Attrition (band)
Encyclopedia
Attrition are an electronic music
band, formed in Coventry
, England
in 1980 by Martin Bowes and Julia Niblock. The band emerged from the experimental post-punk scene of the early 1980s and, along with other groups such as Throbbing Gristle
, Coil
, Einstürzende Neubauten
, and In the Nursery
, greatly contributed to the development of industrial music in the UK. Still active 30 years later, Attrition have been a stanchion of darkwave and industrial music, influencing many younger bands in the genres while continuously fine tuning their own distinctive sound.
music scene (including such notables as The Specials
and Furious Apples). The fanzine ran for 18 issues until 1981, and culminated in a vinyl compilation, "Sent from Coventry" (on Cherry Red Records) and a brief appearance on the BBC's Something Else
programme. During this time, Martin met Julia at a local gig and, with the addition of Martin's brother Chris on guitar, Attrition was formed. In 1980 Chris was replaced by Julia's brother Ashley Niblock on synthesizer, and a short time later they replaced their live drummer with a drum machine; these changes facilitated Attrition's development beyond the post-punk of the early 80s into more experimental veins of sound.
's do-it-yourself aesthetic, Attrition took part in the emerging cassette culture
, contributing multiple early tracks to underground cassette compilations and fanzines alongside contemporaries such as Portion Control, Konstruktivits
, Chris and Cosey
, the Legendary Pink Dots, Nurse With Wound
, and Coil
. Attrition's first album release came in the form of Death House, a cassette of two experimental electronic soundtracks inspired by zombie films. In 1983, Attrition received their first exposure in the national music press through a review by Dave Henderson
in his "Wild Planet" column in Sounds, which led to their "Dreamsleep" track appearing on Henderson's compilation The Elephant Table Album
, the band's first vinyl appearance. A postal collaboration with Seattle-based improvisational collective Audio Leter led to Attrition's second cassette album release, Action and Reaction. Attrition's first London concert followed, with a supporting slot from Coil
, and the first European tour in April 1984 with the Legendary Pink Dots.
The debut album The Attrition of Reason appeared on Third Mind Records in autumn of 1984. The next year, Julia left the band to join the Legendary Pink Dots, and Bowes returned with new band members Marianne, Alex Novak, and Pete Morris to release the second proper Attrition album, Smiling, at the Hypogonder Club, which was generally well-received. The following year, however, this lineup dissolved and Bowes released In The Realm Of The Hungry Ghosts, a collection of rarities, compilation tracks, and B-sides from the preceding few years. This was the last release on Third Mind. The band then switched to Belgium's Antler-Subway Records for the release of "At the Fifitieth Gate" in 1988, which saw the addition of guitarist Gary Cox.
1996 saw the release of 3 Arms And A Dead Cert, which showed an increased use of organic instruments, including orchestral elements. This album also was the first proper release on Projekt, a relationship that would continue for many years and would see the release of a succession of albums during the 90's that saw progressed development of Attrition's signature sound. Also in 1996 the band toured the USA for the first time, at the culmination of which Julia left the band once more. The following year, Bowes revisited various works from the past decade of Attrition music and recorded new classical string variations of the songs, releasing them as Etude. After heavy touring in the late 1990s, including a stop at Wave Gotik Treffen
, Attrition released The Jeopardy Maze in 1999.
In June 2008 Attrition once more became a multi-member act with the addition of female vocalist Sin D'rella. Bowes and Sin then released the twelfth album proper for the band, All Mine Enemys Whispers - The Story of Mary Ann Cotton, a concept album built around the true story of a mid-19th century serial killer in England, the arresting officer of whom Bowes is a descendant. The album bears a marked departure from what has come to be seen as the signature Attrition sound, ditching prominent synthesizer base lines, percussion, and vocals for atmospheric, ambient, and found sounds. Guests on the album include Emilie Autumn
, Erica Mulkey
, and Bowes' own two children.
2009 has seen the release of a live album, Kill the Bhudda!, that celebrates 25 years of live touring, and an album of Attrition songs covered by other bands. Martin also currently teaches music technology at City College in Coventry and regularly produces albums for other artists.
