Teenage Arab

Example Album: No Me No Mine (Single) 

Location: Russia

Years Active: 2018-present

Style: Post-Industrial, Drone, Neo-Folk

A Moscow based duo whose only release to date consists of two extremely disparate tracks in terms of composition. Consisting of SILA and Zichy, Teenage Arab claims to draw influence from Russia’s 2010s rave revival and their own roots in Russia’s punk scene which can be heard on their sole EP’s opening track, “Ghosts Beak”. This said, very little of that influence is found on the EP’s sparse and droning scrap metal driven title track, “No Me No Mine”, which bears more resemblance to Muslim Gauze or Current 93 by way of Z’EV and Throbbing Gristle. Additionally, the song’s music video is a must watch for its matter-of-fact documentation of a massive protest held in Moscow around the time of the EP’s recording in mid-2018. 

Only time will tell where this project will end up, but “No Me No Mine” stands alone as an incredible update on classic industrial ideas.

Headbutt

Example Album: Tiddles

Location: UK

Years Active: 1991-1998

Style: Industrial rock, Noise rock, No-Wave

This prolific and often overlooked UK project revived and updated many of the sounds found on early Swans material and blended it with more prevalent scrap metal percussion and elements of contemporary mainstream industrial. A London based project favored by John Peel, they seemed primed for mainstream success in the era of industrial rock’s commercial peak, however that attention never truly came for this singular group and to date very little is available about them online. Many of their records have long since gone out of print, though from the small collection of releases spread across the internet it’s plain to see that this group was a shockingly well oiled industrial machine. 

Their roots in the UK industrial and experimental scene run deep with key members Jym Daly performing with Psychic TV and forming Loop Guru and Ashley Davies featuring as a member of Test Dept on and off over the years (including in their most current lineup). They were almost the de facto “your favorite band’s favorite band” of the 90’s UK industrial scene. Jumping from techno to no-wave to noise rock over the years, they never stagnated while keeping true to their cling-clanging roots.