Nitzer Ebb: That Total Age 1987 (Limited Edition 2018)

 

Douglas John McCarthy (1 September 1966 – 11 June 2025) was an English vocalist whose work covers a range of electronic music genres. He was the lead vocalist of the EBM band Nitzer Ebb

from 1982 until 2024. McCarthy was hospitalized in 2021 during Nitzer Ebb's U.S. tour, prompting a break from performing. He returned to the stage in 2023, but in 2024, the band announced that he was taking a break from performing due to the effects of cirrhosis "after years of alcohol abuse". McCarthy died on 11 June 2025, aged 58.
                     

Nitzer Ebb (/ˈnaɪtsər ɛb, ˈnɪt-/) were an English EBM group formed in 1982 by Essex school friends

Vaughan "Bon" Harris (programming, synthesizers, drums, vocals), Douglas McCarthy (vocals), and David Gooday (drums). The band were originally named La Comédie De La Mort but soon discarded that and chose the name Nitzer Ebb by cutting up words and letters and arranging them randomly to create something Germanic without using actual German words.
                    

The band at the time was inspired by the post-punk scene and specifically acts like "Siouxsie and the Banshees, Killing Joke and Bauhaus who were having a big influence on us, in some ways stylistically

but also in the energy that they gave". Their debut album That Total Age was released in 1987. Depeche Mode invited them to open for the European leg of their successful Music for the Masses Tour in 1987. David Gooday left after the tour and they completed their next album Belief (1989) as a duo. Mark 'Flood' Ellis became their new producer. They recruited Julian Beeston to assist them on their own world tour, and he soon became a regular contributor both on and off stage.
                       

Nitzer Ebb virtually disappeared from active music-making for the next four years, finally reappearing

in 1995 with their fifth (and least industrial-sounding) album, Big Hit. The group became inactive, but McCarthy became a regular collaborator with Alan Wilder's Recoil project, and formed the duo Fixmer/McCarthy with techno producer Terence Fixmer. 
                           

THAT TOTAL AGE

           

If the resultant debut was a bit one-note as an overall release, the duo already showed a bent for making sure their concoctions were instantly memorable and undeniably thrilling. McCarthy's singing is less

supple and more ear-piercingly harsh than Gabi Delgado's, say, but his seemingly odd quaver actually gives the band a unique stamp, delivering the slogan-like lyrics with the force of overwhelming command. Consider "Violent Playground," which could almost be a Soft Cell stomper with all the swooning romance completely pared away to leave nothing but brute homoerotic force (and appropriate volume). 
                     

Harris' ear for beats and how to make them really crunch through doesn't let him down -- check out the huge, sudden metal door-slam rhythms on "Smear Body" for a particularly notable example of his

ability. If there's a standout track from That Total Age, it would probably have to be "Join in the Chant," with McCarthy's clipped, elliptical words and delivery perfectly suited for the invigorating storm of drum hits and central bass part. That said, there's plenty of close competition, with the quick, frenetic surge of "Murderous," electronic bass and percussion barely in control as McCarthy roars, "Lift up your hearts!," and the equally impressive "Let Your Body Learn" with its use of vocal echo for maximum impact.
                             

Nitzer Ebb – That Total Age
Label: Pylon Records, Geffen Records – B0025391-02, 
Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue Oct 19, 2018
Country: US
Released: 1987    
Genre: Electronic
Style: EBM ("Electronic Body Music")

TRACKS

                          

01. Fitness To Purpose    5:00
02. Warsaw Ghetto    3:47
03. Violent Playground    3:46
04. Murderous    5:40
05. Smear Body    5:40
06. Join In The Chant    6:01
07. Alarm    3:55
08. Let Your Body Learn    2:47
09. Let Beauty Loose    2:24
10. Into The Large Air    4:08
11. Murderous (Instrumental)    5:02
12. Fitness To Purpose (Mix Two)    4:54
13. Join In The Chant (Burn)    5:23
14. Let Your Body Learn (Twelve Inch Mix)    6:26
15. Join In The Chant (Metal Mix)    5:13
16. Warsaw Ghetto (Original 12" Mix)    7:04

FORMER MEMBERS

                       

Douglas McCarthy – vocals, guitars (1982–2025; his death; not touring during 2024–2025)
Duc Nhan Nguyen – drums (1987–1988)
Julian Beeston – drums (1989–1992)
Jason Payne – drums (1992–1995, 2007–2019)
Bon Harris – programming, synthesizers, drums, vocals, bass (1982–present)

NOTES

Expanded Collectors Edition - Released in an embossed tri-fold card sleeve.
Contains 4 Bonus tracks, including the 12” mixes of “Join In The Chant”, “ Let Your Body Learn”, “ Warsaw Ghetto” and rare instrumental version of “Murderous”.

