industrial music Archives - Chicago Reader

A Natural Turn, Jessica Bardsley, and Cold Waves

by Micco Caporale and Salem Collo-Julin September 22, 2022September 22, 2022

Chicago has no shortage of free museums, and the DePaul Art Museum (935 W. Fullerton) is one stunning example. While it’s never a bad time for a visit (hello, it’s free!), their new exhibition “A Natural Turn” is worth checking out. Artists María Berrío, Joiri Minaya, Rosana Paulino, and Kelly Sinnapah Mary use surrealism to […]

Music

Black Magnet turns his devotion to 90s industrial metal into something even meaner and heavier

by Luca Cimarusti July 27, 2022July 18, 2022

In 2020, Oklahoma City musician James Hammontree released his first full-length as Black Magnet. Hallucination Scene uses all the best parts of 90s industrial metal—even the radio-friendly sounds—to make something that hovers between synthetic and organic. Through their layers of synths, drum machines, and ugly noise, his songs remain as catchy as the best work […]

Rodney James Baker, who performed and recorded as Rodney Bakerr, sent these photos to the author in 2013.

Music

Farewell to unsung house-music architect Rodney Bakerr

by Jacob Arnold June 14, 2021August 18, 2021

Rodney Bakerr led early Wax Trax! group Strange Circuits, ran underground label Rockin’ House, and wrote ubiquitous house-music rhythm patterns for Roland.

Music

Chicago EBM producer Understudy brings a little light into his music’s murky throb on a new compilation

by Leor Galil January 14, 2021August 18, 2021

Few contemporary musicians can simultaneously disturb me and get me dancing quite like Jack Brockman. The Chicagoan fronts industrial trio Civic Center, whose recent vinyl debut for American Dreams (June’s The Ground Below) tamps down its members’ more aggressively deranged inclinations but still manages to sound pretty surreal. He also makes solo EBM tracks as […]