CHAOS CONTROL ISSUE#2


Welcome to Chaos Control, an Ezine focusing on electronic music. This is a
text-only version; the main form is a Mac Hypercard stack. This file can be
downloaded from America Online and will soon be on an ftp site (Email for
info). It can also be ordered on disk by mail by sending $5 to Bob Gourley, 3
Greenville Dr., Barrington, RI, 02806. Chaos Control is published bi-monthly
and features interviews with both major and underground acts. The next issue,
which will be out on July 1 in Hypercard form and later in text form, will
feature New Order, Prayer Tower, Sleep Chamber, 808 State, Billy Idol, Big
Catholic Guilt, Clockdva and more. The best way to get Chaos Control is in
the Hypercard form, as it combines text and graphics to create a true
multi-media publication. The Hypercard version of this issue features
additional articles on Meat Beat Manifesto, Bizarre Inc, and Orbital not
included in this version. Feel free to Email if you want more information. 


                              Bob Gourley
                              rsgour@aol.com

Contents:
The Stereo MC's  
Pigface
Din
The Shamen
Ultramarine
Single Gun Theory
The Orb
Utah Saints
Zia
Nine Inch Nails
Front Line Assembly

THE STEREO MC'S
     Since they emerged in 1987, the Stereo MC's have proved to be masters at
fusing together a variety of styles of dance music. On their latest LP,
Connected, the Stereo MC's take this even further by getting away from using
breaks from other people's music and using more live instruments. Like groups
such as Massive Attack, the Stereo MC'S fuse together rap, funk, soul and
whatever other style of dance music they feel like working with.
     Stereo MC's was started up by rapper Rob B and DJ/remixer The Head in
1985. The duo, along with friend John Baker, started up Gee Street, a label
that was then picked up by Island. 
     The first Stereo MC's album, 33-45-78, was released in 1987. The band
then added drummer Owen If to the line-up and began working with vocalist
Cath Coffy to create the breakthrough album Supernatural.
     Rob cites such electro pioneers as Kraftwerk and Afrika Bambaataa and
early rappers like Whodini and Schoolly D as major influences on the Stereo
MCs' music. But despite their name, and their tendency to incorporate rap
influences into the music, the Stereo MC's don't see themselves as a rap
group.  In launching their career in America, where it seems everything must
fit into a musical category, the Stereo MC's are faced with an extra
challenge.
     "It's quite weird in America, we noticed that last time we came,"
explains Rob. "We saw everything was really segregated and it was a bit hard
for the record company to know what to do with us, because we didn't seem to
fit in anybody's category, so it was hard to start with. 
     "But I think it was just up to us to make an impression of our own and
just say that we weren't coming over to be the rap group every rap fan had to
listen to, because America's got enough rap groups of it's own. We just
wanted to come over and say 'we're the Stereo MC'S and this is our music and
it's just kind of a melting pot of lots of different influences.'"
      The group's new album, Connected, marks a major change for the band in
the way it was created. While Supernatural relied almost entirely on breaks,
with only the occasional session player filling out the sound, Connected made
more extensive use of live musicians.    
     "We started everything with breaks, but most of the tracks ended up
losing most of the breaks," explains Rob. "We ended up taking the music
several stages further than we had gone before and playing things ourselves
on bass and keyboards and getting other people in to play things like the
horns." 
     The change in the group's approach to creating their music was the
result of a change in approach towards songwriting in general. The group
found  just using bits of other people's records to be to limiting. "It was
just because we had a lot of melodic ideas that there's no way to find in a
record collection," says Rob. "We were composing a lot of the music
ourselves." 
     Although they are getting away from the use and sampling, it's not
because the Stereo MC's have any problems with it. Rob feels that as long as
it is done creatively, sampling is a bona-fide source of music. "I think is
stands on it's own right as a form of expression," he says. 
      "A sampler is a musical instrument. You don't think about where the
sample comes from, it's just a matter of making a groove out of tiny part of
records. I think sampling has brought a breath of new live into music, where
music was going nowhere."
     Another difference between making Connected and Supernatural was the
locations of the recording. Rather than going to New York, like they did last
time around, the Stereo MC's stayed home in London to make the record, and
Rob feels it made a big difference.
     "We figured that's what this LP's all about," says Rob. "Us just being
quite honest and making it where we live and a living the music kind of
thing."
     For Supernatural, the group had done the complete opposite, choosing to
record in New York simply because they had never recorded there before.
During this time, the Stereo MC's hooked up with Afrika Baby Bambaata of the
Jungle Brothers, who appeared on two of the album's tracks. While the Stereo
MC's had done mixes for the Jungle Brothers in the past, the collaboration
was not planned and came about simply because Bambaata was working at the
same studio at the time.
     "It was nice, no ego problems or nothing, it was easy-going, just doing
music, it was kind of nice," says Rob. "That kind of stuff we just do if it
naturally happens. There's probably loads of people that we'd like to do
something with, but we find it a bit boring if you premeditate it"
     Supernatural was actually released twice in the United States. The
original version hit the shelves in 1990, but then a special American version
was released that featured re-mixes of several tracks. Rob says that the
decision to do this was made by the label, but he feels that it made sense
since "Elevate My Mind" took a long time to catch in the States but
eventually did well.
     "They probably figured 'well, if we pump the LP a little bit more, we
can get more people into it'," explains Rob. "That's cool - I understood
that."
     Though their studio techniques have changed, the Stereo MC's still make
coming up with a catchy groove the most important factor of songwriting. Rob
compares building up a song to "painting a big oil painting."
     "You gradually just get an atmosphere going with the groove and then
pounding different parts so that you can work arrangements," he says. "Just
building the music very gradually until you get a kind of a whole picture
built. Sometimes, you may have a lyric to begin with, but usually you get a
groove going and that inspires a vocal."
     In terms of writing the actual lyrics, Rob says the subject matter is
wide open. "A lot of the motivation is just things that we see, things that
we know about," he explains. "What we think about life, what we think about
life in England, the way we see society and the way people live, and how we
see nature and how we see everything."

