Nitzer Ebb - Music for electric bodies

A British project, born in the county of Essex in the early Eighties thanks to Douglas McCarthy, Vaughan (Bon) Harris and David Gooday, Nitzer Ebb managed to perfectly fuse the fury and adrenaline of punk with the electronics of Kraftwerk, drawing on the seminal lesson of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. Through their records, the suggestions coming from new wave and industrial were transformed into what would later be defined as Electronic Body Music.

Nitzer Ebb were among the leading exponents of the genre they themselves helped create and consolidate, becoming, between the late Eighties and early Nineties, one of the flagship acts on Daniel Miller's Mute. It was truly hard not to run into one of their hits if you frequented dark, industrial and post-punk clubs. In more recent times, the band has also become a cult favorite for many DJs and fans of aggressive electronic sounds, especially within a post-industrial techno scene marked by dark, martial traits.

The term "Electronic Body Music" first emerged in a 1984 interview with the Belgian group Front 242, in which the band tried to define the music on their album "No Comment", borrowing it from the term "Körpermusik", originally coined by D.A.F. The term to describe Nitzer Ebb's music, then, had not yet been born when, in 1983, Basic Pain Procedure, their first demo tape, came out. A still-raw work, but one that already potentially contained many of the ingredients that would become characteristic of the EBM genre and of the band's music in general.

The B-side of the tape featured a recording of one of their live shows at a venue in Chelmsford, perfectly capturing that meeting point between Kraftwerk and English "No Future". At the end of the day, it was just a punk band that had swapped the guitar for a synthesizer, whose gigs very often ended in cathartic brawls.

The band's live activity didn't go unnoticed, nor did their paramilitary aesthetic, which was close to that of D.A.F. and their contemporaries Front 242. The look of Nitzer Ebb quickly became known throughout the UK. Under the banner "NitzerEbbProdukt", with the help of their friend, musician and conceptual artist Simon Granger, they released their first self-produced singles on their own label, Power Of Voice Communications. "Isn't It Funny How Your Body Works" came out on 7 January 1985 and was followed that same year by "Warsaw Ghetto/So Bright So Strong". The following year brought two more singles with a strong impact on the post-punk and industrial scene, "Let Your Body Learn"/"Get Clean" and "Murderous", which were huge hits in alternative clubs. Their success earned the band a deal with Mute Records and distribution through Geffen in the United States.

Their debut LP, That Total Age, was a success foretold. The album was released on 11 May 1987 by Mute/Geffen and immediately became a landmark, capable of inspiring countless other bands with its aggressive, direct sound.

Much like Front 242's "Front By Front" (an album that came out only a year later), That Total Age can be considered one of the genre's cornerstones. Everything about it, starting with the constructivist aesthetic of the cover, evoked a totalitarian vision in which the line between body and machine disappeared, a theme already dear to much industrial music, from Test Dept to Esplendor Geométrico. The three slogans driving the album, as stated by Nitzer Ebb themselves, were "Force Is Machine", "Visions Of Order" and "Muscle And Hate" — three phrases that conjured up an overwhelming dystopian imagery straight out of George Orwell's "1984".

A brutal, provocative approach characterised "Join In The Chant", with its violent slogans screamed in unison, including, naturally, "Force Is Machine" and "Muscle And Hate". The single was previewed in April 2017 together with another 12" featuring three versions of "Let Your Body Learn". That Total Age also included "Murderous" and the athletic "Fitness To Purpose", both of which had already come out as singles the previous year.

These four explosive tracks alone would be enough to capture the spirit of a record that caught the English band at their peak, with pulsating rhythms ready to set dancefloors alight for years to come. No industrial, post-punk or new wave band, call it what you will, had ever placed such emphasis on the theme of the body in motion and on such a hedonistic, breathless, aggressive fury — so much so that you'd have to wait for the arrival of the European rave era, a few years later, to find anything comparable. Those very years also saw the birth of the Balearic beat movement, and many DJs ended up spinning Nitzer Ebb tracks like "Join In The Chant", in its various versions and remixes, propelling the English band beyond the strictly underground world tied to post-punk.

Even some DJs on the Chicago house scene began to take an interest in the EBM phenomenon and in Nitzer Ebb. For this reason too, McCarthy and co. would come to be seen as something of a link to the world of techno, which was then taking its first tentative steps.

