K. Leimer

Seattle-based composer K. Leimer has been making ambient and experimental music since the mid-'70s, releasing the majority of it on his own Palace of Lights label. Inspired by the tape loop experiments of Brian Eno and the free-form cosmic explorations of Krautrock groups such as Cluster and Neu!, he began creating similar sounds at a time when interest in these forms of music was virtually unheard of in the United States. Leimer's early releases included ambient albums like 'Closed System Potentials' (1980) as well as more rhythmic works such as 'Land of Look Behind', a soundtrack to a 1982 documentary about Jamaica. Leimer also formed Savant, an avant-funk/rock collective along the lines of Material or the Golden Palominos. Following a hiatus which lasted nearly two decades, Leimer relaunched his label near the beginning of the 2000s and resumed activity. By the mid-2010s, Leimer's music began attracting more interest than it ever had during the previous decades. RVNG Intl. issued 'A Period of Review', a collection of previously unreleased works, in 2014, and Leimer continued releasing albums such as 2015's 'The Grey Catalog', in addition to remastered editions of earlier works. 

 
Kerry Leimer was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and raised in Chicago before his family settled in Seattle in 1967. Interested in Dadaist and Surrealist art as a teenager, he discovered the work of experimental musicians who were making the audio equivalent of abstract art. He began buying cheap instruments and recording equipment, and started experimenting with tape loops, textural sounds, and unusual recording techniques. Leimer appeared on early cassettes by Anode (Robert Carlberg) beginning in the mid-'70s, and his earliest releases were on Anode Productions near the end of the decade. In 1979, Leimer and his wife, Dorothy Cross, established Palace of Lights in order to help foster the growing community of experimental musicians in Seattle. Leimer's first LP, 'Closed System Potentials', was released in 1980. His second, 'Land of Look Behind', was the soundtrack to a 1982 documentary about Jamaican culture following the death of Bob Marley, and combined ambient synthesizer textures with Nyabinghi drum rhythms. Around this time, Leimer was also active with his Savant project, a collaborative studio project which explored funk, dub, and post-punk rhythms and made extensive usage of sampling, recalling Brian Eno and David Byrne's 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'. Savant's only full-length, 'The Neo-Realist (At Risk)', was released in 1983. 

 
Following a few more releases that year, including the serene 'Music for Land and Water' and the more rhythmic 'Imposed Order', Leimer went on hiatus from releasing music. He transitioned from analog to digital instruments and continued recording, but he didn't reactivate Palace of Lights until 2002, when he reissued several of his older albums on CD, in addition to the freshly recorded 'The Listening Room'. Several other Leimer full-lengths followed, including 2004's 'Statistical Truth' and 2010's 'Degraded Certainties', and Palace of Lights additionally released recordings by artists such as Gregory Taylor and Marc Barreca. 

 
Leimer finally began to receive a significant amount of recognition around 2014, when RVNG Intl. released 'A Period of Review (Original Recordings: 1975-1983)', a collection of previously unissued pieces. The label also released a Savant compilation titled 'Artificial Dance' in 2015. 'Recordings 1977-1980', a double-LP reissue of some of Leimer's early cassette-released material, was put out by Vinyl-on-Demand the same year. Palace of Lights continued regularly issuing Leimer albums, including 2015's 'The Grey Catalog', 2016's 'Re-enact', and several collaborations with Barreca. Additionally, First Terrace Records released Leimer's 2017 collaboration with Like a Villain, and Origin Peoples issued the Kosmische-style 'Mitteltöner' in 2018. 'Imposed Order/Imposed Absence', a remastered edition of the 1983 album paired with unreleased material recorded during Leimer's extended hiatus, was also released in 2018. The dense, politically concerned 'Irrational Overcast' was released by First Terrace in 2019. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC] 

 

JABON

JABON is the long-running solo alias of American recording engineer, producer and experimental musician Scott Colburn. Although Colburn is widely known for his work behind the mixing desk with artists such as Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Sun City Girls, Mudhoney and many others, JABON has always been the outlet where he explored his own ideas without commercial expectations or stylistic limits. The project began in 1984 while he was studying at Indiana University, growing out of an interest in tape manipulation, improvised performance, found sound, spoken word and experimental filmmaking.

