental, plunderphonic, sound poetry and electronic avant-garde.
• Subconscious Studios – Record label of industrial artist Cevin Key. Carrying various artists as well as some of his releases.
• Tesco Distribution – Offers industrial, noise, power electronics, dark ambient, neofolk and experimental releases.
• ToneZone Records – Independent record label specializing in goth and industrial music. Featuring artist pictures, biographies, MP3 and audio-video files.
• Van Richter Records – Aggro-industrial label featuring artists The Fair Sex, Girls Under Glass and Sielwolf.
• We Are … Records – Home to jazz-influenced industrial techno band Iris-T-Shirt and ambient experimental dance artist SpivKurl.
• WTII Records – Label focusing on electro, industrial, synthpop, gothic and darkwave music. With news, events, artist and release information.

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• Anything Box
  - Group based in Los Angeles, CA. Includes free MP3 files, online ordering
  and current events.
• Attic
  Base – Based in Salt Lake City, UT. Contains info, news and CDs for
  sale.
• 
  Blancmange – Contains a complete discography as well as a mailing list
  offering.
• Blue October UK
  - English synthpop ensemble on A Different Drum Records.
• Cosmicity -
  Artist from Detroit, MI. Includes a complete list of releases, photos, links
  to audio samples and latest news.
• A Covenant
  of Thorns – Includes biography, discography, official news, free MP3
  files and photos.
• David
  Vesel – Inspired by European dance sounds, seasoned with American rock,
  David walks the grey space inbetween. Based in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Dead Poets
  Society – Official site features news, biographical information,
  pictures, streaming music, MP3 downloads, and online album purchasing.
• 
  De/Vision – Based in Frankfurt, Germany. Includes news, products and
  discography.
• The
  Dignity of Labour – Official web site. Melody-driven, 80’s-flavored,
  synthpop band from Denver, CO. Site has MP3s, photos, discography, bio.
• 
  Droom – Synthpop band from Canada that some are calling the next New
  Order. Thier debut recording for free download.
• Eternal Ethos
  - electronic synthpop, with Ambient feelings
• I Satellite
  - Old-school electro Synthpop New Wave artist similar to late 70’s early
  80’s bands like Ultravox, Japan, John Foxx, Human League, Trans-X,
  Alphaville, and Kraftwerk & using only vintage analog synths.
• I, Synthesist
  - I, Synthesist is the electro music of Chris Ianuzzi, collaborating with
  multimedia/video artist Anna Krych as well as various other performers to
  create surrealistic, futuristic musical environments that take concerts
  beyond the average.
• Iris – Group
  based in Texas, includes news, online ordering of CDs, biography and
  discography.
• 
  Kilna – Contains news, photographs, lyrics, MP3 files, and message
  board.
• A Modern
  Effigy – Based in NYC, the official website contains news and info.
• 
  Morado – Morado has spent the last year locked in his studio producing
  music that crosses genres, exploring the boundaries between synthpop,
  darkwave, and hip hop.
• Mythics, The
  - Official site contains news, info, photos and CDs for sale.
• 
  NukleoN – Includes information, MP3s and online ordering of CDs.
• Null Device
  - Madison, WI, based synthpop duo on Nilaihah Records.
• 
  Paris By Air – Contains MP3s, online ordering of CDs and latest news.
• Round Eyed
  Devil – Official website contains news, info, photos and free MP3 files.
• Scurge -
  South Florida synthpop veterans are well-traveled, have impeccable New Wave
  creds, and are a great listen.
• Simulator
  - Pittsburgh based synthpop group, containing official information, news,
  and photos.
• 
  Steve Fairnie – Fansite that contains information, links and history.
• 
  Sverm Project – Contains free MP3 downloads of progressive synthpop and
  new age influenced by 80’s pop synthesizer artists/bands like Vangelis,
  Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield.
• Synth Pop Och
  Cyber Kultur – SPOCK is based in Sweden. Includes online ordering of
  CDs, biography, discography and lyrics.
• The Tic Tok Men
  - Synthpop/darkwave trio from Portland, OR, covering musical space from
  Kraftwerk to industrial music to ambient.
• Wave
  in Head – Group based in Germany. Contains official news, history, CDs,
  links and events.