, the Sex Pistols
, Magazine
, Joy Division
, and Cabaret Voltaire
, early experimental electronic groups like Kraftwerk
, classic rock'n'roll (Elvis), and even Beethoven.
In the early 1980s, Attrition was grouped into the post-punk movement, and as post-punk birthed sub-genres and cross-pollinated with others, the band came to be seen as an early and influential part of the fledgling industrial and darkwave genres. Later on they would also gain a considerable following among the goth scene. By the early 90s Bowes had become the primary member and songwriter and Attrition had developed its own distinctive electro-acoustic sound. This was based on Martin's deep growl, Julia's fretless bass work and breathy sub-operatic vocals, and a backline of electronic instrumentation, comprising analogue synthesizers (including a Korg Mono/Poly
and Korg MS20), sequencer (Roland MC-202
), drum machine (Roland TR-808
), and various effects units.
"At first, there wasn't the same sort of scene and we were in more of an 'industrial' thing. There was nothing like the clubs you get now, it was actually quite difficult to play anywhere that would appreciate you. It's a lot easier now, it's not just Goth, it's a mix - Darkwave or whatever. That's gotten stronger, so that has helped, but really, we were there before it was built."
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
band, formed in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1980 by Martin Bowes and Julia Niblock. The band emerged from the experimental post-punk scene of the early 1980s and, along with other groups such as Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
, Coil
Coil (band)
Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...
, Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
, and In the Nursery
In The Nursery
In the Nursery are a neo-classical/martial electronica band, known for their cinematic sound. The duo has provided soundtracks to a variety of TV programmes and films, and is known for its rescoring of silent films.- Career :...
, greatly contributed to the development of industrial music in the UK. Still active 30 years later, Attrition have been a stanchion of darkwave and industrial music, influencing many younger bands in the genres while continuously fine tuning their own distinctive sound.
Beginnings
In 1979, Martin started a xeroxed fanzine called Alternative Sounds to document the CoventryCoventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
music scene (including such notables as The Specials
The Specials
The Specials are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combines a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude", and had a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups...
and Furious Apples). The fanzine ran for 18 issues until 1981, and culminated in a vinyl compilation, "Sent from Coventry" (on Cherry Red Records) and a brief appearance on the BBC's Something Else
Something Else (UK TV series)
Something Else is a British television programme broadcast on BBC2 from 1978 to 1982 and targeted at a youth audience. It began in 1978 on Saturday evenings and was the first example of the genre known as "youth TV" encompassing unknown and largely untrained young presenters with undisguised...
programme. During this time, Martin met Julia at a local gig and, with the addition of Martin's brother Chris on guitar, Attrition was formed. In 1980 Chris was replaced by Julia's brother Ashley Niblock on synthesizer, and a short time later they replaced their live drummer with a drum machine; these changes facilitated Attrition's development beyond the post-punk of the early 80s into more experimental veins of sound.
1980s
Influenced by punkPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
's do-it-yourself aesthetic, Attrition took part in the emerging cassette culture
Cassette culture
Cassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
, contributing multiple early tracks to underground cassette compilations and fanzines alongside contemporaries such as Portion Control, Konstruktivits
Konstruktivits
Konstruktivits is a British industrial band. Formed in 1982, they were mostly active in the 1980s, with recording activity continuing until today....
, Chris and Cosey
Chris and Cosey
Chris & Cosey, now performing as Carter Tutti, are a band formed in 1981, consisting of partners Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, both previously members of industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle.- History :...
, the Legendary Pink Dots, Nurse With Wound
Nurse with Wound
Nurse with Wound is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak...
, and Coil
Coil (band)
Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...
. Attrition's first album release came in the form of Death House, a cassette of two experimental electronic soundtracks inspired by zombie films. In 1983, Attrition received their first exposure in the national music press through a review by Dave Henderson
Dave Henderson
David Lee Henderson , nicknamed Hendu, is an American former Major League Baseball player who played for the Seattle Mariners , Boston Red Sox , San Francisco Giants , Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals . He batted and threw right-handed...
in his "Wild Planet" column in Sounds, which led to their "Dreamsleep" track appearing on Henderson's compilation The Elephant Table Album
The Elephant Table Album
The Elephant Table Album: a compilation of difficult music was a 1983 compilation album, released on Xtract Records. The double album was compiled by music journalist Dave Henderson following a series of articles by him in Sounds, the British music paper...
