Xtort
Encyclopedia
Xtort, sometimes written XTOЯT, is the ninth studio album by industrial rock
group KMFDM
. It was released June 25, 1996 on Wax Trax!
/TVT
. It was recorded in Chicago
, Illinois
, shortly after the death of Wax Trax! co-founder and band friend Jim Nash, from the end of 1995 through early 1996, and featured a variety of guest artists from other industrial bands, but had limited participation from core member En Esch
.
The album was highly promoted by TVT Records, who sent out tens of thousands of free copies of the first single, "Power". The band did their own form of anti-promotion as well, creating a press release that both insulted and hyped the coming set. Xtort was generally well received by critics, with many calling it superlative, and is the highest charting and best-selling KMFDM album to date. After the original release went out of print, a remastered version was released in 2007.
had described Nihil as "the crown", and said that the band had come as close to mainstream popularity as he wanted. He stated the band needed to move away from it.
Konietzko returned to Chicago in order to be with his friend, Jim Nash, co-founder of Wax Trax! Records, who was dying from AIDS. Konietzko referred to the death of Nash that October as "the end of an era."
En Esch
, one of the long time core members of KMFDM, had almost nothing to do with Xtort, contributing to just two songs. With regards to Esch's lack of participation, Konietzko said "En Esch is just En Esch. He never made himself available to do this album, and so it's always my belief that the thing must keep moving; I had to do it without him." He also stated that the two were not in communication around the time of the album's release.
of Revolting Cocks
and Bill Rieflin of Ministry
, to help with the album's creation, along with assistance from more than a dozen studio musicians. Konietzko required all the album's contributors to be on call thirteen hours a day during production, saying "I don't care what they do on their own time, but when they do KMFDM, if they don't comply with the schedule, they're out."
Konietzko has stated that the ideas for songs began with individual sounds, which he then modified until he created a looped rhythm. "Craze", for example, Konietzko called "an homage to Atari Teenage Riot, a band with two guys, one girl, a couple TR90S
[sic] drum machines and a bass machine." After creating the base tunes, the songs went to Günter Schulz, another long time member, to add guitars. With the completed songs, Konietzko then allowed guest artists, such as Connelly, to pick songs that they wanted to contribute to, and added their vocals or other instrumentation. For Xtort, Konietzko used Macintosh products to do all the synchronization.
Connelly contributed to four tracks, including "Blame", which also featured the horn section from the Oakland, California based group Tower of Power
. Nicole Blackman
, KMFDM's publicist at the time, contributed spoken word vocals to the track "Dogma", which was adapted from the ten minute live performance she provided while touring with the band. "Power", meanwhile, was made to fulfill a request by the band's label, Wax Trax!
, for a radio promo song. Konietzko said he'd heard that "radio didn't like big female choruses", so he got voiceover commercial singer Cheryl Wilson to help with the song, which he called "dumb and catchy". The hidden track of the album, "Fairy", is a story narrated by Jr. Blackmail, who had worked with the band previously in the 1980s. Konietzko said it was inspired by Blackmail's "dirty fantasies". He also said it wasn't a serious track, and that "it was more like kids at play". For the background sounds, the group did things like roll screws on the floor while Schultz played piano.
", was featured on the "Wax Trax! Summer Swindle", a cassette sampler included with 45,000 issues of the July 1996 issue of Alternative Press. Another 50,000 copies of the sampler were to be handed out at summer college and beach events and given away at radio stations. 90,000 pre-release posters and information sheets were mailed out to fans.
Nicole Blackman
wrote the promotional piece for the album's press kit, and at the request of Sascha Konietzko
, wrote the first half of the promo as an insulting take down of the album rather than as a standard promo. The first letter of each line of the first section of the promo spelled out the phrase "April Fools Day Fucker" and included lines such as "It's been 100 years and fifty albums for the German/American rock squad — are they running out of gas or what?" and "KMFDM can't suck hard enough", a quote from the track "Inane". The second half of the promo included phrases such as "XTORT is a supersonic soundtrack" and "The new album is the sound of a band at the height of their powers." Carrie Borzillo of Billboard Newspaper stated that KMFDM was "poised to make a significant commercial breakthrough." Konietzko stated at the time that there were no plans to tour in support of the album's release.
Xtort was released on June 25, 1996 on Wax Trax!
/TVT
on cassette, CD, and vinyl. The album was also released in CD format in Europe and Japan. In addition to being the first KMFDM album to chart in the Billboard 200, staying there for three weeks and peaking at No. 92 the week of July 13, 1996, Xtort sold over 200,000 copies, making it the best-selling album in the band's history. The song "Son of a Gun" was made into an animated video by visual artist Aidan "Brute!" Hughes
, who also did the album's cover artwork. On March 6, 2007, Metropolis Records
released a digitally remastered version of the album on CD and MP3.
called it "the heaviest and most danceable disc in [KMFDM's] 12-year career" while giving it an A-. Heidi MacDonald of CMJ New Music Monthly
compared Xtort to getting hit with a wrecking ball, saying, "When KMFDM does what it does best, it is the best at what it does, namely jack-hammer industrial anthems that hit with stunning precision and power." Larry Flick of Billboard Magazine said "Power," the opening track, "finds front man Sascha Konietzko
snarling and growling with palpable force, while Cheryl Wilson softens the edges with splashes of soul-mama vamping during the chorus."
Sandy Masuo of Rolling Stone
called the album "the product of a first-rate lineup," and praised the album's diversity, saying, "The 10 tracks on Xtort are grounded in KMFDM's smart synthesis of metallic crunch, swiveling rhythms and sophisticated electronics, but it's the organic elements that give the album a zesty twist." She noted in particular the use of horns and the Hammond B3 organ, and concluded by stating, "In their insidiously arty and intellectually sassy music, KMFDM continue to bring diverse elements together to create a unified whole."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic was less enthusiastic, saying, "it would be nice to hear [KMFDM] branch out and start to experiment a little bit more," and commenting that Xtort did not sound much different from previous releases, but that "KMFDM sounds as good as they ever have, and several tracks rank among their best."
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
group KMFDM
KMFDM
KMFDM is an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project...
. It was released June 25, 1996 on Wax Trax!
Wax Trax! Records
Wax Trax! Records was an independent record label in the United States. Wax Trax! began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado opened by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. They sold the store in 1978 and, in November of that year, opened a new one under the same name at 2449 North Lincoln Avenue in...
/TVT
TVT Records
TVT Records was an independent US record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 25 year history the label released some 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, Underworld, The KLF, Sevendust, Brian Jonestown Massacre and...
. It was recorded in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, shortly after the death of Wax Trax! co-founder and band friend Jim Nash, from the end of 1995 through early 1996, and featured a variety of guest artists from other industrial bands, but had limited participation from core member En Esch
En Esch
En Esch, a.k.a. Klaus Schandelmaier, is a contemporary musician and has been a member of the bands KMFDM, Pigface, and Slick Idiot.-History:...
.
The album was highly promoted by TVT Records, who sent out tens of thousands of free copies of the first single, "Power". The band did their own form of anti-promotion as well, creating a press release that both insulted and hyped the coming set. Xtort was generally well received by critics, with many calling it superlative, and is the highest charting and best-selling KMFDM album to date. After the original release went out of print, a remastered version was released in 2007.
Background
In late 1995, KMFDM was coming off their "Beat by Beat" and "In Your Face" tours in support of their last album, Nihil. KMFDM frontman and founder Sascha KonietzkoSascha Konietzko
Sascha Konietzko , also known as Sascha K and Käpt'n K, is a German musician and producer. He is the founder, frontman, and "anchor" of industrial rock band KMFDM. Konietzko jokingly purports himself to be the father of industrial rock...
had described Nihil as "the crown", and said that the band had come as close to mainstream popularity as he wanted. He stated the band needed to move away from it.
Konietzko returned to Chicago in order to be with his friend, Jim Nash, co-founder of Wax Trax! Records, who was dying from AIDS. Konietzko referred to the death of Nash that October as "the end of an era."
En Esch
En Esch
En Esch, a.k.a. Klaus Schandelmaier, is a contemporary musician and has been a member of the bands KMFDM, Pigface, and Slick Idiot.-History:...
, one of the long time core members of KMFDM, had almost nothing to do with Xtort, contributing to just two songs. With regards to Esch's lack of participation, Konietzko said "En Esch is just En Esch. He never made himself available to do this album, and so it's always my belief that the thing must keep moving; I had to do it without him." He also stated that the two were not in communication around the time of the album's release.
Production
Xtort was pre-produced and tracked in Seattle at Hole in the Wall Studio, and recorded and mixed in Chicago at Chicago Recording Company. Konietzko brought in a number of Wax Trax! alumni, such as Chris ConnellyChris Connelly
Chris Connelly is a Scottish musician who became famous for his industrial music work of the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly his involvement with the Revolting Cocks and Ministry. He has since established himself as a talented alternative singer-songwriter...
of Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks
Revolting Cocks, also known as RevCo, is an American–Belgian industrial rock band and sometime supergroup that began as a musical side-project for Richard 23 of Front 242, Luc Van Acker, and Al Jourgensen of Ministry.-History:...
and Bill Rieflin of Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
, to help with the album's creation, along with assistance from more than a dozen studio musicians. Konietzko required all the album's contributors to be on call thirteen hours a day during production, saying "I don't care what they do on their own time, but when they do KMFDM, if they don't comply with the schedule, they're out."