 
The earliest JABON recordings were assembled using homemade tape loops, extended instrumental improvisations and fragments of poetry, comedy and surreal dialogue. Colburn has described spending long sessions recording himself playing drums, then overdubbing bass, guitars and electronics before editing the recordings into finished pieces. Rather than building songs in a traditional way, he treated the studio as an instrument, cutting, rearranging and reshaping performances into strange sonic collages. During the project's first decade he played only a handful of live shows, preferring to focus on recording and experimentation. 

 
JABON draws inspiration from an unusually broad range of sources. Early punk groups such as Black Flag and Greg Ginn's instrumental band Gone sat alongside the surreal pop of The Residents, the damaged psychedelic sound of Chrome, and the electronic experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Subotnick and Charles Ives. Tape-trading culture during the 1980s also introduced Colburn to industrial, noise and avant-garde artists including Controlled Bleeding, Negativland and Whitehouse, influences that found their way into JABON's constantly shifting mix of dark ambient textures, electronic music, absurd humour and experimental composition. 

 
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, JABON released a steady stream of cassette and independent recordings including 'Autograft', 'Atonement', 'As Fess', 'Abode Stinesville', 'Abscission', 'Adder's Tongue', 'Ambulatory Paranoia' and 'Autoguilt'. These recordings were largely self-produced, with Colburn handling the writing, performance, recording and mixing himself. The project remained mostly underground, circulating through cassette culture, experimental music networks and small independent labels rather than the conventional music industry. 

 
After spending much of the late 1990s and early 2000s concentrating on engineering and production work, Colburn revived JABON as an active performing project in 2009. Live performances became elaborate multimedia events featuring costumes, projected films, spoken-word passages and theatrical props alongside dense layers of electronics and manipulated sound. The performances balanced eerie atmospheres with an offbeat sense of humour, a combination Colburn has described as "avant garde ambient disco comedy." Around the same period he began recording regular improvisations and expanding the catalogue with new albums and audiovisual works. 

 
As both JABON and Scott Colburn, he has continued to move freely between experimental composition, sound design, restoration work, production and live performance. His recording credits span underground rock, experimental electronics, folk, drone, world music and contemporary composition, while JABON remains the space where those influences are filtered into surreal, unpredictable recordings that combine electronic experimentation, collage techniques, ambient music, performance art and a distinctly playful sense of the absurd.

 

I, Braineater

I, Braineater was the experimental continuation of the Canadian underground project The Braineaters, a band that had already built a reputation for its offbeat mix of post-punk, art rock and homemade experimentation during the early 1980s. As the original line-up gradually dissolved, founding member Jim Cummins took control of the project, reshaping it into what became I, Braineater. The name change reflected more than a simple rebranding, marking a shift from a conventional band into a largely solo studio project driven by Cummins' increasingly adventurous ideas. 

With Cummins handling most of the instruments, songwriting and production, I, Braineater moved away from the guitar-based sound of the earlier recordings and embraced electronics, drum machines, synthesizers and tape manipulation. The music combined elements of industrial, experimental pop, minimal synth, ambient textures and quirky electronic rhythms, while still keeping the playful, unpredictable spirit that had defined The Braineaters. Rather than following commercial trends, the project explored unusual structures, surreal lyrics and a DIY recording approach that gave the releases a distinctive character. 

Jim Cummins had already been active in Toronto's independent music scene, and his work reflected the creative freedom that surrounded the city's cassette culture and small independent labels during the 1980s. I, Braineater fit comfortably alongside other artists working outside the mainstream, where inexpensive home recording equipment made it possible to experiment without the limitations of major studios. The project's recordings often sounded intentionally rough around the edges, using lo-fi production as part of the overall aesthetic rather than something to be polished away. 

Most of I, Braineater's material appeared on independent releases with limited distribution, helping the project develop a small but dedicated following among listeners interested in experimental electronics, industrial music and underground cassette culture. Although never widely known, the recordings circulated through fanzines, tape trading networks and specialist record shops, reaching audiences that appreciated unusual and challenging music. 

Across its recordings, I, Braineater constantly shifted between abstract electronic soundscapes, off-kilter pop songs, noisy collage pieces and rhythmic industrial experiments. Cummins treated the studio as an instrument in itself, layering found sounds, processed vocals and synthetic textures into music that rarely stayed in one place for long. That restless approach connected the project with the broader international DIY experimental movement of the decade, where curiosity and imagination mattered far more than polished production or commercial appeal. 

H.D.Q.

H.D.Q. (short for "Hung, Drawn and Quartered") emerged from Hendon, a district of Sunderland in northeast England, during the mid-1980s. At a time when British hardcore was often defined by speed and aggression, H.D.Q. took inspiration from the melodic side of the American punk scene, drawing on bands such as Hüsker Dü, Dag Nasty and Descendents while keeping the grit and urgency of UK hardcore. That combination gave them a distinctive sound that stood apart from many of their contemporaries and helped establish them as an important name in the late-1980s British underground.

 
The band's early history grew out of the Sunderland punk community, with several members previously playing in the anarcho-punk outfit Hex. Line-up changes were common during the first years, but guitarist Dickie Hammond became the group's central creative force. Vocal duties were initially handled by Steve "Pyley" Pyle before David "Golly" Golledge joined, while players including Andrew "Lainey" Laing, Anth Irwin and Rob Bewick all contributed to shaping the classic H.D.Q. line-up. Their first recordings appeared in the mid-1980s, including the 'Take Control' demo and the debut album 'Hung Drawn and Quartered', introducing a style that mixed emotional melodies with fast, powerful guitar work and socially aware lyrics. 

As the decade progressed, H.D.Q. became regulars on the UK and European punk circuit, earning a reputation for intense live performances. Their growing profile brought them to the attention of legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who invited the band to record two Peel Sessions. Those broadcasts helped spread their music beyond the DIY punk network and confirmed that melodic hardcore had a place alongside the heavier and more traditional strands of British punk. 

The band's best-known recordings arrived between 1987 and 1990. 'You Suck!' showcased their sharp songwriting and melodic edge, while 'Sinking' expanded the emotional range of their music with stronger dynamics and more intricate guitar arrangements. Their final studio album, 'Soulfinder', continued that progression, balancing driving hardcore with memorable hooks and reflective lyrics. Alongside the albums, H.D.Q. also released several singles and EPs that became favourites among collectors of British punk and hardcore. 

H.D.Q. split up in the early 1990s, but their influence continued through the careers of its members. Dickie Hammond, Andrew Laing and other bandmates joined forces with Frankie Stubbs in Leatherface, helping shape another hugely respected Sunderland punk band whose melodic style carried many of H.D.Q.'s ideas even further. Dickie Hammond's distinctive guitar playing became especially influential, inspiring generations of British punk musicians with its combination of melody, power and raw emotion.

 
Interest in H.D.Q. remained strong long after their original run, leading to expanded reissues of their albums and a reunion during the 2010s. The reunited line-up recorded 'Lost In Translation', their first album of new material in more than two decades, proving that the band's trademark blend of heartfelt songwriting and melodic hardcore still sounded unmistakably like H.D.Q. while fitting naturally alongside the classic records that built their reputation. 

G.B.H.

One of the key bands of the street punk scene that gave a second wind to the U.K. punk rock scene, G.B.H. (also known as Charged G.B.H.) were also one of the first bands to add a strong heavy metal influence to punk rock, and would be cited as an influence by Metallica and Rancid. Hailing from Birmingham, G.B.H. were formed in 1978 by lead singer Colin Abrahall, guitarist Colin "Jock" Blyth, bassist Sean McCarthy, and drummer Andrew "Wilf" Williams. The band's name comes from the British legal term "Grievous Bodily Harm," with which bassist McCarthy had been charged. McCarthy was not long in the group, and Ross Lomas took over on bass by the end of their first year. 

 

Playing hard and fast, and with no fear of rude or controversial lyrics, Charged G.B.H. first made their name touring throughout the U.K., and after striking a deal with Clay Records, they made their recording debut in 1981, with the EP 'Leather, Bristles, Studs, and Acne'. In 1982, the group issued their first album, 'City Baby Attacked by Rats', which was followed by more touring, including their first visit to the United States. Charged G.B.H. brought out their follow-up, 'City Baby's Revenge: 101 Ways to Kill a Rat', in 1983, and in 1986, they released 'Midnight Madness and Beyond', their first album for Rough Justice Records, by which time they'd shortened their name to G.B.H. That same year, drummer Williams dropped out of the group, and Kai Reder, formerly of the band Napalm, became G.B.H.'s new drummer.

 

'No Need to Panic' followed in 1987, and 'A Fridge Too Far' arrived in 1989. In 1992, Joseph "Fish" Montanaro became G.B.H.'s new drummer (he would last until 1994, when Scott Preece took over behind the traps), and while many of the major street punk and Oi! bands of the '80s were maintaining a low profile (if they were still around at all), G.B.H. remained active. The group released a steady stream of live and studio albums and toured regularly throughout the '90s and into the new millennium, continuing to give their fans what they wanted. 

 

During this period, thrash metal bands like Metallica and Slayer were citing G.B.H. as an influence, helping the band find a new audience. In 2010, Lars Fredericksen of Rancid, a longtime G.B.H. fan, gave the veteran punks a bit of payback by releasing their album 'Perfume and Piss' on his Hellcat Records label. In 2017, nearly 40 years after they first formed, G.B.H. demonstrated their longevity with the release of a studio album for Hellcat, 'Momentum'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]

 

F:A.R.

F:A.R. (Final Alternative Relation) emerged from Savona, Italy, in 1980 and quickly became an important name in the country's early industrial and post-industrial underground. The project was founded by Mauro Guazzotti, who would later become better known through his long-running project MGZ. Although the lineup changed several times over the years, Guazzotti remained the driving force behind every stage of the band's evolution, shaping its sound, visual identity and independent approach.

 
The group's earliest releases appeared on cassette, the preferred format of the experimental underground at the time. Guazzotti also established his own label, Technological Feeling, to release the band's work and support a network of like-minded artists operating outside the mainstream. Early tapes such as 'Duello Sul Cervello', 'Final Alternative Relation' and 'Lust' introduced a collage-based sound built from tape manipulation, found recordings, electronic textures, percussion and fragments lifted from television, radio and everyday life. Their methods reflected the influence of industrial pioneers as well as the cut-up ideas of William S. Burroughs, blending noise, rhythm and spoken word into unpredictable compositions. 

As the decade progressed, F:A.R. expanded their palette without abandoning their experimental roots. Their first LP, 'Da Consumarsi Con Grazia' (1985), mixed concrete sounds with operatic voices, surreal conversations and unconventional song structures, creating an album that shifted constantly between playful absurdity and darker industrial atmospheres. The follow-up, 'Presto I Topi Verranno A Cercarci' (1987), pushed those ideas even further, combining repetitive percussion, electronics and performance-oriented concepts into what many fans regard as the group's defining statement. Their final studio album, 'Passi Uguali' (1990), placed a stronger emphasis on vocals and lyrical expression while continuing to explore unusual arrangements and sound design. 

Live performances were just as important as the records. Rather than playing straightforward concerts, F:A.R. treated the stage as a multimedia space where music, theatrical elements, spoken passages and visual experimentation came together. This approach helped establish the band as a distinctive presence within the Italian industrial scene, standing alongside other artists who were exploring the boundaries between experimental music, performance art and electronic composition.

 
By the end of the 1980s, Mauro Guazzotti had already begun developing MGZ, a project that gradually moved away from the darker industrial sound toward a more synth-driven and surreal style. F:A.R. came to an end in 1990 after the release of 'Passi Uguali', but renewed interest in Italy's underground experimental scene led to a series of archival reissues decades later. Collections such as 'Mechanics & Music – Nastri '81–'85' and 'Il Mito Dei Vinili Parlanti – 1985/1990' brought together the band's cassette recordings, studio albums and previously unreleased material, introducing their work to a new generation of listeners while documenting the evolution of one of Italy's earliest industrial projects. 