, the band's first vinyl appearance. A postal collaboration with Seattle-based improvisational collective Audio Leter led to Attrition's second cassette album release, Action and Reaction. Attrition's first London concert followed, with a supporting slot from Coil
Coil (band)
Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...
, and the first European tour in April 1984 with the Legendary Pink Dots.
The debut album The Attrition of Reason appeared on Third Mind Records in autumn of 1984. The next year, Julia left the band to join the Legendary Pink Dots, and Bowes returned with new band members Marianne, Alex Novak, and Pete Morris to release the second proper Attrition album, Smiling, at the Hypogonder Club, which was generally well-received. The following year, however, this lineup dissolved and Bowes released In The Realm Of The Hungry Ghosts, a collection of rarities, compilation tracks, and B-sides from the preceding few years. This was the last release on Third Mind. The band then switched to Belgium's Antler-Subway Records for the release of "At the Fifitieth Gate" in 1988, which saw the addition of guitarist Gary Cox.
1990s
After a short hiatus, Bowes began work on music once more and Julia rejoined Attrition in 1990. A compilation of songs from previous releases was released by Projekt Records in the USA, introducing Attrition to US audiences. "A Tricky Business" was released in 1991 on Italy's Contempo Records and marked a new era for the band. These US releases were complemented with European editions on German labels Hyperium and Trisol. The Hidden Agenda came out in 1993, followed by Ephemera in 1995, which mirrored the dark ambient nature of early album Death House.1996 saw the release of 3 Arms And A Dead Cert, which showed an increased use of organic instruments, including orchestral elements. This album also was the first proper release on Projekt, a relationship that would continue for many years and would see the release of a succession of albums during the 90's that saw progressed development of Attrition's signature sound. Also in 1996 the band toured the USA for the first time, at the culmination of which Julia left the band once more. The following year, Bowes revisited various works from the past decade of Attrition music and recorded new classical string variations of the songs, releasing them as Etude. After heavy touring in the late 1990s, including a stop at Wave Gotik Treffen
Wave Gotik Treffen
Wave-Gotik-Treffen is an annual world festival for "dark" music and arts in Leipzig, Germany. 150+ bands and artists from various backgrounds play at several venues throughout the city over 4 days...
, Attrition released The Jeopardy Maze in 1999.
2000s
Five years passed between The Jeopardy Maze and the next Attrition album, Dante's Kitchen, released in 2004. During the interim a remix album and a rarities album were put out and the entire back catalog of Attrition was reissued on CD in Europe and the band focused on touring and playing live again. Attrition finally founded their own label, Two Gods, in 2006 and released Tearing Arms from Deities, a 25th anniversary collection of material spanning Attrition's career, and Something Stirs - The Beginning, a collection of many of their cassette compilation tracks from the early 1980s. Two Gods would serve as a vehicle for releasing remastered reissues of the entire Attrition back catalogue in the following years.In June 2008 Attrition once more became a multi-member act with the addition of female vocalist Sin D'rella. Bowes and Sin then released the twelfth album proper for the band, All Mine Enemys Whispers - The Story of Mary Ann Cotton, a concept album built around the true story of a mid-19th century serial killer in England, the arresting officer of whom Bowes is a descendant. The album bears a marked departure from what has come to be seen as the signature Attrition sound, ditching prominent synthesizer base lines, percussion, and vocals for atmospheric, ambient, and found sounds. Guests on the album include Emilie Autumn
Emilie Autumn
Emilie Autumn Liddell , better known by her stage name Emilie Autumn, is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and violinist. Autumn draws influence for her music—the style of which she has alternatively labeled as "Victoriandustrial" and glam rock—from plays, novels, and history, particularly the...