 PIGFACE
     There has never been anything quite like Pigface, a constantly changing
collection of over 27 musicians initiated by original PIL drummer Martin
Atkins. For Atkins, Pigface is a response to his 15 years of experiences in
the music business. Besides being part of PIL, Atkins has released albums
under the name Brian Brain, toured with Ministry, and was part of Killing
Joke in that group's later years. Atkins says that at a time when he should
be disillusioned and bitter, he is happy and excited about making music. But
what exactly is Pigface like? Even Atkins has a hard time coming up with an
answer.
     "Pigface is Pigface," says Atkins. "I've been trying to explain what it
is to people for a long time, and the only way I can describe it now is to
say watch the Glitch video, which is a 70-minute video take from two tours." 
     "I can sit and talk - John Lydon said a lot of things about what Public
Image Limited was, and it was all a lie," he says. "I could talk about what
Pigface is and what it isn't, but it's all bullshit until you see the video
and you see 25 people on stage in Cleveland, a different 20 people on stage
in Seattle with two guys playing bagpipes and people setting fire to things,
different band structures and relationships every night. Until you see that,
anything that I could say would just be bullshit."
     Along with Atkins, the staple members of Pigface have proven to be En
Esch (KMFDM), Chris Connelly (RevCo, Ministry), Willaim Tucker (Ministry,
Thrill Kill Kult) and Paul Raven (Killing Joke). Other contributors have
ranged from Fetchin' Bones cellist Barbara Hunter to Skinny Puppy's Nivek
Ogre to Rollins Band members Andrew Weiss and Chris Haskett. With 18 people
playing on the latest LP, Fook, it would seem that a Pigface live show would
be complete chaos.  But their most recent tour proves otherwise, as the
band's sound was tight and together, while still allowing room for
spontaneity. Fetchin' Bones vocalist Hope Nicholls did a superb job at
covering the vocal parts for the studio contributors who were not present. 
     By having Pigface on his own label, Atkins has the freedom to keep the
band from having the problems he has experienced in the past, particularly
with Pil. "I started the label because I was tired of having my ideas either
ridiculously hyped up or having financial pressures or corporate musos seek
to water down the music we were making as Pil for mass appeal," says Atkins.
"My label and the way I conduct myself now is a direct result of spending my
youth within the confines of Pil ... I'm very sorry to see what Pil has
become, it embarrasses me to be honest. I thought that Pil was a force for
change in the music industry. If not in the industry itself, then at least
for ourselves, and I was very, very sadly disappointed when it turned out to
be just a marketing scam."
     Atkins cites an incident that occurred in NYC in the mid 80's as a major
influence of his departure from Pil and his current view of the music
industry. After a show at the Beacon Theater, Atkins was asked by an Elektra
Records executive what was next for the band. When he responded that the
group would probably tour for a year to promote This is What You Want, This
is What You Get, Atkins was told in no uncertain terms that the LP was
"dead," only a few weeks after it was released. "I just had to leave, it was
very, very depressing," says Atkins.
     Atkins was involved with Pil from its beginnings in 1979 until 1985,
when his disgust for the business and a deteriorating relationship with John
Lydon prompted him to quit. Originally, the two had been good friends, but
Atkins says there was a growing lack of respect between them. 
     "Even with the house and the pool and the palm trees and the car in LA,
I had to re-define success on my own terms. Being in Pil in LA and being
miserable was obviously to me not success, so I quit," says Atkins, who added
that he and Lydon do not remain in touch.
     Several years later, Atkins became part of another 80's legend - Killing
Joke. Murder Inc, one of Atkin's current projects (also featuring several
other Pigface members) is an extension of that band. Atkins had first met
Killing Joke when he was in the studio working on the Betrayed LP with Jah
Wobble and Killing Joke were working on their first EP at the same location. 
      Although they hadn't been in touch in the interim, Atkins ended up
joining the band in 1989, and released the Courtald Talks on Invisible. "I
was aware of their work and they were aware of my work with PIL, so when a
mutual friend was in a pub in England and ran into Geordie, he mentioned that
he knew me and had my home phone number," Atkins explains. "Geordie put a
strangle hold on this guy until he gave him my phone number. They called me
up and said 'hey, come to London and join the band.'"
     But this was near the end of Killing Joke's career, as personality
conflicts were tearing the group apart. After the first Pigface tour, Atkins
returned to England to work on a Killing Joke tour and realized that he could
not continue with the band.  "It was very obvious to me that I didn't want to
be around Jaz Coleman," says Atkins. "And so I left the band. Paul Raven then
decided that if I wasn't going to be in the band he certainly didn't want to
do it either."
        Several months later, there were negotiations for a new Killing Joke
recording contract and talk that Atkins would be involved. So Atkins returned
and began working with Coleman on a budget to record in the most
cost-efficient manner. According to Atkins, Coleman was looking towards
unrealistically exotic locations to record and was also trying to work out a
solo deal at the same time. 
     "Jaz's input was like 'let's go to fucking Cairo, let's record it in
Cairo and then, Poland' you know, just absolute insanity," he says. "And then
Jaz got involved in trying to work out a solo deal for himself. It was just
screwing everything up, and I'm like 'listen, I already left the band, it's
as insane as I thought it was, fuck off'. "
     A few months after that, Atkins started working with guitarist  Geordie
Walker, who had also gotten into an argument with Coleman and decided that he
didn't want to work with the singer. Then Paul Ferguson and the other members
came along, and Murder Inc was born.
      With Chris Connelly handling lead vocals, the band released a
self-titled album on Invisible last year. But while it may seem that the
group is simply a revamped Killing Joke with Connelly in Coleman's place,
Atkins sees it as "very much a completely new group."
     "Some people think I fired Jaz or Chris replaced Jaz, and that's really
not the case. It's just something that was happening over the course of a
year," says Atkins.
      The  release of a new compilation of old Killing Joke material has
fueled rumors that Coleman may rejoin his former bandmates. But this is
completely false, according to Atkins. "I think that a Sex Pistols reunion
would be sad and pathetic and I think that a Killing Joke reunion would be
similarly bizarre and hopeless," he says.      
      "In a very short period of time, Murder Inc went from an idea to, I
think a great album," he says. "The dates that we did  transformed it from a
great idea that had spawned a really cool album into something that I
definitely know can be a very, very dangerous, throbbing force in the market
place and just completely annihilate about 98 percent of what's out there."
     Running the five-year-old Invisible Records gives Atkins control over
all aspects of his projects. The label has an in-house 8-track studio and
capacity to print T-shirts and posters. Atkins says that Invisible handles
all organization duties of recording and touring, from arranging for
musicians to be flown over from England to "sitting on the phone with hotels
and equipment rental companies until we get everything we want for half of
what most people pay."
    Atkins strongly believes that a musician must stay completely on top over
the business side of things, even though some people may complain that they
don't care about it and the music is the only important thing.
      "It's absolute crap for them to say that," he proclaims. "If their
music comes first, then they should be up all night working on spreadsheets,
understanding where their money goes, how it's spent, why they're paying top
price for a bus company, why aren't they in a van with a trailer because
that's all the money there is, why are they paying top price for a studio,
why isn't the management going out and buying the two-inch tape because if
you use ten rolls of two-inch tape, I can get it for $100 cheaper than a
studio will sell it to me for, and that's $1000 and that's an extra day in
the studio. So people that say they don't want to dirty their hands with the
business are just idiots and their money is flying out of the window."       
       
     As an example of how a lack of business know how can jeopardize an
artist's creative control, Atkins told of Killing Joke's Outside The Gate LP,
which the drummer describes as "as absolutely abysmal keyboard masturbation
album." Outside The Gate was originally supposed to be a Jaz Coleman solo
album, but recording costs were allowed to reach over 100,000 pounds, more
than a Coleman album could hope to recoup. 
     "The label and the managment company forced them to call it Killing Joke
and release it in an attempt to get the money back," explains Atkins. "Now
the fact that it very nearly destroyed that band was neither here nor there.
So that's how lack of business knowledge can directly affect creative
output."       
     A project like Pigface demands being extra careful with the financial
aspects, since bringing so many people on the road can be very expensive. But
the very nature of Pigface - constant change and experimentation - adds to
the burden.  "We need to meet people - we met Barbara Hunter in Cincinatti -
she plays cello," explains Atkins. "We had the luxury of being able to say to
her 'hey, do you want to come out with us for a week? We really like your
cello playing.' That's the nature of Pigface and I wouldn't want to change
it. If I had to say I like your cello playing but we can't afford the $200 to
fly you back from Altanta if you come out with us for a week, then what's the
fucking point? Because Pigface is about interaction and experimentation. It's
like a social project and if it just became a band with five of us recreating
the songs from the last three albums, then it would become pointless and just
another band."
     When Pigface goes out on the road, it proves to be just as much of a
social venture as a musical one. Atkins says that the first few weeks are
kind of like a "show and tell" as the members of the different bands
interact. "It's like 'hey, Ogre's got the new Skinny Puppy album, hey how's
it going, look at this video, how far can you push such and such a management
company,'" explains Atkins. "It's sharing of information."
     But keeping such an unorthodox band as Pigface financially stable can
prove to be what Atkins describes as "a battle everyday."  Atkins says that
he is embarrassed that it took the financial support of a merchandising
company to make the first two Pigface tours work, and that they were forced
to charge $22 to $30 for T-shirts. ("I wouldn't fucking pay that. U2 shirts
were only $20 for god's sake.") 
     But in the end, the stuggle is worth it.  "The only thing that we could
change with Pigface to have it not cost as much to tour is not take as many
people on the road," says Atkins. "So then it's like if we're not going to
take all the people that we want, what's the point? It wouldn't be Pigface."

DIN
by Bobby Silver
Originally printed in For Crying Out Loud #2

Pupka Frey, officially know as Din as well as being a member of the
well-known Digital Poodle, has taken a break from his machinery to answer
questions about his musical beginnings, works, and all that other good stuff.
This interview comes to us after the release of Fantastic Planet, which will
be the definite breakthrough of this multi-faceted artist all around the
electronic world.

FCOL: When did Din all begin?

Din: I decided to make my own music after becoming engrossed in music videos
(New Wave early eighties stuff). I went to the keyboard store at the age of
14 (1984) with my mother and rented a Sequential Circuits Pro One synth. Soon
after, I made friends with Heiki  Sillaste (the result of skipping gym class
together and talking about keyboards). For the next three to four years I
continued with Heiki, among others. During this time, the main project was
Heik and the Shakes (drum machine+sequenced music+guitar+New Order-esque
vocals), although I was also producing pre-Din "solo" material. In the summer
of '87, Heiki and I put out a compilation tape featuring the bands Heiki and
the Shakes, DIN and Digital Poodle and which represented the formal beginning
of the Shadow Canada label. Following that, each of the projects released
full-length cassettes. The first Din tape came out in May of '88 and was
called Makaroni. Briefly, it contained 60 minutes of fairly melodic
electronic music with demented vocals and screaming (select titles: Rat {and
Pig}, Clown Suit, Yellow Eyes). Makrame came out in October 1989 and featured
more dance-oriented material although equally demented. Harakiri (1991) was
pure protective disco bubble even bigger with the Fantastic Planet CD the
release of which was managed by Gerald Belanger of DOVentertainment.

FCOL: Where did the name Din come from and what does it mean to you?

Din:I used to say "Din" as a way of imitating the cowbell sound on cheap
analog beat boxes. Conveniently, Din is a word found everywhere, with
multiple meanings. The dictionary describes din as a clamor or noise. DIN
also stands for Deutsche Industrielle Norm (German Industrial Standard) and
can be found printed on anything from rolls of film to toilet seats. Also,
one cannot forget the five-pin DIN plug used to connect all of our MIDI
instruments...