Eric Lunde

Eric Lunde is an American musician, visual artist, writer and one of the long-running figures to emerge from the American industrial and experimental underground. He first became known in the early 1980s as a founding member of the noise and industrial project Boy Dirt Car, which he started with Darren Brown in 1983. The group's recordings mixed abrasive electronics, tape manipulation, found sounds and confrontational performance ideas, helping to define a raw, uncompromising corner of the U.S. experimental scene. Lunde remained with the project until 1989 before leaving to concentrate on his own work. 

Following his departure from Boy Dirt Car, Lunde developed a solo career that blurred the boundaries between industrial music, sound art and multimedia experimentation. Recording under names including Eric Lunde, E. Lunde and Trait, he produced a steady stream of releases built around field recordings, noise textures, spoken word, manipulated electronics and unconventional recording techniques. His work often treated sound as a physical material rather than a traditional musical language, exploring repetition, texture and atmosphere as central elements. 

Visual art has always been closely tied to Lunde's music. Alongside his recordings he has created drawings, prints and mixed-media artwork, with many of his releases reflecting the same stark, handmade aesthetic found in his visual pieces. In 1991 he expanded that approach with the publication of "LLND" on Alamut Records, a collection combining poetry and wood-block prints that highlighted his interest in connecting language, imagery and sound within a single artistic framework. 

Over the years Lunde has continued to work across different media, releasing recordings, books and art projects through independent channels while remaining active within the international experimental and noise community. Later works such as 'Music Is Meat', 'Localized Noise-Induced Transitions' and 'Lard' continued to combine literary ideas, visual art and challenging sound design, reflecting an artistic approach that places equal importance on music, text and image. 

D & V

D & V was a short-lived British experimental duo formed by drummer Andy Leach and vocalist Jeff Antcliffe. The name stood for Drums & Vocals, perfectly describing the group's unusual concept: music built around nothing more than percussion and the human voice. Emerging from the UK's early 1980s independent underground, the pair developed a raw, uncompromising sound that sat somewhere between anarcho-punk, experimental music and performance art, challenging the conventions of what a rock band was expected to sound like.

 
Andy Leach and Jeff Antcliffe deliberately stripped their music down to its bare essentials. Leach's driving, tribal-inspired drumming provided the only instrumental backing while Antcliffe delivered spoken, shouted and rhythmic vocal performances that often carried political and social themes. Antcliffe later described the idea as being "almost a kind of rap," an unusually forward-thinking approach at a time when hip-hop was still largely unknown in Britain. The result was an intense, hypnotic style driven by rhythm rather than melody, reflecting the DIY philosophy that defined much of the anarcho-punk movement.

 
The duo became closely associated with Crass Records, the influential independent label founded by the anarchist collective Crass. Their debut release, 'The Nearest Door' EP, appeared in 1982 and was produced by Crass co-founder Penny Rimbaud. It captures the group's stark, confrontational approach with little more than pounding drums and urgent vocals. The release fitted naturally alongside the label's catalogue while offering a sound unlike any of the other Crass Records artists.

 
D & V expanded their ideas on the 1984 album 'Inspiration Gave Them Motivation to Move On Out of Their Isolation'. Although the drums-and-vocals format remained at the centre of the music, the album introduced additional textures and featured guest appearances from Crass vocalists Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre. The recordings retained the duo's direct, rhythmic intensity while exploring a slightly broader sonic palette, demonstrating that their minimalist concept could support longer and more varied compositions. 

Their influences came less from traditional rock music than from the DIY ethic of punk and the political commitment of the anarcho-punk scene. The uncompromising spirit of Crass can be heard throughout their work, but D & V also shared an interest in repetition, spoken-word delivery and experimental performance that set them apart from most of their contemporaries. Their music relied on rhythm, tension and atmosphere instead of guitars or conventional song structures, creating a sound that feels connected to post-punk experimentation as much as to punk itself. 