Right around that time, Nitzer Ebb recruited Vietnamese-born drummer and percussionist Duc Nhan Nguyen and toured Europe with Depeche Mode in support of their "Music For The Masses". The partnership was repeated for the American tour of "Violator" in 1990. Unfortunately, Nitzer Ebb were not allowed to perform in the United States, as immigration officials apparently took issue with the band's imagery and rather blunt lyrics. As is well known, Americans aren't exactly comfortable with iconography built around hammers and red stars, and the English group's politics could easily be read as ambiguous.

In any case, a good relationship developed between the two bands, and Depeche Mode were always very supportive of Nitzer Ebb, to the point that Alan Wilder co-produced their fourth album. In the meantime, David Gooday left the band after the tour, leaving just McCarthy and Bon Harris, assisted on percussion by Julian Beeston.

If That Total Age gathered the fruits sown by a run of emotionally charged singles, Belief built on that momentum, evolving their style into a multi-branched electro/EBM sound that leaned more towards anxiety than adrenaline. The album came out between late 1988 and early 1989, produced by Mark "Flood" Ellis (producer of Depeche Mode, as well as Nine Inch Nails and Nick Cave).

The single "Control I'm Here" matched the success of "Join In The Chant", becoming, in its various versions, one of the band's best-known and most remixed tracks, thanks to its hammering, claustrophobic rhythms, which paired perfectly with the voice of an increasingly obsessive and unsettling McCarthy. Tracks like "Shame" and "Blood Money" also quickly became live staples for the band. The latter was the first to feature guitars in a Ministry-like vein, something that would also crop up on later albums.

1989 saw the English band collaborate with Die Krupps, the historic German industrial outfit, on what became one of EBM's most famous classics. "The Machineries Of Joy" came out as a maxi-single with four different versions of the track and was a triumph of groans and metallic percussion. The track partly reworked an old Die Krupps single from 1981 titled "Wahre Arbeit – Wahrer Lohn". Nitzer Ebb's contribution stood out for its constructivist aesthetic, combined with an athletic spirit reminiscent of the hits on That Total Age.

With Showtime, their third album, released in 1990, a new phase began. Evidently, after the success of their first two albums, Nitzer Ebb were looking for new directions in which to evolve their sound. On the opening track, "Getting Closer", you could hear a certain closeness to the Nine Inch Nails sound. After all, this record too was produced by Flood, who had worked the previous year, alongside Adrian Sherwood, on "Pretty Hate Machine", Trent Reznor's successful debut.

The band wove elements of blues and jazz into their trademark EBM sound, and on some tracks the result could even bring to mind certain experiments by Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell, as on "Nobody Knows". On the single "Lightning Man", the sound of the clarinet paired beautifully with the Luciferian voice of a McCarthy growing ever more confident in his vocal abilities. One of the most successful tracks was the urban, funky "Fun To Be Had", later remixed by George Clinton, which helped boost Nitzer Ebb's standing in the dance world.

In April 1991, Showtime was followed by a solid EP titled As Is, featuring four new tracks mixed and produced by various artists and producers. "Family Man" — also featured on their next album, but in a different version — was recorded and produced by Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke. "Lovesick", meanwhile, was mixed by Flood; "Come Alive" by Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode; and "Higher" by Barry Adamson (bassist of Magazine and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds). The EP, which looked towards the new trends in early-'90s English electronic music, was well received by critics.

Ebbhead (1991), a work that only partly succeeded, continued in the wake of Showtime, but without reaching its level. Tracks like "I Give To You" and "Godhead" tried to latch onto the emerging industrial-rock trend, somewhat distorting the band's traditional sound. Despite the excellent production by Flood and Alan Wilder and a lengthy world tour in support, Nitzer Ebb failed to break through into "mainstream rock" the way they had in the alternative "dance" scene a few years earlier.

It's interesting to note how, between the late Eighties and early Nineties, many bands in Northern Europe (Germany and Sweden in particular) began drawing on the "classic" sound of That Total Age, giving rise to the underground strand (almost an underground resistance) of Ebm Old School: think of bands like Sweden's Pouppée Fabrikk or Germany's Armageddon Dildos. A niche scene that also saw a significant revival in Sweden in the very early 2000s with the emergence of bands like Spetsnaz and Sturm Café, all acts that clearly owe a great deal to the Nitzer Ebb of the Eighties.

Things would get even worse for Nitzer Ebb with Big Hit, a 1995 album that stubbornly persisted down the path of Nine Inch Nails-style industrial-rock, perhaps in a vain attempt to make the great leap toward a wider audience. Jason Payne on percussion and John Napier on guitars joined the lineup to support the band in its live shows. On the record, the good "Kick It" was about the only thing worth saving.

