Die Warzau, (originally referred to as Die Warzau Synfony), is an
industrial musicIndustrial music is an experimental music style, often including electronic music, that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s to describe Industrial Records artists...
band formed in 1987 by performance artists
Jim MarcusJames Marcus is a musician, artist, political activist, and respected typographer who is best known for his work as the lead singer and founder of the Industrial band Die Warzau...
and Van Christie. The band has operated on the fringes of that genre, creating a unique sound that is a genre-bending excursion into the soul of the music form. An ever-present and important part of Die Warzau's appeal is the socio-political lyricism and emotive vocals of Jim Marcus.
Originally signed to Chris Parry's
Fiction RecordsFiction Records is a UK indie label started by Chris Parry in 1978 that is best known as being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. The label's first #1 record was Wish by The Cure in 1992, going #1 in the United Kingdom...
, the group released
Disco Rigido in the late 1980s (distributed in the United States by Atlantic Records), which featured "Welcome To America", "Land of the Free" and "I've Got To Make Sense".
Die Warzau, (originally referred to as Die Warzau Synfony), is an
industrial musicIndustrial music is an experimental music style, often including electronic music, that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s to describe Industrial Records artists...
band formed in 1987 by performance artists
Jim MarcusJames Marcus is a musician, artist, political activist, and respected typographer who is best known for his work as the lead singer and founder of the Industrial band Die Warzau...
and Van Christie. The band has operated on the fringes of that genre, creating a unique sound that is a genre-bending excursion into the soul of the music form. An ever-present and important part of Die Warzau's appeal is the socio-political lyricism and emotive vocals of Jim Marcus.
History
Originally signed to Chris Parry's
Fiction RecordsFiction Records is a UK indie label started by Chris Parry in 1978 that is best known as being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. The label's first #1 record was Wish by The Cure in 1992, going #1 in the United Kingdom...
, the group released
Disco Rigido in the late 1980s (distributed in the United States by Atlantic Records), which featured "Welcome To America", "Land of the Free" and "I've Got To Make Sense". Though the album falls solidly into the
EBMElectronic body music, EBM or Industrial dance is a music genre that combines elements of industrial music and electronic dance music...
genre, it contains hints of the experimentation and genre-bending that later recordings would feature (e.g. "Y Tagata en Situ").
A second album,
Big Electric Metal Bass Face, built on the foundation laid with
Disco Rigido and upped the ante with excursions into funk ("Funkopolis" and the live take of "Coming Down"). Contributors to the band at the time included,
Chris VrennaChris Vrenna is an American musician, Grammy-winning producer, engineer, remixer, songwriter, programmer, and founder of the electronic band Tweaker. Vrenna also played drums for the industrial/rock band Nine Inch Nails from 1989 until 1997...
and
James WoolleyJames J. Woolley is a former keyboard and synthesizer player for industrial metal group Nine Inch Nails for the 1991 Lollapalooza Tour and the beginning part of the 1994 Self Destruct Tour...
, both members of
Nine Inch NailsNine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
during the mid-1990s and to round out the band, audio/video artist, Burle Avant, he went on to co-create MTV-Amp(tv series) the only electronic music, art and culture show in America.
Engine, a 1995 release on Wax Trax/
TVTTVT may mean:*TVT: Canine transmissible venereal tumour*TVT Records*TVT: The callsign of a TV station in Tasmania, Australia.*Televisheni ya Taifa: The state broadcaster of Tanzania.*Télévision Togolaise: The state broadcaster of Togo....
, was a huge jump forward and found critical acclaim for its decimation of genre boundaries. Die Warzau could no longer be simply pigeonholed into the "industrial" category, as their music became more organic, rounder on the edges, yet still retaining their trademark knack for insistent rhythm and pure, unrefined electronic noise. "Liberated" and "All Good Girls" became trademark songs for the group. Related act
Sister Machine GunSister Machine Gun was an post-industrial band based in Chicago, IL.-The Early Years:Sister Machine Gun was formed by Chris Randall and Guilherme Machado in New York City. They performed at New Jersey's Pipeline, and New York's Limelight. The band went on a short hiatus after Chris Randall joined...
"inherited" an unused song from this period ("Hole In the Ground"), which they included on their
Burn album.
Die Warzau as a group then went on hiatus for a number of years, with Marcus and Christie working on other projects. Jim Marcus founded the pure funk group Everplastic while Van Christie worked on Eco-Hed.
By 2004, though, the duo had reconvened and, together with new members Abel Garibaldi and Dan Evans, released
Convenience on their Chicago-based label Pulseblack Records. The album was a continuation of the path they started on with
Engine, featuring a somewhat more subdued and occasionally commercial sound.
Discography
- Disco Rigido (1989)
- Big Electric Metal Bass Face (1991)
- Engine (1995)
- Convenience (2004)
- Vinyl88 - Not the Best of Die Warzau (2008)
Trivia
- Both Christopher Hall
Christopher Hall may refer to:People*Christopher Newman Hall, English clergyman*Christopher Hall *Christopher Hall , singerPlaces* Christopher Hall Island, Nunavut, Canada...
(Stabbing WestwardStabbing Westward was an American industrial rock and alternative rock band. They formed in 1985 in Chicago, Illinois and began recording in the 1990s.- The Early Years, 1985-1992 :...
/ The Dreaming) and Chris VrennaChris Vrenna is an American musician, Grammy-winning producer, engineer, remixer, songwriter, programmer, and founder of the electronic band Tweaker. Vrenna also played drums for the industrial/rock band Nine Inch Nails from 1989 until 1997...
were members at one point.
- Kevin Temple (Sister Machine Gun
Sister Machine Gun was an post-industrial band based in Chicago, IL.-The Early Years:Sister Machine Gun was formed by Chris Randall and Guilherme Machado in New York City. They performed at New Jersey's Pipeline, and New York's Limelight. The band went on a short hiatus after Chris Randall joined...
, Apartment 26Apartment 26 is an industrial metal band from Leamington Spa, England. They played Ozzfest in 1999 and split up in 2004.They worked with Tchad Blake, at Real World Studios, on their self-financed "Music For The Massive", having scrapped "Album 1.5" after 2 years of production...
) was a member during the Engine era.
- Warzone Recorders was started by Van Christie and Jim Marcus in part of Cabrini Green Housing Projects
Sonic Boom Interview
- PULSEBLACK Records, a Chicago Indie Label is now home to Die Warzau Pulseblack Records
- In 1991 Die Warzau supported Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
on tour. NIN Hotline
- Van Christie worked at Traxx Records (from 1994-2004) and worked with Lil Louis
Lil Louis is the stage name used by Chicago-born house music producer and DJ Louis Burns. He scored a number of hits on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the 1980s and 1990s, three of which hit #1....
on the hit "French Kiss"
- Abel Garibaldi who is credited on "Convenience" is head recording engineer for R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly Thabit , best known by the stage name R. Kelly, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and record producer. Debuting in 1992 with the group Public Announcement, Kelly went solo in 1993 for a successful solo career starting with the album, 12 Play...
- Jim Marcus is a well-respected typeface designer for T26 Font Foundry.
- Album "Convenience" wins Industrial Album of the Year, 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards
External links