, Erica Mulkey
Unwoman
Unwoman is a solo artist from San Francisco, California. Musician Erica Mulkey mixes cello and vocals with electronic influences. The music she creates is difficult to label with an established genre, but contains characteristics of synth pop and goth...
, and Bowes' own two children.
2009 has seen the release of a live album, Kill the Bhudda!, that celebrates 25 years of live touring, and an album of Attrition songs covered by other bands. Martin also currently teaches music technology at City College in Coventry and regularly produces albums for other artists.
Musical influences and characteristics
Martin Bowes has cited a wide variety of influences on his music, including experimental rock, punk, post-punk, and industrial groups such as The Velvet Underground, CrassCrass
Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
, the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, Magazine
Magazine (band)
Magazine are an English post-punk group active from 1977 to 1981, then reformed in 2009. Their debut single, "Shot by Both Sides", is now acknowledged as a classic and their debut album, Real Life, is still widely admired as one of the greatest albums of all time...
, Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
, and Cabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire (band)
Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.Their earliest performances...
, early experimental electronic groups like Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, classic rock'n'roll (Elvis), and even Beethoven.
In the early 1980s, Attrition was grouped into the post-punk movement, and as post-punk birthed sub-genres and cross-pollinated with others, the band came to be seen as an early and influential part of the fledgling industrial and darkwave genres. Later on they would also gain a considerable following among the goth scene. By the early 90s Bowes had become the primary member and songwriter and Attrition had developed its own distinctive electro-acoustic sound. This was based on Martin's deep growl, Julia's fretless bass work and breathy sub-operatic vocals, and a backline of electronic instrumentation, comprising analogue synthesizers (including a Korg Mono/Poly
Korg mono/poly
The Korg Mono/Poly is a "mono-polyphonic" analog synthesizer manufactured by Korg from 1981 to 1984. This keyboard is the sister synth to the Korg Polysix....
and Korg MS20), sequencer (Roland MC-202
Roland MC-202
-External links:* * * * *...
), drum machine (Roland TR-808
Roland TR-808
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer was one of the first programmable drum machines . Introduced by the Roland Corporation in early 1980, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. Like earlier Roland drum machines, it does not sound very much like a real...
), and various effects units.
"At first, there wasn't the same sort of scene and we were in more of an 'industrial' thing. There was nothing like the clubs you get now, it was actually quite difficult to play anywhere that would appreciate you. It's a lot easier now, it's not just Goth, it's a mix - Darkwave or whatever. That's gotten stronger, so that has helped, but really, we were there before it was built."
Discography
(selected; a full discography can be obtained from the official website — see links below)Albums
- (1982) This Death House
- (1983) Action and Reaction (a collaboration with Audio Leter)
- (1984) The Attrition of Reason
- (1985) Smiling, at The Hypogonder Club
- (1988) At the Fiftieth Gate
- (1991) A Tricky Business
- (1993) The Hidden Agenda
- (1995) Ephemera
- (1996) 3 Arms and a Dead Cert
- (1997) Etude (early works performed by a chamber orchestra)
- (1999) The Jeopardy Maze
- (2003) The Eternity LP (more classical works)
- (2004) Dante's Kitchen
- (2008) All Mine Enemys Whispers - The story of Mary Ann Cotton
Compilation Albums
- (1986) In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts (a compilation of remixed early material)
- (1990) Recollection: 84-89
- (2000) The Hand that Feeds - the remixes
- (2000) Esoteria (1982–1999, a collection of ambient works)
- (2001) Keepsakes And Reflections (B-sides and rarities)
- (2006) Something Stirs - the beginning (1981–83)
- (2006) Tearing Arms from Deities (25 year anniversary collection of rare, remastered and remixed material)
- (2010) Wrapped in the guise of my friend - the tribute album
- (2010) Dreamtime Collectors: 1980 - 2010 (The Best of Collection)
Live Albums
- (1985) Terminal Kaleidoscope (split with Legendary Pink Dots)
- (2000) Heretic Angels - Live in the USA
- (2009) Kill the Buddha! - Live on the 25 year anniversary tour
- (2011) The Truth In Dark Corners - Live In The Netherlands