Nitzer Ebb

Formed in the early 1980s in Chelmsford, England, Nitzer Ebb originally brought together Douglas McCarthy and Bon Harris, soon joined by drummer David Gooday. The project embraced an EBM and industrial aesthetic that mixed minimal synthetic sequences, martial percussion and chanted slogans. After a string of self-released maxis, Nitzer Ebb signed to Mute Records and released the album That Total Age in 1987, featuring club-oriented tracks that established them on the European scene. This was followed by Belief (1989), Showtime (1990) and Ebbhead (1991), recorded in part with producer Flood, and accompanied by extensive touring — including support slots for Depeche Mode — which embedded Nitzer Ebb in the networks of electronic and post-industrial music. The shift to a more rock- and organic-sounding approach on Big Hit (1995) preceded a prolonged hiatus; they returned to live activity in the mid-2000s and released Industrial Complex in 2010. Since then Nitzer Ebb has focused on concerts, revisiting a repertoire whose driving rhythmic energy has circulated between EBM, industrial techno and club cultures.