FCOL: Explain the concept behind Din.

Din: The Din concept would be that of escapism and fantasy. This can be seen
in the repeated references to horror and fantasy films, such as "Andalusian
Dog", "The Fantastic Planet", of 70's horror films like "The Eyes of Laura
Mars". I have not yet written Kraftwerkian love songs about technology or
robots.

FCOL: Who have been some of your musical influences?

Din: First and foremost are Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn, and Frida (ABBA). After
that comes Propoganda, and then Jean-Michel Jarre. I was also a big fan of
Eurythmics circa 1983 before they became rock pigs. Lately however, I have
been going through an early eighties revival listening primarily to Visage
and other frills-and-makeup bands with synthesizers.

FCOL: Since your last album Harakiri and now your latest Fantastic Planet,
explain the conceptual progression.

Din: I had access to a phaser pedal during the recording sessions for
Fantastic Planet which led to its repeated use and resulted in multiple sonic
references to the 1970's concept of space. It is interesting to note the
number of disco records from the 70's that were based on a space theme, such
as Boney M's "Night Flight to Venus". I think the space theme was supposed to
induce detachment from the real world. This can be contrasted with acid
house/rave escapism through the drug-induced detachment. Some would argue
however, that space can only be reached through the use of substances.

FCOL: Tell us about your newest release Fantastic Planet.

Din: Fantastic Planet is a compilation of new tracks, remixes and remakes of
songs from past releases. The original plan was to release Harakiri on CD,
but it was then decided to include old "favourites" for variety. No high
budget recording faculties were involved imagine a small suburban studio with
an eight-channel mixer, a computer, four keyboards, and a couple of effects
pedals.

FCOL: Do you plan to play your music live and if so, what would you interpret
into your show?

Din: Trying to play Din music live is analogous to acting out a scene from a
fiction film or book. In other words, the music is not live to begin with,
and so live performance is not the essence of the music, as it is with
standard rock 'n' roll. On the other hand, plugging in a computer on stage
and starting the sequences could only insult the audience. In the past, Din
shows consisted of keyboards and myself on stage, with space films and
homemade slides projected on top. I would occasionally provide vocals or
screaming. I think the shows were awful and I haven't done a show in two
years. If I were tempted to do another show it would have other people on
stage adding to the music. There wold be some outrages characters moving
around along with the space/70's horror fantasy visuals.

FCOL: Din's work resembles the pioneers of it all - Kraftwerk - with a more
up to date sound. Was that what Din was striving for or did you just create
be imagination of technology?

Din: I don't have a technology fetish. Dave Rout (of Bang Elektronika and
Mona Lisa Mescaline) introduced me to the 909 disco. The soft melodic
components of Din probably come through listening to ABBA all the time.
Analog textures through delay is naturally pleasing, especially when
syncopated. It happens that Kraftwerk uses a comparable formula.

FCOL: When you develop your songs, how do you develop ideas for each song?

Din: Lately the majority of songs have the standard 909 beat. The idea of
having a bunch of songs that sound similar, almost like one giant song, was
executed deliberately. The melody on top of the standard bass and rhythm
determines the mood and theme of the song. For example, "Travesty" has a
bittersweet "transvestual" tone and makes me think of decadence and dark
alleys.

FCOL: Has Din done any soundtracks to films or videos of are you looking into
that?

Din: There's a video for "Travesty" ( a still from the video was used for the
cover of Fantastic Planet) which was done Din style with the help of Carole
Iritz of Yellow Lab Video. I have provided soundtracks for a number of local
student film and video productions, but nothing professional.

FCOL: Besides Din and being a member of Digital Poodle, are there any other
side projects you're working on?

Din: I am one-third of K.O.M.A. (Kollective Order of Machine Artists) and
one-third of the mushy New Age project Land. I will be assisting in the
production of the upcoming Nubile G and the Spurious Whiz album. The N/G/S/W
is sound collage crossed over with bleep and tekno.

FCOL: How do you view the current status of the electro/ techno/ industrial
scene from where it's been and where it's going?

Din: Tekno is definitely the latest great thing. The main problem I foresee
is staying power. Two things seem to happen when a new form of art suddenly
takes hold in such a big way; one is commercialization by the music industry.
the other is that a lot of posers are attracted to it thinking they can turn
out something worthwhile. This is not to say that you need four years at the
Musician's Institute before you can dare to be in a band, the concept of
"anyone can do it" is an important part of contemporary music. What I mean
is, whereas before people just got into music for the hell of it, or to get
laid or whatever, with tekno/industrial you have a whole poseur psychology in
action - the black clothes, the Doc's, the meaningless (but profound
sounding) lyrics and artwork - it's one big pastiche designed to make the
doer appear sophisticated when in reality it's incredibly empty and naive,
and points to a pathetic amount of insecurity.

FCOL: What is the most important impression you would like to leave in the
future, musically?

Din: Disco never died.

FCOL: How do you see Din evolving over the next 10 years?

Din: I'll grow my hair long and frizzy like Michael Bolton and use only
acoustic instruments.

This article originally appeared on For Crying Out Loud, Issue #2, October
1992. 

ZIA
     With virtually every major industrial band somehow interconnected with
one another through side projects, it was only natural for the burgeoning
electronic scene in Boston, Massachussetts to also take on this incestuous
nature. In Boston, Elaine Walker has proven to be one of those highly
prolific individuals involved in several projects at the same time. In
addition to being in D.D.T. and Sleep Chamber, Walker has her own project,
ZIA.
     ZIA is not actually new, but it was put on the back burner when Walker
got involved with D.D.T. Once D.D.T. got established, Walker began playing
out as ZIA and released a cassette. To flesh out the project into a live
band, Walker is assisted by D.D.T. bandmate Lisa Sirois and You Shriek's Marq
Free.
     ZIA's music tends to be very fast and aggressive, and Walker shifts
between distorted yells and more traditional singing. Walker does
occasionally break out of this mold, most notably on "Stick Men," a slow,
haunting song with powerful vocals. Like most of Walker's music, "Stick Men"
is written entirely in microtuning, and the technique is particlaulry
effective in the song. Walker admits that "Stick Men" does not really fit in
with the rest of ZIA's material, but she says this is the type of music she
wants to explore in the future.
     "I didn't even really have the notion that what I wanted to in my life
was be a rock star and get a band together," says Walker. "What I was serious
about when I first graduated, and still now, is to just explore and research
microtonality"
     Microtonal composition breaks away from the standard 12-tone piano
tuning. Walker uses 19 note per octave tuning, as well as the octave-less
Pierce Scale. Walker was first exposed to it at Berklee School of Music and
says it has changed the way she looks at music. "Ever since I was in first
grade, I remember asking my mom 'what about the notes in between?'," she
says."So I've always known there were other notes, but I was so young I
hadn't even explored this [12 tone] tuning. Well know I have and I'm sick of
it."           
     "It's a beautiful tuning, and it's worked for hundred of years," says
Walker of the traditional tuning system. "I still think it's a great tuning,
but my god, we've been using it for so long, and isn't anyone getting sick of
it? Doesn't anyone really think about that?" 
     But since keyboards and sequencers were designed to play the 12-tone
system, traditional musical theory and technique must be thrown out the
window. For instance, the note displayed on the computer screen does not
necessarily correspond with what it's making a micro-tuned synthesizer play,
so much of the composition must be done by ear. 
     "It can be kind of confusing to play," says Walker. "I really hate the
fact that keyboards are this hardware thing that always stays the same. I
can't wait until the day that there's a really good controller that doesn't
just conform to one tuning."                                                 
         Although much of ZIA's music doesn't really make use of it, Walker
has a great voice, which is showcased best on the song "Stick Men." Though
she majored in music synthesis, all Berklee students are required to have a
principal instrument they would train in, and Walker chose vocals.
     Walker's involvement with Sleep Chamber came about when she appeared in
their "Synthetic Woman" video. Walker had been working with visual artist
Norm Francoeur on her previous project, Blue Cartoon, and Francoeur was
working with Sleep Chamber. She hadn't actually heard of the band at the
time. "It was funny. John Zewizz thought 'oh, another fan that wants to be in
my video' and Norm was like 'no, she's a musician that I've worked with, she
has a project Blue Cartoon.'"
     At one time, there was talk of Zewizz managing Walker, but that never
happened. The two did start writing together, and Walker is responsible for
most of the music on the new Sleep Chamber LP, Siamese Succubi. Walker
composed all of the keyboard and percussion parts, and then Zewizz took it
into the studio to add guitar, saxophone and other instruments on top.
      Originally from New Mexico, Walker's first band, Blue Cartoon, was an
outfit with more of a Berlin/New Order sound. While Walker was into this kind
of music, she also listened to hardcore and even played synthesizer for a
hardcore band at one point. Upon moving to Boston and going to clubs, Walker
discovered bands like Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy and realized that
these two styles could be brought together.      
      Walker took the name ZIA from the New Mexico state symbol, which is a
Navaho Indian sun symbol. She first started up ZIA when she graduated from
Berklee in 1991. Walker had all the music arranged and recorded on digitally
and was looking for musicians to make up a live band, preferably to take on
the role that she handles in D.D.T. - triggering melodic notes with
drumsticks. But it proved difficult finding a drummer who thought about
playing notes, or finding a keyboardist who would use sticks. Ultimately,
Walker got to know Sirois and D.D.T. vocalist Noel McKenna and joined that
band, putting ZIA on the backburner.
     D.D.T. are known for their strong live shows, due to both their success
in adapting the music to the live setting and the interesting visuals. The
group uses elaborate props built for them by Francoeur as well as futuristic
outfits and effects to add excitement to the concerts. Videos often are
running on stage, and Walker says that watching them has prompted her to
become a vegetarian.
     'They're pretty gory - little white bunny rabbits with their skin
getting peeled off, animals being tested and chickens, which get the least
respect of any animal in the world, besides maybe cockroaches get a little
less respect," she says. "I realized, what the heck. I thought I was almost a
vegetarian, but I ate chicken. I just couldn't stand it anymore."
     Walker said that joining D.D.T. taught her a lot about the music
business and made her feel more comfortable with her life in general. But
Walker wanted to do more and eventually got the chance. "Finally Lisa and a
couple of other friends from other bands got excited about the ZIA thing and
they could tell I was getting frustrated because I had kind of left my solo
thing behind," she explains. 
     Right now, Walker is responsible for all of ZIA'a music. While she has
no desire to collaborate with anyone on the melodic aspect of songwriting,
she would like to eventually get people to help come up with the drum
patterns samples and sound programming.
      "To tell the truth, I wish you didn't even have to hear music. I wish
it could be like telepathy, sensing the pitches somehow," says Walker. "All I
really want to do it compose the different arrangements and figure out the
pitches and harmonic movements, and it would be nice to work with a great
percussionist and a great sound designer. I would rather deal with music in a
more mathematical way as virtual pitches, although I realize that the pitch
and actual sound or timbre interact in many ways."
     One thing Walker would like to pursue in the future is film scoring. She
has already done one local project, Steve Bennett's "Free Soul." The film is
set in a not-too-distant future where phones have commercials instead of dial
tones and every room has a TV set constantly bombarding its inhabitants with
images. Someone had recommended that Bennett use D.D.T. for the soundtrack,
but Walker stuck in a ZIA tape with the samples and the film maker ended up
asking her to score the whole film.

NINE INCH NAILS
    In late 1989, Nine Inch Nails came out of nowhere and proved to be a
driving force in the "industrial dance" scene that was quickly emerging from
the underground. Essentially a solo project of 27 year old
programmer/musician Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails was fleshed out to a full
band and toured extensively in support of their debut album, Pretty Hate
Machine, proving once and for all that electronic music could be adapted to
the live setting. Nine Inch Nails toured for two years straight, gaining
wider exposure but leaving fans yearning for more material. People began to
wonder is Reznor would ever come up with a follow-up to his stunning debut.
     The silence has been ended with Broken, an eight-song EP that marks the
beginning of a new era for Nine Inch Nails. The group has ended its turbulent
relationship with TVT Records after a bitter legal battle and moved on to
Interscope. Musically, the disc is very different than its predecessor. Fans
of the clean, high-tech sound of Pretty Hate Machine may be shocked to hear
the noisy, guitar-oriented music on Broken. Nine Inch Nails' music was always
aggressive, but the new EP takes it to the extreme. Reznor has chosen not to
tour in support of Broken and is currently working on a new full-length
album, tentatively scheduled for an early summer release. 
     Though the sound of Broken makes it seem that Reznor is getting away
from using heavy electronics in music, that is not the case. "It may seem
that way, but in reality it's probably as much or more so," he explains.  "I
just got different equipment for one thing, and what appears to be guitar,
bass and drums is really just a computer."
     Musically, Reznor says that his tastes have changed since doing Pretty
Hate Machine and that he is not as stimulated by traditional electronic music
as he was. Reznor says that he is not turning his back on electronic music,
since that is his instrument, but was simply changing the way he went about
creating it. For instance, the music on Broken was originally written on
guitar.
     The recording of Broken had to be done in secret, since at the time the
deal with Interscope had not yet been finalized. Reznor says that the whole
ordeal was an unpleasant experience, and he wanted to make the music reflect
that. But because he didn't want to bog down an entire album with that sound,
he chose to make the project an EP. The resulting product is a dark, abrasive
collection of songs that is a far cry from the synthetic dance sound of
Pretty Hate Machine.
     "A lot people may say 'oh, I don't like it as good as Pretty Hate
Machine because it's not as accessible or it's not as pretty or it's not as
sad', or whatever the fuck they might say," says Reznor. "That was meant to
be a flexing muscle, it was meant to be an abrasive, hard-to-listen-to thing,
and lyrically ,it changed viewpoints. Because where Pretty Hate Machine's
viewpoint was kind of like 'things might suck, but I still care about myself
and I still want things to be cool trying to fix them', Broken was things
suck, and I suck and I don't fucking care about anything, including myself.
And that's not as positive a statement to make or yell, and a lot of people I
don't think want to hear that statement and that's a specific statement for a
specific mood for people."
     Although technically an EP, Broken contains as much music as some LPs,
due to the two bonus tracks that are not in the song listing. 
     "Those two tracks, a cover of an Adam Ant song ['Physical'] and 'Suck'
were a couple of songs that we'd been floating around and playing live,"
explains Reznor. "We first played 'Physical,' the Adam Ant song, when we did
Lollapallooza, and it ended up being kind of a fun song to play and we wanted
to put that out as a 12 inch when we were doing Lollapallooza, but we
couldn't, of course, because of our record label."
     Though these songs didn't really fit in with Broken, Reznor did not see
them fitting in the future and just wanted to get them out. The first 200,000
copies of the EP contained the songs on a bonus three- inch cd, while future
pressings had them at the end of the disc, not listed on the track listing.
"It was a way to distance them from the other music because it wasn't part of
the same mind set," says Reznor. '"Unfortunately, the risk involved is, with
radio being as conservative as it is, I knew they would jump on 'Physical' or
'Suck' because they're a bit more digestible than the other stuff, so I've
tried to make them as obscure as possible."
     Reznor says that the troubles with TVT stemmed from the label's
misconception that NIN was "a nice pop band." He says that when he delivered
Pretty Hate Machine, the label hated it because it wasn't as radio-friendly
as they hoped.  Ultimately, Reznor found it unbearable dealing with the label
and having to get the approval of people that wanted NIN to be something it
wasn't.
     "I decided that there's no way I could make another record for these
people because I have to deal with things like them putting my music in bad
movies and buying advertising time during 'David Letterman' for a record
that's two years old," says Reznor. "I'm the one that had to answer to my
fans for that, and it's not me doing it and I have no control over it. It was
a really bad situation and personally we hated each other. But it finally
ended and now we're on Interscope and they've been really cool."
     Reznor feels that the extensive touring that the group did after Pretty
Hate Machine was what broke the band. At first, not many radio stations (and
certainly not MTV) were playing Nine Inch Nails. But after getting exposure
touring first with The Jesus and Mary Chain and then with Peter Murphy (both
of whom Reznor says were "easy to blow away"), people began to take notice. A
successful headlining tour followed and then came to question of
Lollapallooza.
     Reznor says that doing the tour was an attempt to earn enough money to
fight a successful lawsuit to get off TVT. But while it proved to be a good
way for the band to stay alive during a difficult period, fans stated to
think that Reznor was just milking it.
     "We got a lot of people bitching at me 'get more material out, record an
album more often.' I'm like 'look, when I'm ready to make a record that I
feel is worth making I'll make it'," explains Reznor. "Secondly, I owe you
nothing as a fan except what I think is good material on a good tour and
everything's of quality. And I'm not going to put out a shitty record that I
write in a month just so that I can get back on the road. That would
inevitably do more harm to us. And, when you're touring, that takes time and
when I'm touring I'm not writing songs and I'm not sitting at home on a
computer working on drum samples. I'm touring and that takes a lot of energy.
It's one guy doing everything, and every time I write a song I have to try to
reinvent how I'm writing it, the sounds I'm using, the process of writing it,
the style of writing. I'm trying to break that up and that takes time. It's
not as simple as getting together with three or four other guys and saying
'okay, here's the chord and the melody', not that there's anything wrong with
that but I chose not to do that."
     In transferring the songs of Pretty Hate Machine to the live setting,
Reznor was faced with the challenge of making totally computerized music
interesting to see performed. Reznor believes it to be a "cop out" to simply
sing along to DATs, as many electronic bands do. But he also feels it's a cop
out to take electronic music and try to translate it to full rock band
format. The solution was to use live guitars, drums and keyboards, but also
have all the bass and any unreproducable noises on tape, as Reznor does not
think anyone will miss watching someone play them. 
     "The second you mention tape on stage, everyone yells Milli Vanilli and
Janet Jackson," says Reznor. "My whole point it this - if someone leaves our
show and feels ripped off, fuck you, you can have your money back. That was
the way to make it sound the best and have the most energy and sound live but
also sound electronic at the same time."
     NIN had its beginning when Reznor was working in a studio and recorded
demos during off-hours. He adopted the name Nine Inch Nails because "it's a
lot cooler name than Trent Reznor." Though he was originally only looking for
a 12-inch deal so he could hone his craft, he ended up signing with TVT. 
     While its touring incarnation is a full band, on record NIN is still
pretty much all Trent Reznor. However, Reznor is starting to have other
people play on his music "to add a little life to it" and does not rule out
the possibility of collaborating on actual songwriting sometime in the
future.
     The fact that NIN have been labeled "industrial" by the media has led to
a backlash from the "true" industrial fans who argue that the music bears
little resemblance to such industrial pioneers as Throbbing Gristle. But
Reznor stresses that it is the media that has given him that label.
     "Mainstream America needs some sort of name, so fine, you can use that.
In most of mainstream America, I would assume that Nine Inch Nail's name
would to mind if you said that word," says Reznor.   "The only problem I have
is when you get the purist, underground people whose sensibilities are so
offended by the fact that a pop band, or a band that actually has lyrics that
you can understand or possibly could be played on the radio is labeled
'industrial' and they're like 'that's not industrial, god dammit!'. Okay,
you're right. But who's telling you that? Me? No, so if want to bitch at
somebody, bitch at Spin Magazine."
     Since NIN has emerged out from the underground to become a commercial
success, Reznor is also faced with the dreaded scenario of having the people
who liked NIN back when nobody had heard of them suddenly accuse him of
"selling out."   
     "When those people start to slightly turn on you, not because you've put
out bad music, not because you've sold out, but because a lot of people like
you, it's kind of a disturbing thing to think about," explains Reznor.
"Through the phase where it was like I wish these people didn't like me
because you don't understand where the fuck I'm coming from. I don't want to
be a big band and I don't want to sell a shit-load of records and I'd rather
be playing 500-seat clubs with my fans there instead of poseur idiots,
fuckheads who just show up because you're supposed to like this. Frat boys,
and that kind of shit. 
     "But I catch myself realizing what a fucking elitist, stupid, fascist
thing to think that is, where, okay, you're allowed to like it because you're
cool, but you're not allowed to like it because you're not cool.      
     "Well, fuck that. I understand people make music their own, and suddenly
when it's a big thing, a lot of people seem to turn on that and they look for
the other things that are now obscure that they can make their own again.
Nothing is going to change that, but when you really think about it, it is
kind of a silly way to act. I personally don't feel that compromised in my
music, and if I wanted to, I could have just put out a record that would have
sold a lot more copies than Broken might do."
     Reznor is currently in the studio working on a new LP, which is
tentatively scheduled for a summer release. He says the music will sound less
dense and produced, as he feels too much thought and too many layers of sound
went into the creation of Broken. Reznor says he purposely made Broken less
accessible in order to make it more interesting for the listener and this
idea will carry over to the new album.
     "It may be pretentious for me to say, but I wanted to make a record that
the first time you hear it you don't like it, but you might want to hear it
again, but by the third time it's pretty cool," explains Reznor.  "By the
fifth time, you really like it and possibly by the tenth time you're not sick
of it and now it all makes sense ... For me, if I hear a song and love it the
first time I hear it, I'm usually sick of it by the fifth time. 'Smells Like
Teen Spirit' would be a great example of that. That's a fucking great song,
but I could live another five life times without hearing it again."
      The way Broken ended up sounding also has a lot to do with the type of
sounds it uses. On Pretty Hate Machine, all the drums were sampled from other
people's records using an E-Max. But this time around, Reznor went out with a
portable DAT machine and recorded his own sounds, later dissecting them on
the computer to create the instruments heard on Broken.
     In addition to working as Nine Inch Nails, Reznor also has a production
deal with Sire, though nothing has come out of it yet. "When they get
something that works with my schedule and that I'm into doing, I'd be happy
to do stuff with them," he says. "They're a cool label." 
     But Reznor says that he will not be working with Pigface again, as he
was not happy with the project the first time around." According to Reznor,
many shows were promoted as if he was supposed to be appearing, even though
it was known well in advance that he wasn't. "Then every night there's a
story about how I'm sick and I can't come to the show," says Reznor.
     "I think it's the kind of thing that could be fun to be involved in
except I haven't had the time to really do it and there's just some
difference in opinion on a few issue that will prevent me from working with
them again. I didn't think it was that great when it was out and that's no
commentary on the people in the band, because I like everybody involved with
that. I just have to be cautious of the way that Nine Inch Nails is handled
and I wasn't able to or I didn't have time to put enough energy into that for
me to feel really good about doing it. I don't want to have to make excuses
for what I do."