Flac Size: 575 MB

Nitzer Ebb: Showtime 1990 on Urban Aspirines HERE

John Foxx: Metamatic 1980 (Deluxe Edition 3CD 2018) + The Garden 1981 (1993)

 

John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band

Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a solo career in 1980 with the album Metamatic. After several changes of name, including Fire of London, The Zips and The Damned, the band became Ultravox! in October 1976. The group's style fused punk, glam, electronic, reggae and new wave music.
At the same time, Leigh adopted his stage name of John Foxx. Once the band signed to Island Records, they released three albums during 1977–1978.
                                 

The debut Ultravox! single, "Dangerous Rhythm", backed with "My Sex", was released on 4 February

1977. Their first album (the self-titled Ultravox!) was released three weeks later on 25 February 1977, produced by Steve Lillywhite and the band, with assistance from Brian Eno. It was followed by their second album Ha! Ha! Ha! in October 1977, which included the single "ROckWrok", although both were commercial failures.
                 

After signing to Virgin Records, Foxx achieved two top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart with his first solo singles, "Underpass" (No. 31) and "No-One Driving" (No. 32). Its parent album Metamatic

was released on 17 January 1980, and peaked at No. 18 in the UK Albums Chart.Foxx played most of the synthesisers and "rhythm machines", as they were listed on the sleeve. One of the album's songs, "Metal Beat", takes its name from a CR-78 drum machine sound used on the record. Virgin released the album under the imprint name Metal Beat Records, which was used for Foxx releases throughout his contract with them.
                

Primarily associated with electronic synthesizer music, he has also pursued a parallel career in graphic design and education. Andy Kellman of AllMusic described Foxx as an influential cult figure whose

"detached, jolting vocal style inspired mainstream and underground artists across the decades". His icy synths and sophisticated song structures, as well as his surrealist lyrics and detached, jolting vocal style, have inspired mainstream and underground artists across the decades, from synth pop superstar Gary Numan to electro-techno duo ADULT. Initially known as the original lead singer of new wave pioneers Ultravox, he left the band in 1979 and released his fully electronic solo debut Metamatic at the beginning of 1980.
                

The groundbreaking album reached the top 20 of the U.K. album chart and contained two top 40 hits,

"Underpass" and "No-One Driving." His subsequent albums were more ambitious and incorporated a diverse array of electronic and acoustic instruments. In June 2014, it was announced that Foxx was to receive an honorary degree from Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire. He was made an honorary Doctor of Philosophy during the ceremony at the university on 21 July 2014.
              

John Foxx and the Maths composed the soundtrack to the York Theatre Royal's production of E.M.

Forster's short story The Machine Stops. A digital-only EP drawn from a live performance based on the material, The Bunker Tapes, appeared in 2016, and full album The Machine was released in 2017. Foxx contributed to two songs on the Belbury Circle's 2017 album Outward Journeys. In 2019, the Maths returned to the studio, this time with former Ultravox guitarist Robin Simon, and the full-length Howl arrived in 2020.
               

JOHN FOXX - METAMATIC (DELUXE EDITION 2018)

                            

One of the best albums of all time and revolutionary for electronic music. John Foxx deservers more

credit and attention for sure! One of the must have albums for early electronic music. Forget Midge Ure and the latter Ultravox, it is Foxx that is the true genius of that time, in this particular genre of electronic music.
                 

              
Foxx's solo debut after leaving Ultravox!, Metamatic, achieves the same emotional transcendence as his

previous group's early highlight, Systems of Romance, despite a new reliance not just on synthesizers, but on a musical framework dependent on them. On Metamatic, Foxx cultivates a curious air of disinterest that never seems truly bored, but is much more extreme than even his unarguably distant vocal style for Ultravox!. It holds up as one of the peaks of the early-'80s fascination with emotionless, Kraftwerk-inspired synth pop.
                      

John Foxx – Metamatic
Label: Metamatic – META63BX
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Box Set, