SLAB! are an industrial music

Industrial music

Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...

/alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band initially active between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. They reformed in 2009.

History

The band's first release was the "Mars on Ice" 12-inch single in 1986 on Dave Kitson's Ink Records (an offshoot of his Red Flame label). This received airplay from John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

 who invited them to record a session for his BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 show the same year. They followed this with "Parallax Avenue" in 1987 which saw them in the lower reaches of the UK Independent Chart, and in May that year their debut mini-LP

Mini-LP

A Mini-LP or Mini-album is a short album, usually retailing at a lower price than an album that would be considered "full-length".-History:...

 Music From The Iron Lung was issued, reaching number 21 on the Independent Albums chart. "Smoke Rings" gave them their highest charting single, reaching number 31 on the indie chart in July 1987, and towards the end of the year the band's second album, Descension was issued. Third album Sanity Allergy was issued in 1988, and that year they recorded their third and final Peel session. The band split up in 1991, with a 'best of' compilation, Ship of Fools, released the same year.

Vocalist Stephen Dray and guitarist Paul Jarvis reformed the band in 2009 and began working on new material and finishing old unreleased tracks.

Musical style

The band's style has been described as a mixture of "modern funk, freeform jazz and punk white noise". Dray said of the band's music:

"Why just like modern jazz? Why just like Boyd Rice, or Sonic Youth, or The Swans? Why not mutate the whole bloody thing and make the most godawful sound that you can. We want to take that rock element to the extreme and make it do things that it was never theoretically designed to do."

Members

• Stephen Dray - vocals, saxophone
  Saxophone
  The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
  
  
• Paul Jarvis - guitar
• Dave Morris - guitar
• Hugh Rawson - trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  
• Neill Woodger - trombone
  Trombone
  The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
  
  
• Bill Davies - bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Robi Risson - drums
• Margaret Ward - backing vocals, tapes
• Scott Kiehl - drums

Albums

• Music From The Iron Lung mini-LP (1987), Ink - UK Indie #21
• Descension (1987), Ink - UK Indie #30
• Sanity Allergy (1988), Ink
• Ship Of Fools (1991), Ink - compilation

Singles

• "Mars On Ice" (1986), Ink
• "Parallax Avenue" (1987), Ink - UK Indie #45
• "Smoke Rings" (1987), Ink - UK Indie #31
• "People Pie" (1988), Ink
• "Death's Head Soup" (1989), Ink

Compilation appearances

• On the Dotted Line...(Here) (1987), EMI
  EMI
  The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
  
  : "Parallax Avenue" (live)
• Ashes and Diamonds (1988), Red Flame/Ink: "Dolores"
• Funky Alternatives 5 (1990), Concrete: "Death's Head Soup"
• New Wave Club Class•X 2 (1991), Antler-Subway: "Mars On Ice"
• 98 New Wave Club Class•X Traxx!!! (1996), Play It Again Sam: "Mars On Ice"
• Jazz Satellites Vol.1 : Electrification (1996), Virgin
  Virgin Records
  Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
  
  : "Bride of Sloth"
• Alternator (1996), Concrete: "Death's Head Soup"
• Industrial Rock (2000), Edel America: "Death's Head Soup"

Radio sessions

• 1986 John Peel session, recorded 12 August 1986, transmitted 22 September 1986:

1. "Mars On Ice"
2. "Painting The Forth Bridge"
3. "Dust"
4. "The Animals Are All Eating People Pie"

• 1987 John Peel session, recorded 1 February 1987, transmitted 16 February 1987:

1. "Undriven Snow"
2. "Mining Town In Lotusland"
3. "Blood Flood"
4. "Parallax Avenue"

• 1988 John Peel session, recorded 21 February 1988, transmitted 7 March 1988:

1. "Big Sleeper"
2. "Last Detail"
3. "Killer For A Country"
   1. "Bride Of Sloth"