Note:This interview was conducted in November of 1992. Since this time, Nine
Inch Nails have released Fixed, an EP of remixes by such artists as Coil and
Foetus. "The Downward Spiral" now has a planned release dates of late summer.
     
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY
     It's fairly common for electronic musicians to be involved with several
projects at the same time, but few have been as prolific as Front Line
Assembly's Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber. In addition to working under the FLA
banner, the duo has recorded as Intermix and Delerium and been part of
Cyberaktif (with Skinny Puppy's cEVIN KEY and Dwayne Goettel) and Noise Unit
(with the Klinik's Marc Verhaeghan). Recently, the duo branched out even more
and did a remix EP with death-metal outfit Fear Factory.
     Front Line Assembly was originally started up in 1987 by Leeb, who had
previously been part of Skinny Puppy. Leeb says that everyone in that group
had their own different ideas, and he also wanted to try vocals, so the time
was right for him to leave and try something else. The connections made with
Skinny Puppy helped considerably in the launching for Front Line Assembly, as
the first two labels Leeb sent cassettes to offered him contracts.
     Fulber appeared on a few tracks on the first LP, The Initial Command
(KK), and then Leeb teamed up with Michael Balch. Balch left and Fulber
returned as a full time member for 1990's Caustic Grip LP (Third Mind/Wax
Trax!).
     So many different projects has allowed Leeb and Fulber to explore a wide
variety of electronic styles. Front Line Assembly is geared toward fast,
aggressive music, with Noise Unit pushing this format even further to the
pain threshold. On the other hand, Intermix is slightly ambient techno-rave
music and Delerium is instrumental, atmospheric sound track music.
     The latter is something that Leeb would like the explore even further in
the future. "That's a part of the music business that really interests me,
and sooner or later I'd like to just spend all my time doing it," explains
Leeb. "I just think it's a pretty neat process."
     With Cyberaktif's Tenebrae Vision LP (Wax Trax!), Leeb was able to
answer the question of what Skinny Puppy would sound like if he had stayed
with the band. Leeb found working with his former bandmates to be "kind of
fun." He says it "was just sort of like rehashing old things, but it was
different this time because we were a bit more established."
     Leeb says that he never had any interest in making music until he
started hearing electronics being used. He had played violin while growing up
in Austria, but never liked the music he was hearing back then. "I was never
a big fan of the 70's music scene at all," he explains. "I never bought stuff
like that, never got into it. But the first time I heard a couple of these
weird sort of electronic things, I thought 'wow, this is different'." 
     Sampling has always played a part in Front Line Assembly and the
off-shots. It's not uncommon to hear lines from horror and science fiction
films like "From Beyond" or "Freejack" pop up in the songs. But beyond this
and the use of samplers to manipulate  sounds into new instruments, Leeb is
actually opposed to a great deal of what is going on with sampling in the
music industry today.
    "I have the biggest problem with it," he explains. "To me, a lot of rap
is just a poor excuse for people who can't write songs. They're so obvious
about it, they don't even try to hide it. Most of the songs I recognize by
what they steal, rather than what they do on top of it ... I don't mind
taking little things from movies, but I think when people loop a really
recognizable song, it's wrong.
     "I think all the drum beats that you hear in rap are all stolen, they do
them is basements in New York, and then they just have one keyboard and the
guy raps to it in the hopes that it sells a million records. I think that's
kind of a drag. They should have better copyright laws and stuff like that."
     When it come to creating sounds, Leeb says that the group uses "every
imaginable source of sound." The band has been known to go to great lengths
in order to come up with unique sounds for their music. One favorite source
of sounds is old analogue synthesizers.
     With the first few Front Line Assembly LPs, Leeb moved from label to
label, signing one-album deals to avoid being tied down. He says that it is
fun having product out on a variety of different labels, and doesn't mind
that some of them are in Europe. "I used to just buy imports here myself,"
Leeb explains. "I used to think that they sounded better and were more
prestigious because they came from overseas."
     Leeb ended up sticking with Third Mind for Front Line Assembly, and Wax
Trax! released the music domestically. But that ended in mid 1991 due to
legal problems with the bands' European label, Play It Again Sam. An EP,
Toxic, was shelved because of the court hassle, and then Third Mind started
up a US branch in time to release the Tactical Neural Implant LP. Many of the
tracks from Toxic ended up as bonus cuts on singles from that album. Now,
most of the music Leeb and Fulber do comes out on Third Mind, though there is
a clause in the contract that allows the group to take their material
elsewhere is that label doesn't want to or can't release it. Usually, the
group then takes it to Germany's Dossier Records, who have released the five
Delerium albums.
     Caustic Grip was the album that brought Front Line Assembly up from the
underground, and when it came time to do a follow up Leeb and Fulber decided
to take a different approach to prevent it from sounding the same. As a
result, Tactical Neural Implant had a less dense, slightly less aggressive
sound. Leeb predicts that the next LP will present another change in the
sound, though it is too early to say what it is. 
     With Intermix, their most recent side project, Leeb and Fulber are
experimenting with techno-rave music. Leeb says that the group likes to
follow trends because it keeps things fresh and presents them with a
challenge. "With Front Line, we can't really change with every record,"
explains Leeb. "But I always like trends - they're great, they come and they
go - so we figured with Intermix it would be a great tool to always do what's
current and never lose our identity."
     Leeb is not concerned at all by the fact that the rave music Intermix is
emulating is probably going to be outdated in six months time. Rather, he
feels that it is important for music to be constantly changing because it
creates new ideas and keeps things moving. "Scenes like that aren't meant to
be taken seriously, they're just fun things," he says. "People go out on the
weekends and dance whether it's rave or disco or funk or whatever it is. It's
just something to motivate people to get out there and have fun."
     Although Leeb and Fulber are involved is so many different projects,
they tend to keep them all separate."We put a certain amount of time aside
for one particular project, because we work with certain sounds and things
like that so to organize things in our computers and on our disks and stuff
it's a lot easier to sort of go into one mould and do one particular style of
music and we keep everything pretty separate," explains Leeb.
     Leeb and Fulbur recently released a new Noise Unit LP (minus 
Verhaeghan) called Strategy of Violence (Dossier). The duo is now at work on
the next Front Line Assembly album, which should be completed by the end of
the summer. A Front Line tour will follow the release, and Leeb thinks that a
new Delerium LP may also be completed by years end.

