Electro-Industrial
Industrial · 1990 · 100 to 140 BPM
Electro-industrial is the studio-driven hardening of EBM at the end of the 1980s: denser structures, film dialogue samples, dark pads and layered production inherited from industrial music. Skinny Puppy in Vancouver acts as its laboratory, Front Line Assembly as its factory. It is the root of the dark electro and aggrotech scenes, and the bridge between the body-focused European EBM tradition and America's studio-based approach to the same sound. Where EBM relies on a live, danceable pulse, electro-industrial piles up layers in the studio itself, favoring dread and texture over the dancefloor's straightforward drive.
13 reference tracks
- Skinny Puppy: Worlock (1990)
- Front Line Assembly: Mindphaser (1992)
- Numb: Blood Meridian (1993)
- Velvet Acid Christ: Fun With Knives (1999)
- Haujobb: Dead Market (1995)
- Front Line Assembly: Eye on You (2019)
- Front Line Assembly: Glass and Leather (2021)
- Front Line Assembly: Final Impact
- Front Line Assembly: Bio-Mechanic
- Nine Inch Nails: Copy of A
- Velvet Acid Christ: Slut
- Front Line Assembly: Resist
- Front Line Assembly: Lifeline
At a glance
- Tempo: 100 to 140 BPM
- First appeared: around 1990
- Machines: E-mu Emulator, Clavia Nord Lead, Vocodeur, Steinberg Cubase
- The sound: Emulator et samples de films, Séquences EBM densifiées, Voix distordues, Réverbérations sombres
- Labels: Metropolis, Third Mind Records, Nettwerk, Wax Trax! Records, Artoffact Records, Apollon International
- Key artists: Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Numb, Mentallo & The Fixer
Producing Electro-Industrial
Electro-industrial usually runs 110 to 130 BPM, slower than EBM, Skinny Puppy often under 120, on a straight groove made restless by syncopated kicks, half-time sections and tempo breaks, plus deliberate offsets on percussion for mechanical unease rather than swing. Build the drums as a stack: an 808 or sampled kick off the four-on-the-floor grid, a snare doubled with a metallic impact and dark reverb, sixteenth hats often swapped for looped machine noise, and rolls from retriggering a sample with rising velocity. The bass thickens a square EBM sequence with a sawtooth layer an octave up through overdrive, moving in minor seconds and tritones, its filter envelope pinching each note, lightly sidechained. Dark pads, sampled horror dialogue, a distorted vocal chain and metallic FM textures are bounced and reworked in layers.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Electro-Industrial?
Electro-industrial is the studio-driven hardening of EBM at the end of the 1980s: denser structures, film dialogue samples, dark pads and layered production inherited from industrial music. Skinny Puppy in Vancouver acts as its laboratory, Front Line Assembly as its factory. It is the root of the…
What tempo is Electro-Industrial played at?
Between 100 and 140 BPM.
Who are the key Electro-Industrial artists?
Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Numb, Mentallo & The Fixer.
In the same family
- Industrial
- EBM
- New Beat
- Dark Electro
- Aggrotech
- Futurepop
- Techno Body Music
- Coldwave
- Darkwave
- Neue Deutsche Haerte
- Power Electronics
- Rhythmic Noise
Listen to Electro-Industrial in the atlas · Cette page en français