Konietzko has stated that the ideas for songs began with individual sounds, which he then modified until he created a looped rhythm. "Craze", for example, Konietzko called "an homage to Atari Teenage Riot, a band with two guys, one girl, a couple TR90S
Roland TR-909
The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a partially analog, partially sample-based drum machine built by the Japanese Roland Corporation in 1983. The brainchild of Tadao Kikumoto, the engineer behind the Roland TB-303, it features a 16-step step sequencer and a drum kit that aimed for realism and...
Connelly contributed to four tracks, including "Blame", which also featured the horn section from the Oakland, California based group Tower of Power
Tower of Power
Tower of Power is an American R&B-based horn section and band, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing for over 43 years. They are best known for their funky soul sound highlighted by a powerful horn section...
. Nicole Blackman
Nicole Blackman
Nicole Blackman is a New York City-born performance artist, poet, author, and vocalist.-Literary career:Blackman is involved in the North American goth, spoken word and transgressive literature scenes....
, KMFDM's publicist at the time, contributed spoken word vocals to the track "Dogma", which was adapted from the ten minute live performance she provided while touring with the band. "Power", meanwhile, was made to fulfill a request by the band's label, Wax Trax!
Wax Trax! Records
Wax Trax! Records was an independent record label in the United States. Wax Trax! began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado opened by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. They sold the store in 1978 and, in November of that year, opened a new one under the same name at 2449 North Lincoln Avenue in...
, for a radio promo song. Konietzko said he'd heard that "radio didn't like big female choruses", so he got voiceover commercial singer Cheryl Wilson to help with the song, which he called "dumb and catchy". The hidden track of the album, "Fairy", is a story narrated by Jr. Blackmail, who had worked with the band previously in the 1980s. Konietzko said it was inspired by Blackmail's "dirty fantasies". He also said it wasn't a serious track, and that "it was more like kids at play". For the background sounds, the group did things like roll screws on the floor while Schultz played piano.
Release
The first track on the album, "PowerPower (KMFDM song)
"Power" is the first track on the KMFDM album Xtort. It was used to promote the album before its release in the summer of 1996. It was released in two limited edition vinyl pressings and as a CD single.-Background:...
", was featured on the "Wax Trax! Summer Swindle", a cassette sampler included with 45,000 issues of the July 1996 issue of Alternative Press. Another 50,000 copies of the sampler were to be handed out at summer college and beach events and given away at radio stations. 90,000 pre-release posters and information sheets were mailed out to fans.
Nicole Blackman
Nicole Blackman
Nicole Blackman is a New York City-born performance artist, poet, author, and vocalist.-Literary career:Blackman is involved in the North American goth, spoken word and transgressive literature scenes....
wrote the promotional piece for the album's press kit, and at the request of Sascha Konietzko
Sascha Konietzko
Sascha Konietzko , also known as Sascha K and Käpt'n K, is a German musician and producer. He is the founder, frontman, and "anchor" of industrial rock band KMFDM. Konietzko jokingly purports himself to be the father of industrial rock...
, wrote the first half of the promo as an insulting take down of the album rather than as a standard promo. The first letter of each line of the first section of the promo spelled out the phrase "April Fools Day Fucker" and included lines such as "It's been 100 years and fifty albums for the German/American rock squad — are they running out of gas or what?" and "KMFDM can't suck hard enough", a quote from the track "Inane". The second half of the promo included phrases such as "XTORT is a supersonic soundtrack" and "The new album is the sound of a band at the height of their powers." Carrie Borzillo of Billboard Newspaper stated that KMFDM was "poised to make a significant commercial breakthrough." Konietzko stated at the time that there were no plans to tour in support of the album's release.
Xtort was released on June 25, 1996 on Wax Trax!
Wax Trax! Records
Wax Trax! Records was an independent record label in the United States. Wax Trax! began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado opened by Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. They sold the store in 1978 and, in November of that year, opened a new one under the same name at 2449 North Lincoln Avenue in...
/TVT
TVT Records
TVT Records was an independent US record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 25 year history the label released some 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, Underworld, The KLF, Sevendust, Brian Jonestown Massacre and...
on cassette, CD, and vinyl. The album was also released in CD format in Europe and Japan. In addition to being the first KMFDM album to chart in the Billboard 200, staying there for three weeks and peaking at No. 92 the week of July 13, 1996, Xtort sold over 200,000 copies, making it the best-selling album in the band's history. The song "Son of a Gun" was made into an animated video by visual artist Aidan "Brute!" Hughes
Aidan Hughes
Aidan Hughes is a commercial artist. He was born in 1956 in Merseyside, England, and was trained as an artist by his father, himself a landscape painter.In the 1980s, Hughes published a pulp-style magazine called BRUTE! which earned him notoriety...