All articles written by and copyright 1993 Bob Gourley unless otherwise
noted.


THE SHAMEN
     Since their beginnings in 1986, change has been no stranger to The
Shamen. Originally an indie-rock outfit from Aberdeen, Scotland, the band
relocated to London a few years later and became heavily influenced by the
acid house scene. 
     But 1991 was a pivotal year for the group - they finally broke in
America, went top 40 in Britain and lost one of their founding members. Last
year, The Shamen  regrouped and released a new album, Boss Drum, an LP that
finally realizes their full potential as a dance outfit. 
     The Shamen's interests in dance music first became evident after the
Drop LP. Previous to this, the group had been using synths and primitive
samplers in their music, but it wasn't until The Shamen started hearing
hip-hop and electro music that they began using the technology to create a
dancier sound. The group's original drummer, Keith, was a major influence in
bringing these styles into The Shamen sound. Relocating to London in 1988 and
becoming immersed in the acid house scene completed the band's transition.
     Psychedelia has always been part of The Shamen, and that's what
attracted them to acid house. "I could recognize the psychedelic aspects of
the music immediately, but it was irresistibly danceable," says frontman
Colin Angus refering to the spacey sound of classic analogue synths used in
the songs. "And the reports I was hearing about the parties, the multi-media
events very like what I imagine events were like in the 60's in terms of
massive light shows with strobes and oils and colored lights and lots of
people enjoying the company of one another in a psychedelically enhanced
atmosphere or empathy of love."      
     "Move Any Mountain", a reworked version of their 1990 club anthem
"Pro-Gen," was the song that finally introduced The Shamen to mass audiences
both here and abroad. The song was remixed by so many people that the band
had more mixes than they knew what to do with, so they released it as a
limited edition double album called Progeny. The LP went straight to #21 on
the British album charts, disappearing a few weeks later when all the copies
were gone.
     "Electronic music is such a powerful way of composing and such a
powerful way for two artists to interface in each other's work, as this album
hopefully shows," explains Angus. "We were making a point to the people
buying the record 'well what exactly is the definition of a track these
days."
     The Shamen even went so far as to include the individual samples so that
fans could create their own mixes (these also appeared on the US single of
the song). The group found itself flooded with new mixes when it went on the
road, and the break beat can be heard on the Utah Saint's "Something Good."
      1991's En-tact was the Shamen's breakthrough LP in the States, but the
American issue differs from the original UK version, which was released in
November of 1990. Tracks were remixed by various people, including the Shamen
themselves, who say they were getting bored with some of them.  Angus feels
that the resulting package was superior to the original. "I think there's a
greater diversity among the tracks, it's a lot more polished and more
danceable," he says.  
     Sadly, co-founder Will Sin did not live to see his band finally make it
big. When the group travelled to Tenerife to shoot a video for the new
version of "Move Any Mountain," Sin drowned at the age of 31. But The Shamen
continued on as a duo of Angus and rapper Mr. C, a long-time collaborator who
had recently been made a full-time member of the band.
     "When it first happened, I was still reeling from the shock of Will's
completely unexpected and tragic death, and I couldn't think about the Shamen
at all, couldn't see how anything could continue," says Angus. "But as I came
to terms with it and thought about the situation I realized that what the
Shamen's about was positivity and that positivity is like the spirit of the
music and positivity acknowledges the need for change. So for those reasons I
elected to carry on and also I knew that the name Shamen really meant a lot
to Will and that was one of the main attractions for joining the band for
him."
     Angus adds that he could not let the Shamen fall into history because it
is "such an informative name."
     "Once you start delving into what Shamanism is, and Shamanism is
definitely on the rise worldwide, we realized that it's such a powerful
excuse for putting forth that kind of information," he says. "The Shamen must
continue to exist as a band."
     On Boss Drum, the ideas of Shamanism figure prominently in the lyrics.
The most extreme example is "Re-evolution," on which Terence McKenna explains
the relationship between house music/rave culture and the ancient beliefs of
Shamanism, saying how the youth culture of the 90's is leading to an "archaic
revival". 
     "We're putting across the information of what Shamanism is, why the
rhythm is important, why it is important to dance, the ideas about planetary
consciousness and human evolution," explains Angus. "We've put this across in
the lyrics of most of the tracks, particularly the title track and
'Re-evolution'."
     To support En-tact, the Shamen brought their "Progeny" show to America
for their first-ever tour of this country. A continuation of the groups
"Synergy" nights in London,  the shows featured sets by The Shamen and Moby,
in addition to a variety of DJs. Although on a smaller scale, these gave many
Americans their first tastes of the all-night raves that have been going on
in England since acid house hit. The aim is to make the audience feel like
they're part of the event, rather than just fans out to see a band. The group
always goes out into the crowd and mingles after their set is over. Late last
year, The Shamen brought "Progeny" back to the States with Utah Saints in the
support slot.
     For the live shows, Angus says that the group breaks down their studio
and re-creates it on stage. The Shamen run all of the sequencers live, adding
keyboards, drums and guitar on top of it. "It's quite a time-consuming set-up
to reconstruct every night and a lot of work for the people making the music
and for the man who's mixing the sound," explains Angus. "But it is a very,
very live sound and that's what sets us apart from other dance artists."
     The Shamen is currently a trio of Angus, Mr.C. and vocalist Jhelisa,
formerly of Soul Family Sensation. Angus says that the line-up has worked out
well and that he has been pleasantly surprised by the amount of collaborating
he's been doing with Mr. C. "Coming from a DJing background, he's obviously
sharpening up the rhythms," he explains. "But on a lot of the raps he does,
we're actually working out the words for those together."
     All the vocal talent in the band creates a big difference between the
sound of En-tact and Boss Drum. Angus no longer handles all the lead vocals,
and on some tracks, such as "LSI,"  the voices of all three are equally
prevalent. As a whole, Boss Drum is a much stronger effort than En-tact due
to more variety in the songs and a more dance-oriented sound. Angus explained
that this time around less emphasis was placed on sampling and the group
concentrated on creating their own rhythms and sounds, often going back to
the classic analogue synths that were the backbone of acid house.
     The group sees themselves as more of a house band than a rave or techno
act. Angus feels that the rave scene has lost a lot of its power, now that it
is dominated by insanely fast hardcore techno. "The music has become far too
fast for dancing to properly," he explains. "It's certainly become far too
fast to be psychologically empowering - it doesn't alter neurological states
in the same way that music between 90 and 130 bpm does."