• 
  Blake’s Synthpop Page – Contaings alphabetical listings of over 3,200
  CDs. Includes FAQ, CD trade list, featured artists, new CDs and Kon Kan
  discography.
• 
  Control-Alt-Delete – Fan club containing links, news and compilation CD
  information.
• A Different
  Drum – The Source for Synthpop – Record label based in Utah, containing
  online ordering and news. Some of their artists include B!Machine, Cosmicity,
  Echoing Green, Faith Assembly, Iris and The Nine.
• 
  DJ Virto’s Synthpop of the Week – Contains links and information
  regarding sites and resources.
• 
  Electric Dreams – A London nightclub for eighties new wave and synthpop.
• 
  Energy Rekords/October – Swedish record label. Some artists include Das
  Ich, Front 242, Front Line Assembly and Iris.
• Eternity
  Records – Record label containing artist information, online ordering
  and free items. Some artists include Sissy Prozac, Marcel, Float and Saft.
• Hand Held Halo
  Records – Record label based in England. Contains news, free MP3 files
  and online store. Artists include Gebrauche-Musik, Intervox, Seven Words and
  Phear.
• Hard-to-Find
  Synthpop – A searchable list of rare music, containing record label
  information.
• 
  The History Of Synthpop – Complete with artist information and
  synthesizer model information.
• 
  Intelligent Communications – Record label containing news and online
  ordering. Some artists include All for One and Distant Dark Spaces.
• 
  Jive 55 – Contains detailed information on 55 of the most important new
  wave, new romantic and synthpop artists of the late 70s to late 80s.
• Kinetic
  Response Records – A synthpop and electronic on-line music store,
  resource and independent record label. Some of their artists include
  Loveless and Attic Base.
• Pop
  Academy – Fanzine located in Japan containing links, news, and artist
  information.
• 
  Synthphony Records – Record label based in New York, containing online
  store, news and artist profiles. Some artists include Intact and Shades of
  Grey.
• Synthpop
  For The Masses – Includes reviews, artist links and discoveries. Located
  in Austria.
• 
  The Synthpop Network – Includes artist links, news, label information,
  club information and a section to listen to music.
• 
  Synthpop Now – Contains history, MOD files, links and events.
• 
  Synthpop Showcase Events – Event producers/promoters. Some artists
  include Beborn Beton, Secret Secret and Count 2 Infinity.
• 
  SynthpopNet – Includes reviews, chat room, links and news.

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Gothic Dresses
By Robert Panciera

Gothic aesthetics is something that usually shocks others and is generally frowned upon, but little do those who do not understand it know that being goth is about this one thing: art.

In today’s world, underground and more obscure types of culture, music, and fashion are very hard to come by due to its scarcity. Hot Topic is definitely the ‘biggest’ fashion store for gothic culture and other types of similar interests (yet the popularity is seldom). Goths are found here and about, but there are many people who wish to stick with more ‘mom and pop’ or ‘DIY” (Do It Yourself) type chains.

Hot Topic, as well as other places in a big city may not be exactly what people are looking for due to price and availability of the desired gothic clothing; many have now started using the internet to search for gothic-related clothing and items for purchase rather than having only things in a normal store available to them.

Finding these stores may be a bit hard for others due to the lack of them on the internet, but if you prefer to buy clothing, as well as other gothic related items, using a smaller mailorder type website is your best bet. ‘Big chainstore’ generally translates into, ‘big factories’ which means that the items you are buying are not usually paid attention to and given the detail that it requires to end up with a quality product.

Finding quality gothic related clothing products for a good price is hard to come by at any given major chain store, so finding more of a smaller place is definitely your best bet for getting the quality product that you want for an even cheaper price than you’d pay in a store located in a mall.

Click here for more information on finding the store that suits your needs for gothic clothing

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Gothic Clothes Styles – From Romantic Goth to Cybergoth
By Liza Lee

Traditional period Goth garb usually consists of mostly black clothing along with some white and are often accessorized with silver or pewter. The stereotypical gothic outfit sometimes referred to as the romantic look may include elaborate gowns and corsets, veils, full skirts, neck corsets, fishnets, lace and velvets. Also popular are tight-fitting trousers, pointy boots, flouncy poet or pirate shirts and footwear with buckles. I find the simplicity of traditional Goth style lends itself to variation, and is can be combined with fetish elements to give it a dark and romantic edge.

Closely related to the Romantic (Victorian, Elizabethan, Renaissance) Goth style is the Gothic Lolita style that emerged from Japan, usually a combination of black and white, often black with white lace and typically decorated with ribbons and lace trims. Frilly, ruffled or lace-trimmed Victorian blouses are also popular with Gothic Lolitas and designs are usually modest, sometimes with long lace-capped sleeves and/or high-necked blouses. Some additions may include mini top hats, parasols, and lace headdresses.

Most recently, Goth fashion has been infiltrated by forward-thinking styles that are more futuristic, science fiction and youthful. UV-reactive colors and materials, progressive fashions, huge shoes and boots, wild hair extensions using artificial materials, often with an undercut shave, goggles, cybernetics, androgyny, the influence of cyberpunk or anime themes and body modification are some of the elements of Cybergoth. A full-spectrum of bright or neon colors are an exciting addition to black. For example, a popular combination is black with hot pink, a flattering color for most skin tones.

Of course, you can borrow elements of one or more gothic subcategory and sometimes this is dependant on the occasion. For gothic theme parties, you may combine elements of vintage, Victorian and fetish to create a costume that is intentionally spectacular and fantasy-oriented as an artistic display.

For more gothic clothes tips and photos, visit http://www.goth-style-secrets.com

Liza Lee
Goth-Style-Secrets
http://www.goth-style-secrets.com

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