Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music

I found this book full of stimulating ideas and very well-researched. It was great to learn a lot of the obscure band backgrounds and other stories that are just difficult to find if you haven't been a hardcore "industrial" fan for the entire last four decades. As a teenager of the 1990s I realised I was like some of the later wave fans who missed the big picture of had what passed before. It's been great learning about early greats like Cabaret Voltaire and Einsturzende Neubauten, and how a lot of the bands I grew up with like Nine Inch Nails are actually widely derided as examples of the time when industrial went "sell-out".There are many fantastic and insightful song analyses which really helped my understanding of some dense music pieces. (I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds Nivek Ogre "unintelligible"!) I really like some of the questions Reed raises in the book, some of which you only find by reading between the lines. For example, is the genre Euro-centric and originating from a position of privilege, failing to address many of the questions a combative, challenging and sometimes "revolutionary" art form should? Lots to think about. I appreciated the emotional and intellectual honesty of the author, who even includes a snippet of his own rock journalist's diary, which I thought quite wonderfully shows his own credentials openly as a fan of the music.In my Kindle edition the Notes section had split each note onto a separate page, which I found bizarre. I would've also liked more people interest stories by bands like Skinny Puppy, who pretty much could fill another third of the book with their original creativeness and engaging history. Otherwise, it was well presented. Now I'm going back on Spotify to track down all those interesting singles recommended at the end of many of the section headings...

ASSIMILATE by S. Alexander Reed has written a solid history of industrial music. The much maligned "industrial" moniker is addressed by the players involved and queried by an astute researcher. This is probably the first comprehensive study of Industrial music presented on a wide scale (at least, the first I've read). In addition to multi-page discussions of fan favorite industrial/electronic songs like "Mindphaser" by Frontline Assembly, cultural ramifications of the industrial genre are addressed. As an aside, I've from time to time wondered about some of the racial, political, and sexual implications made by this awesomely demonstrative form of music and Reed's book does not shy away from these subjects. Reed embarks on rich exploration of the roots of industrial via literature, philosophy, and film and provides compelling histories of the origins of Skinny Puppy and the rise and fall of the seminal WaxTrax! label. Reed pushes into the next wave, discussing recent favorites such as Covenant and VNV Nation. This is a thoughtful summation by a readily apparent fan and capable author. If the text suffers, it is in it's pursuit of academic defense which should not diminish it's veracity, just that the narrative can drag and apparent points are made redundant. However, that criticism should not dissuade you from a definitive discussion of "industrial"/ hard electronic music

A good history of the genre that settles - here and there - for an irritatingly graduate-thesis-type cadence and style of argumentation. Perhaps as someone who has been immersed in the academic literature of cultural studies and comparative literature for many years, I just hoped for a book that was scholarly in content but written in a style more akin to popular nonfiction. Few scholars meet that balance well, and I blame my disappointment on my own standards. What you get here is a solid dissertation that is well suited to both lay and scholarly readers.In any case, the book is good, and the author's understanding of the "genre" is clearly comprehensive. The overall historical survey of the genre and it's interconnections with other media and various ideologies is superb. I thought the discussions on industrial music's dodgy relationship with racism ran long, not because Reed's conclusions are incorrect, but because the criticism seemed superficial and elementary.

This is an excellent book which is far more interested in the hows and whys of industrial music than it is on chronicling it. The author lays out the philosophies and theories that underlie and animate industrial, giving the genre the serious theoretical treatment it deserves. The history of industrial music that is given is focused quite firmly on the early years, and the history starts to really suffer around 2000 or so, as the mass popularity of industrial rock faded. I got the impression that the "history" in the title was very much in service to the "critical", rather than being an equal partner. That said, I don't want to oversell it- this isn't "Please Kill Me", that history of punk rock which has the Ramones show up late in the book and pretends that punk rock was nearly over at that point- but if you want information about the last ten years of industrial music aside from futurepop, you won't find it here.With that caveat, however, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anybody with an interest in the subject.

Great book though I felt that Martin Atkins and Pigface should have been included as a super-group like Revco. Who were really important to the scene as whole, along with some of the newer bands coming out of England and other places who are redefining the genre as we speak. Also there was not much of a mention of Aggrotech as a sub-genre though a slight mention of some of the bands in it. Maybe just maybe I am being a little picky but overall it was great read and pretty accurate.

Very interesting and highly comprehensive coverage of the history of industrial music, from the early thumpings and bangings of the likes of Thighpaulsandra and P'Orridge to the radio-friendly post-EBM pop of Covenant and VNV Nation.Reed knows his stuff inside out, and the amount of research and footnoting sometimes verges on daunting: this is very much a sociological tract (with the requisite gender, race, etc.) rather than an "I was there" biography of clubs and bands; and like most sociology it leans hard left. Expect dry academic analysis rather than stories of what happened back in the day. Regardless, this is a fascinating look at an underinvestigated genre.(And if you haven't yet checked out Reed's own band, the Goth/darkwave ThouShaltNot, with soulful mythological lyrics rather than the bog-standard eins-zwei-drei stomping, you can thank me later!)

I thought I already knew industrial music pretty well, but this turned out to be a fascinating and truly eye-opening read for me. S Alexander Reed has explored the genre's origins, development, its politics, aesthetics and its interactions with other cultures and scenes in great depth and I've learned much from it. My only criticism is that it skims rather quickly over some post-millennial artists and trends; however I appreciate it's not as easy to view these in a proper historical context compared to much earlier bands, so perhaps this is something to be revisited in a future edition!The author concludes many of the chapters by listing out some suggested listening which makes the experience all the more entertaining and engaging. Highly recommended!

A worthwhile read - well researched no referenced

Informative and highly Interesting read on a subject that doesn't have enough literature

Well written, well researched, very informative. I couldn't put it down. I got no bad comments about this book. Definitely a must if you're into that kind of music.If you want to know where industrial music comes from, this book is for you.