Ultramarine
       By combining the sounds of traditional instruments with electronics,
Britain's Ultramarine have created a form of ambient house music that has an
organic feel missing from much of today's electronic based music. Unlike many
other electronic bands, Ultramarine creates music with a very natural feel,
and the influence of 70s rock and folk music can be heard just as strongly as
electronic influences. Late last year, the group released its US debut, Every
Man and Woman is a Star, and came to America to do their first-ever tour.
     Originally quartet, Ultramarine is now a duo of Paul Cooper and Ian
Hammond. Hammond and Cooper, who hail from Essex, England and have been
friends since they were 14, were originally part of A Primary Industry. After
that band's demise, the duo started up Ultramarine in 1988. 
     The group's first release was 1989's Wyndlam Lewis, a project that used
the spoken words of the aritist/satirist of the same name. For that,
Ultramarine took 1940 recordings made of Lewis in 1940 and made it part of
their music. A year later, Ultramarine released their first proper album,
Folk. 
     The use of acoustic instruments has been toned down on the new LP,
though it is still there. One reason for the change was the paring down of
the group from a four-piece to a two-peice between albums, which forced
Hammond and Cooper to use electronics in order to fill out the sound.  Also,
the prices of samplers and other equipment has come down since that time,
giving the band access to more gear. 
     In creating the music, Ultramarine tend to start out writing on computer
(an Atari running QBase) and then coming up with the live parts.
    "We tend to build up just from the simplist thing, like a sound or a tiny
little sample," explains Cooper. "It's just a case of layering, really, we
often just layer it right up and then strip out what we don't need and then
build the live playing around it."
     On the latest lp, the balance between live instruments and electronics
varies from track to track, ranging from 25 percent live, percent sequenced
to a 50/50 split. With the ability of samplers and synths to reproduce the
sounds of real instruments, it is often impossible to tell which parts are
coming from live instruments, and the group says that they made a point to
mix it this way.
     While most bands have vocals on the majority of their songs, throwing in
the occasional instruments, Ultramarine has done the opposite on their latest
effort. All of Every Man and Women is a Star is instrumental (not counting
vocal samples) except "Wierd Gear," which does feature sung vocals. The group
brought in "a friend of a friend" named Brendan Staunton to do the vocals on
the track, which is a cover of a Kevin Ayers song.
     "Originally, that song did have vocal samples on it," explains Hammond.
"As they were such large samples, we had to get clearance for them. And we
thought, 'hey, let's just get clearance for the whole song and get someone to
sing them.'"
     Though their music does not normally have vocals, Ultramarine see
themselves as creating "songs," as opposed to instrumental pieces. The group
uses verse-chorus structure and says that they are influenced more by
singer/songwriters than other forms of music.
     The group says that adapting Ultramarine to the live setting had posed a
bit of a problem. The duo had done some club shows in England by themselves
but were not happy with the way things turned out and chose to expand the
line-up for future gigs. When the group did the Communion tour, they added a
drummer and keyboardist and also used live bass on a few songs.
    "It's quite a complex thing to get to transfer across," says Hammond.
"It's quite complex musically what we do, there's a lot of different
elemtents in there. We really had to go through each song in depth and work
out what was going to work live and what wasn't."
     To keep a live feel to the pre-programmed parts, Ultramarine runs all of
the sequences live off floppy disk to an on-stage 16-channel mixing desk.
"Every single element is affected live and can be changed live," explains
Hammond. 

 SINGLE GUN THEORY
       On their last LP, Like Stars in My Hands, Australia
's Single Gun Theory proved to be masters at creating non-synthetic sounding
electronic music. Unlike their more industrial album debut, Exorcise This
Wasteland, the LP had a very warm, natural tone, due primarily to the ambient
samples recorded by members Pete Rivett-Carnac and Jacqui Hunt on their
travels to the Far East. The trio is currently composing tracks for a new LP,
which they will record in Vancouver for a summer release. 
   Single Gun Theory had their beginnings back in 1984. Pete and Kath P
ower had been friends and decided to get some musical gear and put a band
together. "We saw 
Jacqui in a band and thought that's the singer we want," says Kath. "Somehow
we conned her i
nto joining up - we nabbed her."
   Her pre-Single Gun band had been Jacqui's first time sing
ing with a group and turned out not to be a good experience for her. "I was
not really doing the kin
d of music that I liked," she explains. "So that's why when opportunity came
up to join Kath
 and Pete it was great." 
   Over the years, the evolution of technology has made the group change a
great deal. In the beginning, the band just had a few analogue synths and a
four-track, but now they
 have gotten into computers and samplers. "I think the sampler changed a lot
of what we do," 
says Kath. "Because we've integrated and used that as much as we can. We've
always liked tec
hnology a lot."
   The music is composed by Kath and Pete, who use Macintosh computers and
8-track tape so that they can work on material individually and then have the
other add to it and make changes
. "Kath will come up with the vocal idea, usually with chords and stuff as
well," explains Pe
te. "I strip away all the music and just leave the vocal line and write the
music around it. It seem
s to work for us."
   Most of the words are written by Kath, who sees lyrics as a good way to
expsress emotions. "In some ways I'm a good communicator, and in someways I'm
not," she expl
ains. "I think I use music as a vehicle for communication."
   The unusual incorporation of E
astern music and vocal samples came about after Pete and Jacqui's travels
through India, Turkey, and South East Asia in 1989. Pete recorded sounds that
he liked on a portable cassette recorder, not really knowing what would be
done with them. When he returned home, he sampled and experimented with them
and began using them on the songs that would become Like Stars In My Hands.
    These sounds are particularly
 effective on the LP's first single, "From a Million Miles," where the "pray
for me"
 sample fits in perfectly with Jacqui's vocals. This type of sampling creates
a wide array of mu
sical possibilities, though Pete doesn't want to say what's in store on the
new LP. But he di
d say there will be more samples from Asia and the fact that he's living in a
city now will be a contributing factor.
    Beyond the sounds used, the music on Like Stars in My Hands is quite a
bit different from Exorcise The Wasteland, and the group says this was mainly
a reaction to general changes in music they were listening to. Pete says the
new LP is turning out to be a bit more accessible than their past music, even
though there was no conscious effort to create a more commercial sound.
   Having released only two albums in eight years, Single Gun Theory are not
the most prolific group in the world. One explanation for this is that all
the members still have day jobs. Kath is a licensed psychotherapist, Jacqui
does fashion design and Pete works in the computer field. Even though they
are signed to one of the largest independent labels (Nettwerk) and have
distribution through IRS, the members do not see Single Gun 
Theory as their main career right now.
   "It would be fantastic if we could do it full-time
," says Jacqui. "But there's a certain quality to life that we're used to now
because we
 work and we want to maintain that, too. If we did do music full-time, we'd
still have other little 
projects that we'd do outside of music because I think we're just like that.
As three individ
uals, we can't just dedicate our lives to one thing."
   The group got their deal with Nettwerk when Pete was playing  keyboards
with Severed Heads and gave the label a demo of Single Gun Theory. "
It was a bit of luck there," he says. "You have to have some sort of lucky
break, and for
 us it was that Severed Heads tour and being able to meet the people at the
record company."
   Single Gun Theory has yet to tour America, though they hope the new album
will bring them here. The group tends to put on elaborate stage shows with
Indian and belly dancers on stage and video screens. Adapting th
e music to the live setting still poses a problem for the band, who are
forced to use backing DATs. 
"We can't really afford to buy enough samplers to do it," explains Pete. "And
we can
't really get live musicians because most of the instruments don't actually
exist. Most of the sounds that we use are made up inside the Macintosh, using
Alchemy [a sample processing program]."

   The success of Like Stars in My Hands has come as a surprise to the band,
who were only expecting the LP to sell about 1,000 copies. In Australia
alone, the album sold 10,000 copies and made it to number 41 in the
mainstream music charts.
    But being an Australian band on a North American label, Single
 Gun Theory feel a bit sheltered from their public. "Because we're here in
Australia, we
 don't really feel that it is successful," explains Jacqui. "You know that it
must be reason
ably successful because you're making another record. We do feel isolated in
a way from success. It'
s there, and that's nice, but it's not overwhelming." 
     
