MovieChat Forums > Manufactured Landscapes (2007) Discussion > Industrial music? Really?

Industrial music? Really?

posted 15 years ago by elgaroo
7 replies | jump to latest

i noticed that many reviewers here referred to the music in this film as "industrial"... i watched it last night, and i really can't say that i remember hearing ANYTHING that i would ever have thought to call industrial music. ambient glitch-pop maybe, but if that counts as industrail these days, the genre has finally completely lost any meaning and you might as well call anything industrial, i guess if it sounds kinda noisy and non-musical to you? as far as i know it was mostly the Boards of Canada, who are certainly electronic and experimental, as well as being influenced by Canadians, but i don't know of annyone ever positing that they were actually industrial, a well established and still somewhate definable genre, though the sphere of the label has indeed expanded a great deal through the 80's and 90's. i guess they were probably trying to exhibit more of an industrial influence to compliment the subject matter, and the line between ambient and industrial is surprisingly hazy, but the music I heard was a FAR cry from what i would ever even imagine calling industrial; the thought never occured to me during the film, and i was completely surprised to see it called that here today. maybe in the context of an album with blatent industrial music and/or backed by a serious industrial philosophy (a la Cabaret Voltair) you might be able to include these tracks, but as a random movie soundtrack, it is very clearly what it sounds like, spooky ambient music utilizing glitchy, somewhat experimental electronics, and really over all pretty tame, typical, and pop sounding even, and that just clearly crosses the line from actual industrial music to something else, ambient.

please if you could, have a clue about what industrial music actually is (or any other such label) before you start calling stuff industrial; it makes you look like a rediculous prick to annyone with a clue, and could missguide young children, how sad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_music

my personal favs are Throbbing Gristle, Skinny Puppy, and Einstürzende Neubauten.

[–] bowery_boy 15 years ago

Oh boy! You certianly do take your industrial music and the mis-use of that term seriously, don't you? : ]

You're absolutely correct. The music used in the film is not industrial. It is definitely a form of glitchy ambient on the order of aphex twin's Selected Ambient Works II, Pole's glitchy dub, Gas' ambient soundscapes or Loscil's ambient idm.

However, it's a far stretch from being pop. That's where I disagree. Perhaps some of the music composed by Dan Driscoll is what you were referring to as pop but at least 4 or 5 tracks in the film were by logreybeam from their disc It's All Just Another Aspect Of Mannerism. The closing credits is the track Opiate For The Masses which was also used early in the film too. If you liked that track or some of the other fizzy, clicky ambient music in the film then you will like logreybeam's entire disc but nothing on that disc sounds like pop.

I can understand why some viewers would call the music industrial (one reviewer when describing the music put "industrial" in quotes so clearly he was aware that this wasn't truly industrial music). You have cold, mechanical, manufactured music as an accompaniment to staring at scene after scene of cold, mechanical, manufactured landscapes in industrial settings so some could easily say the music was "industrial".

I used to be a huge fan of industrial but after awhile it all started to sound the same. My favs were Throbbing Gristle (but I like Chris & Cosey more) and Skinny Puppy of course, but also Borghesia, A Split Second, and Scorn. I'm into idm now, my personal faves are autechre and boards of canada. I also dig mouse on mars, plaid, brothomstates, u-ziq, and especially severed heads although they've been lumped into almost every music category from ambient to industrial to pop to idm to dance.

[–] polysicsarebest 15 years ago

*beep* YEAH AUTECHRE RULES

[–] pgbrush 13 years ago

"please if you could, have a clue about what industrial music actually is (or any other such label) before you start calling stuff industrial; it makes you look like a rediculous prick to annyone with a clue, and could missguide young children, how sad."

I feel the same way about pseudo-enlightened pretentious people who condescend the general population, presume that anyone's "young children" would be interested in something called "Throbbing Gristle", and butcher the English language.

www.pantheonoutcast.com

[–] elgaroo 13 years ago

ha! that's nice...)

i mean, you obviously, like i said, have no clue what you're talking about, so why get involved? i'd even take "pseudo-enlightened pretentious people" (who i can't stand, mind you...) over proudly genuinely unenlightened people any day, and if you are not in a position which inherently implies condescension to the general population, then you ARE the general population, and maybe you haven't looked out your window lately, but that is NOTHING to be proud of, and i'm not sure i can do much for you... maybe crack that window a bit and feed your brain?

Throbbing Gristle, as anyone with the merest clue about industrial music could tell you, was an IMMENSELY influential and impressive band, who nearly invented the genre as we know (knew?) it, and has left a HUGE mark all over modern music, whether people know it or not. they are roundly respected throughout the underground and beyond for their contributions to art, music, and culture, and anyone should be proud to have their young kids listening to them. there are books written about them, and one of my best friends has named two of his children in tribute to member Genesis P-Orridge, and i'm sure they listen to them all the time, and they'll soon take over the world and show up any of your lame pop kids. this was back in the late 70's, where have you been? in fact, while i wrote this, a new cover of a Psychic TV (later Genesis P-O) song randomly came on my girlfriend's internet radio suggestion stream, and she's not even into this kind of music at all!

as for my stance on language-nazis, i'm not about to get all into it here, but unless you happen to be the king of some imaginary authority on the english language (WHICH DOES NOT EXIST!) i will continue to use this LIVING language as i see fit, people will continue to understand me perfectly well (still the purpose of language, yes?) and if you don't like it, you can shove it for all i care. go cry to a real butcher like Shakespeare about language evolution if you want...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription

cheers!
~Rev. Elgaroo Brenza

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] handa-1 13 years ago

I'd like to remind you that many of today's electronic music genres are, on some level, rooted in the Industrial music of the 70's.

Taken from the wiki that you posted:
"In the late 1980s, a number of additional styles developed from the already eclectic base of industrial music. These offshoots include fusions with noise music, ambient music, folk music, post-punk and electronic dance music, as well as other mutations and developments."

So if you say that this movie's soundtrack is more so 'ambient glitch-pop', it's not too much of a stretch to say that it's industrial.

[–] Zoomorph 12 years ago

Just watched it. It's ambient music, nothing industrial whatsoever about it (nor glitch).

~ Observe, and act with clarity. ~