In any case, here too McCarthy's voice demonstrated great versatility and adaptability, and Flood's production was impeccable.

A self-mocking video was also made for "Kick It", in which McCarthy showed up with dyed hair à la Green Day, while Bon Harris wielded a guitar. The video was a clear parody of the MTV generation. At this point, McCarthy and Harris's paths also parted ways, with the latter destined to relocate to Los Angeles.

From the mid-Nineties onward, Nitzer Ebb's star seemed to have set for good, until, in the early 2000s, a meeting in London between McCarthy and French DJ/producer Terence Fixmer, founder of Planete Rouge Records, changed everything. The two brought several of the band's tracks back to life, alongside new, previously unreleased material created for the occasion. The climate had changed considerably compared to the Nineties. Now the marriage between techno and Ebm could be consummated in a dystopian, techno-industrial union. This led to the creation of that masterpiece, Between The Devil…, released in 2004, following the previous year's trailblazing single "Destroy/Freefall".

The album featured tracks like "Freefall", "I Run" and "Destroy", which quickly became (neo)classics of the dancefloor for the black-clad crowd. The following year also saw an excellent remix of the track "You Want It" courtesy of Dave Clark.

In their subsequent live shows, the duo would never fail to perform Nitzer Ebb hits like "Join In The Chant" as well. With a reputation as an incendiary, adrenaline-fuelled live act, the diabolical pairing of Fixmer/McCarthy would release their second full-length album in 2008, Into The Night, which also absorbed future/synth-pop and (neo)electro-punk impulses. The album received excellent reviews and strong audience response, further cementing the duo's position at the top of the food chain and reminding everyone where certain sounds originally came from.

Galvanized by the success of the operation, McCarthy (who had meanwhile also relocated to Los Angeles), together with Bon Harris and Jason Payne, brought Nitzer Ebb back in 2009 with Industrial Complex, a more-than-decent work that looked back to the glory days, as can be heard on "Once You Say", a track made with Martin Gore of Depeche Mode. Tracks like "Hit Your Back", on the other hand, had thoroughly absorbed the fruits of the collaboration with Fixmer. "Payroll" looked back to the funk/industrial rock of "Ebbhead" and "Big Hit".

In essence, Industrial Complex summed up the various aspects of Nitzer Ebb's career, without adding a great deal more. On the long tour that followed, the band didn't disappoint, proving still in great shape and well able to command the stage.

In 2011, Nitzer Ebb and Die Krupps went on a long joint tour called "Join In The Rhythm Of Machines". For the occasion, an eponymous EP was also released, on which the two bands reworked each other's famous tracks from their long careers. The English band recorded their own versions of "High Tech Low Life" and "To The Hilt", classic tracks by the German band, who in turn recorded new versions of Nitzer Ebb's "On The Road" and "Blood Money".

Later on, McCarthy would also prove to be a skilled talent scout, discovering new bands that would rekindle the original electro industrial/Ebm spirit. This was the case with Youth Code, for example. The duo, right at the start of their career, performed at his "nocturnal" gallery, the Show Cave, in that Los Angeles hotbed of new young bands such as Pure Ground and High-Functioning Flesh.

Still riding the long wave of success of a certain strain of techno/Ebm that had by now become hugely popular, from Berghain to Tresor, and at festivals like Berlin Atonal, Fixmer/McCarthy released two new singles, "So Many Lies" in 2016 and "Chemicals" the following year. The tracks offered a kind of "Nitzer Ebb 2.0" sound, raising both the intensity and the hype.

At this point, all that remained was to reissue the band's entire discography in a monumental vinyl box set, and indeed, on October 5, 2018, 1982-2010 arrived, a collection of albums, remixes and singles, plus various previously unreleased versions of their tracks.

A celebratory tour would then follow, marking the return of David Gooday and Simon Granger to the band, which thus reunited in its original 1987 lineup. The tour took in several European cities, including London, Berlin, Cologne and Stockholm. In January 2019, a vinyl reissue of the essential compilation Body Of Work was also released.

In April 2019, Fixmer/McCarthy released “Let It Begin“, a new EP that ideally closes the trilogy begun with “So Many Lies” and continued with “Chemicals”. Sealing the deal is also a fine remix courtesy of Phase Fatale, the golden boy of industrial techno.

All of this will definitively confirm, if any further proof were needed, the role of fundamental historical importance played by Nitzer Ebb, as well as McCarthy's ability, alongside Fixmer, to stay ahead of techno's future sound.

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