THE ORB
     Probably the most interesting strain of dance music to emerge in recent
years has been ambient sound of The Orb. Who would have thought that long,
slow tracks fusing natural sounds with classic analogue synths but virtually
no drums would appeal to the club crowd? But Britain's The Orb have proved
that this can work. Their latest LP, UFOrb is a collection of atmospheric
electronic tracks that virtually always exceed 10 minutes in running time.
     Dr. Alex Paterson started up The Orb in 1988 with Jimi Cauty, who later
went on to The KLF. Paterson had been working in the music industry before
this, starting out as a roadie for Killing Joke before getting involved with
A&R. Influenced heavily by New York's KISS FM, Paterson started getting into
dance music and set up a label with Youth. His own project evolved out of
this, and Paterson took the name The Orb "because it's very round."
    In October of that year, the group released its first single, the four
track Kiss EP. This was followed in Spring of 1989 by the ground breaking "A
Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain The Rules From the Centre of the
Ultraworld," a track that Paterson cites as The Orb's best ever. 
     "It was breaking ground where no one had actually done anything," he
explains. "Listening to dance music with the drums all the time all the time,
and then suddenly all the drums disappear and you're left with this hypnotic
eight bar loop which we then deliberately sampled in waves and bird sounds."
     Cauty left the band in 1990 when the KLF began to take off. That project
was signed to Rough Trade, who wanted everything Cauty worked on to go to the
label (The Orb was already signed to WAU!). To take his place, Thrash, a mix
engineer who worked with The Orb on "Little Fluffy Clouds" was made a full
time member.
     In putting together the ambient soundscapes of UFOrb, the group used a
wide variety of sources. For example, many sounds came from Paterson's
travels to Morocco, the Philippines, and Nepal. Peterson says that while in
Morocco he had a hidden microphone that he used to capture the sound of his
surroundings. Another of Paterson's favorite sources of sound were NASA outer
space sounds.
     "They made a record out of the sounds, it's appalling, it's like a
Vangelis type 1812 Overture gone horribly wrong," he explains. "That's NASA
for you." 
     Space and science fictional influences figure prominently in The Orb's
work, particularly in the song titles and visuals. Paterson attributes this
to watching too much "Thunderbirds", "Land Of The Giants" and "Lost In Space"
as a child. "Lost In Space is pretty good, really," he says, jokingly adding
that "it should be the next album."
     On the surface, UFOrb sounds a great deal more ambient than the group's
debut, Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. But Paterson says this is only the
case with the US release. Originally, Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld was a
double album, but Paterson was told that the ten tracks must be cut down to
five minutes each in order to fit them on a single disk. 
     "I said no way, so we ditched a whole side of ambience," explains
Paterson. "And you've got a really, really drumy version of 'Star 67' and a
pop version of 'Perpetual Dawn'. I was really pissed off, and it's been my
cross to bear ever since with the American public, and I'm sorry, it's not my
fault."
     This wasn't the only record company action that came an an annoyance to
Paterson. A remix cd of "Blue Room" was given away free with the initial
pressing of the new LP, and this was done without the group's permission. To
top it off, this bonus disc included "Assassin," a track that had proved to
be a top 20 hit in Britain.
     "To me, it's just complete and utter ludicrousy," says Paterson. "We
spent untold amount of months on the record and are very proud of it, not to
be given away as a freebie for an album. It's not even meant for that album,
it's meant to be on the third album."
     For the "Blue Room" single, The Orb did a 40 minute remix. Previously,
British regulations prevented any single exceeding 20 minutes from entering
the charts. This of course just led to fans buying the imports from Europe
and America. So the British regulation was adjusted up to 40 minutes in 1989,
and The Orb felt obliged to take advantage of it. But the group didn't just
rush into it for a sake of making a 40 minute song; the track evolved over
the course of several months.
     The Orb were meant to embark on their second North American tour in
March, but it was called of due to legal problems. Next up for Paterson and
Thrash is work on the next Robert Fripp album with Brian Eno.

UTAH SAINTS
     With the thousands of limited-run dance singles being put out by new
bands, the chances of them leading anywhere are small. But every once and a
while, a band will stumble upon a hit and find themselves propelled to
stardom.  Then, of course, chances are they'll never follow it up and be
doomed to becoming one-hit wonders. But The Utah Saints have managed to avoid
this trap, and on their new self-titled LP, the group shows that there is
much more to them than their hit singles.
      The Utah Saints had their beginnings about two years ago when Jez
Willis and Tim Garbutt got together and recorded "What Can You Do For Me."
Garbutt had come from a DJing background, while Willis had previous band
experience before also becoming a DJ. Both were DJing at the same club in
Leeds, England, when they started going to each others nights and decided to
make a record together.
     The duo pressed up a thousand copies of their single at first, planning
to only sell one or two thousand total. But much to their surprise, the
single sold 175,000 copies within three months.
      As a follow-up, The Utah Saints released "Something Good," a
techno-oriented track that features the voice of Kate Bush. The fact that
Bush let them use the sample, taken from "Cloudbusting", was another big
surprise.
      "She's never allowed anybody to release something with a sample of her
work on it before, so she either liked it or we got lucky," says Willis.
       As an example of how careful Bush can be about who uses her work,
Garbutt explained that a filmmaker wanted to use "Something Good" as part of
the soundtrack to a movie. As Bush takes partial songwriting credit for the
song due to the use of her voice, the idea has to be cleared through her. The
singer requested to see the script before making a decision. "She cares a lot
about her work," says Garbutt
      In putting together a video for the song, The Utah Saints did something
unusual and went so far as to use footage from the original "Cloudbusting"
clip. Of course, Bush had to approve it and did request some changes, but the
group feels it was worth the trouble. The Utah Saints even went so far as to
try to locate the machine from the video to take on the road with them, but
the group heard that it was now in Bush's house and felt asking to use it
would be pushing it a bit.
     So far, the Utah Saints have never had the problem of not being able to
get clearance for a sample used in one of their songs. Garbutt says that as
DJs, they have a pretty good idea of what things are likely to get cleared
and what to stay away from. Though many of the samples they use are
recognizable, the group never samples something that is the essence of a song
to call their own.
     "There's a market for that,  obviously MC Hammer is a lot bigger than
us," explains Willis. "But it's just not the way we work."
      With their sudden success, The Utah Saints were forced to move quickly.
Their American record label, London, wanted an album, so the duo worked
furiously in the studio to get one done. "We are happy with it," says Willis.
 "The situation with the band is that we're evolving all the time. And we've
had to evolve at a very rapid pace."
     The group says that there was nothing too deep in the choosing of their
name. The idea of using the word "Utah" came to the group when watching the
film "Raising Arizona." They heard it in the last line and thought that the
word was a "quite a satisfying word and it's underused." 
     In looking for a name, Garbutt and Willis were looking for something
that was not used before and didn't come along with any preconceived notions
of what a band with the name would be like. They also wanted something that
would look good on a T-shirt and stage backdrop, and "Utah Saints" fit the
bill on all accounts.
     Because they are an entirely electronic band, the Utah Saints have a
harder time adapting to the live setting than traditional bands. The group
uses DATs for the backing parts, to avoid the hassle of bringing along a
computer and adds three additional musicians. But the nature of the group's
songs presents an additional problem.
     "When we play live, there are five males on stage and a lot of female
vocals flying around," explains Willis. 
      The group toyed with the idea of bringing in someone to either mime the
vocals or sing but ultimately decided against it. "You have to get a
balance," says Garbutt. "If we were trying to do 100% of it live, it would be
so much work. We'd have to have quite a few more people on stage and everyone
would have to concentrate so hard It's like would it be so exiting to watch?
You have to get the balance right and try to put a show into it as well."  
       One thing that the group tries to do is let the audience know what is
going on. For example, if a song has a guitar sound but there are no actual
guitars on stage, Willis will hit his strap-on keyboard between songs to show
the audience that the sound is coming from him.
     Though the Utah Saints' music is primarily instrumental, Willis does
sing on a few of the songs. The group says that it just does whatever it
takes to finish a piece of music, whether it be sung vocals or samples.
     "The one thing I hope we never do is decide that we have to stick to a
given formula," explains Willis. "On the other hand, I think that we'll
always have a Utah sound, so that people can recognize the records as a Utah
Saints record. But we're not going to pin ourselves down and say 'right,
we've got to do another "Something Good" or we've got to do another "What Can
You Do For Me",' that would be the end of the band."
     The fact that Willis comes from a rock background and Garbutt from dance
allows the band to keep constant check that the music doesn't lean too much
in either direction. Being a new band whose rise to success has been very
quick, The Utah Saints are not looking too far ahead into their future and
are just taking things as they come. The group jokes that should it all end
and they be dropped by their label, they can always come back and use another
state's name before the word "Saints."
      "It's kind of daunting. We're taking big risks because instead of
developing for a couple of years and then getting the corporate push, we're
developing in public," explains Willis. "So we're always trying out things
and most of the time it seems to work."