, who also did the album's cover artwork. On March 6, 2007, Metropolis Records
Metropolis Records
Metropolis Records is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based record label, distributor, and mail-order store specializing in the post-industrial field such as electro-industrial, synthpop, futurepop, darkwave, and gothic musical genres....
released a digitally remastered version of the album on CD and MP3.
Critical reception
Reviews for Xtort were generally positive. Jon Wiederhorn of Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
called it "the heaviest and most danceable disc in [KMFDM's] 12-year career" while giving it an A-. Heidi MacDonald of CMJ New Music Monthly
CMJ New Music Monthly
CMJ New Music Monthly was a monthly music magazine with interviews, reviews, and special features. Each issue included a compact disc with 15 to 24 songs by well established bands, unsigned bands, and everything in between...
compared Xtort to getting hit with a wrecking ball, saying, "When KMFDM does what it does best, it is the best at what it does, namely jack-hammer industrial anthems that hit with stunning precision and power." Larry Flick of Billboard Magazine said "Power," the opening track, "finds front man Sascha Konietzko
Sascha Konietzko
Sascha Konietzko , also known as Sascha K and Käpt'n K, is a German musician and producer. He is the founder, frontman, and "anchor" of industrial rock band KMFDM. Konietzko jokingly purports himself to be the father of industrial rock...
snarling and growling with palpable force, while Cheryl Wilson softens the edges with splashes of soul-mama vamping during the chorus."
Sandy Masuo of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
called the album "the product of a first-rate lineup," and praised the album's diversity, saying, "The 10 tracks on Xtort are grounded in KMFDM's smart synthesis of metallic crunch, swiveling rhythms and sophisticated electronics, but it's the organic elements that give the album a zesty twist." She noted in particular the use of horns and the Hammond B3 organ, and concluded by stating, "In their insidiously arty and intellectually sassy music, KMFDM continue to bring diverse elements together to create a unified whole."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic was less enthusiastic, saying, "it would be nice to hear [KMFDM] branch out and start to experiment a little bit more," and commenting that Xtort did not sound much different from previous releases, but that "KMFDM sounds as good as they ever have, and several tracks rank among their best."
Track listing
All information from 2007 release CD booklet.Musicians
- Mark Durante – guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
- Sascha Konietzko – vocals, bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, synthesizers, programming, drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Bill Rieflin – drums
- Günter Schulz – bass, guitar, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
Additional personnel
- Dorona AlbertiDorona AlbertiDorona Alberti is a singer and actress whose projects include: KMFDM, Hobson, Fairocious, Old Shoes, Pick up the Pieces, and Briskey. She first began singing for KMFDM in 1992...
– vocals (4, 8, 9) - Bruce Bendinger – voice (6)
- Bruce Breckenfeld – Hammond B3 organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
(3) - Jr Blackmail – narration (11)
- Nicole BlackmanNicole BlackmanNicole Blackman is a New York City-born performance artist, poet, author, and vocalist.-Literary career:Blackman is involved in the North American goth, spoken word and transgressive literature scenes....
– vocals (5) - Michael Cichowicz – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
(7) - Chris Connelly – vocals (3, 4, 7, 9)
- F. M. Einheit – whipping, banging, and breaking stuff (5), lawnchairs, rubble, rocks and dirt (9)
- En EschEn EschEn Esch, a.k.a. Klaus Schandelmaier, is a contemporary musician and has been a member of the bands KMFDM, Pigface, and Slick Idiot.-History:...
– voice (1), guitar solo (6) - Steve Finkel – saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
(7) - Jennifer Ginsberg – background vocals (7)
- Jack Kramer – trumpet (7)
- Ron Lowe – drill and vacuum cleaner (8)
- Bob Samborski – tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
(7) - Jon Van Eaton – noise (10)
- Cheryl Wilson – vocals (1, 3, 6)
Production
- Producers – Sascha Konietzko, Chris Shepard
- Assistant Producer – John Van Eaton
- Engineer – Chris Shepard
- Assistant Engineers – Ron Lowe, Claudine Pontier
- Mixing – Sascha Konietzko, Günter Schulz, Chris Shepard
- Mastering – Konrad Strauss
- Remastering – Brian Gardner
- Photography – Paul Elledge, Justin Gammon, Günter Schulz
- Cover Art – Brute!Aidan HughesAidan Hughes is a commercial artist. He was born in 1956 in Merseyside, England, and was trained as an artist by his father, himself a landscape painter.In the 1980s, Hughes published a pulp-style magazine called BRUTE! which earned him notoriety...