Following in the wake of punk and early new wave, industrial music culture bore many correspondences to its post-punk and gothic rock siblings, yet defined itself apart for the literal mechanics of its production and aesthetics. Globally a number of epicenters for the sound's earliest expression could be found in Berlin, New York, London, and the major coastal cities of California. The American midwest saw its own variation on the form later harnessed by label's like Chicago's Wax Trax! Records. Their legacy, beyond just releasing a body of music that bred or came to influence more commercially successful acts of the 1990s, like Nine Inch Nails and Prodigy, Wax Trax! were defined by a then-radical business model. The revival of the label, by the daughter of its co-founder Julia Nash and her partner Mark Skillicorn, came in the heels of their 2017 documentary, "Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records". Acting as more than just a retail record store, and label with an atypical contract process, its founders created a cultural locus of related aesthetics, sounds, values and lifestyles. This setting, scene, and label, gave birth to the mid-to-late 1980s electro-industrial sound of Meat Beat Manifesto, KMFDM, Front 242, and Controlled Bleeding. Further north, there was an affinity to be had with the concurrent Canadian scene largely released by Nettwerk Records. Which issued albums from the influential Vancouver trio, Skinny Puppy, Australia's SPK, Severed Heads, and Toronto's Front Line Assembly. At the inception of these two conjoined scenes, and the locus of Wax Trax! Records, was the duo of Al Jourgensen and Stephen (Stevo) George, known as Ministry. With the release of a set of successful singles on the Chicago imprint, Ministry drew the attention of Arista Records, who offered them a then-substantial contract, under which they released their electro-pop focused "With Sympathy". Produced by Psychedelic Furs drummer, Vince Ely, and Ian Taylor at Syncro Sound studios in Boston, the album had a decidedly more club and dance-focused sound than their preceding Wax Trax! material.
Touring on this album, Jourgensen encountered Sire Records co-owner Seymour Stein, who then offered resources and autonomy to the band similar to the support they once had on Wax Trax!. Signing to Sire, with distribution through the behemoth of Warner Brothers, Ministry found both massive exposure, and a greater degree of creative independence than with Arista. "Twitch" the first album of their industrial sound, was recorded in London and at the legendary Hansa Studio Berlin, with dub and post-punk On-U Sound Records maven Adrian Sherwood, who shared co-production duties with Jourgensen. Landing on the Billboard 200, the album generated a notable response in indie press and on college radio, as detailed by the Chicago Times in "Adventures with Ministry in the Land of Majors". A tour of the United States and Canada was to follow with the most significant of Ministry's lasting creative lineups featuring Roland Barker on keyboards, Paul Barker on bass, and Bill Rieflin on percussion. While greater success and a codification of their sound arrived with 1988's "Land of Rape and Honey", these two earlier albums marked the suggestion and germination of the overall electro-industrial sound to come. Long-disavowed by Jourgensen, "With Sympathy", and "Twitch", are to be revisited in a series of live performances this year. To which the bandleader exclaimed, "'F*ck It. Instead of Being Owned, Let's Own It.'" following what was then to be a one-off performance at Cruel World. This tour is a preliminary gesture towards the conclusion of Ministry, which is to come full-circle after "Ministry’s Al Jourgensen Announces the End of His Iconic, Industrial Band", and delivering their final album as a collaboration between Jourgensen and Barker. But before said conclusion, they will be presenting their earliest albums live at Showbox Sodo with Die Krupps, and Wax Trax! labelmates My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult supporting, on the week of Seattle's convergence of goth and industrial culture with Mechanismus Festival in full swing during the anniversary of Mercury at Machinewerks.