Tecnoville

Tecnoville was a Dutch synth-pop and new wave band that emerged during the first half of the 1980s, a period when affordable synthesizers and drum machines were reshaping pop music across Europe. Drawing inspiration from the electronic sounds coming out of the UK and continental Europe, the group combined catchy melodies with polished programming, creating music that sat comfortably between radio-friendly pop and the more underground wave of independent electronic acts. Their sound reflected the optimism and precision that characterized much of the era's electronic music, while still carrying a distinctly local identity. 

The band's lineup featured André Bach, Berna van Baarsen, Herman Lohmeijer, Herman Voogd and Mark Tegefoss, each contributing to a blend of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals that gave Tecnoville a fuller sound than many purely electronic projects of the period. Rather than relying exclusively on machines, they balanced synthesized textures with live instrumentation, allowing their recordings to move easily between danceable rhythms and melodic pop arrangements. 

Tecnoville released a handful of singles during the mid-1980s, with tracks such as "Watching the Traffic" and "Walking Around" capturing the bright, melodic side of European synth-pop. Their recordings featured shimmering keyboard lines, programmed beats and clean vocal harmonies, echoing the influence of artists like Depeche Mode, The Human League and early New Order without simply copying those styles. The band found a place within the thriving Dutch independent scene, where labels were giving local electronic acts the chance to record and release material alongside punk, new wave and experimental artists. 

British Electric Foundation

The production arm of early synth popsters Heaven 17 and occasionally a recording entity in its own right, B.E.F. (or British Electric Foundation) was formed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh just after their exit from the original lineup of the Human League. Ware and Marsh had formed the Human League in 1977 as a completely electronic synthesizer band. After adding vocalist Philip Oakey and Adrian Wright, the group released the seminal 1978 single "Being Boiled" and two LPs, 1979's 'Reproduction' and the following year's 'Travelogue'. Late in 1980 however, both Ware and Marsh left the band over disagreements about its musical direction. Eager to avoid repeating the mistakes they felt the Human League were making (and would continue to make), the pair incorporated British Electric Foundation as a production team instead of a band. 

During 1980-1981, B.E.F. released two instrumental mini LPs, 'Music for Stowaways' and 'Music for Listening To' (both had several tracks in common). The only track on either release with any type of vocals (and those quite low in the mix) was "Groove Thang," which featured Glenn Gregory, a friend of the duo and a fellow Sheffield resident. By 1981, the three had formed Heaven 17, remade "Groove Thang" into a more vocal-led track named "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang," and stormed the British charts -even though the single was banned by the BBC. 

Though Heaven 17's success appeared to circumvent the necessity of B.E.F. as actual recording artists, Ware and Marsh returned in 1982 with the first proper B.E.F. full-length, 1982's 'Music of Quality and Distinction, Vol. 1'. The LP featured synth-pop covers of soul standards with vocal contributions from Tina Turner, Gary Glitter, Sandie Shaw, Billy Mackenzie, and Gregory himself. One year later, Heaven 17 really hit the big time with the single "Temptation" and their second album, 'The Luxury Gap'. Ware and Marsh decided to work on Heaven 17 full-time, retiring B.E.F. except for production credits on Heaven 17 LPs. 

During the increasingly long breaks between Heaven 17 albums, Martyn Ware began contributing to outside projects. He worked on production for Tina Turner's 1984 breakthrough 'Private Dancer' and Terence Trent D'Arby's 'Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby'. By 1988, Heaven 17 had officially broken up. Even so, it was three more years before Ware and Marsh returned with another B.E.F. album, 'Music of Quality and Distinction, Vol. 2'. Much less focused on synthesizers than any previous Heaven 17 or B.E.F. material, it featured vocals by Turner and D'Arby as well as Chaka Khan, Mavis Staples, and Billy Preston. Virgin reissued an expanded 'Music for Listening To' in 1997, but B.E.F. would remain dormant, along with Heaven 17, for over a decade. After Heaven 17 reunited without Marsh in 2010 for a U.K. tour, Ware revived B.E.F. on his own. In 2013 the project reappeared with 'Dark (Music of Quality and Distinction, Vol. 3)', an album of pop standards delivered by Boy George, Kim Wilde, Green Gartside, and others. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]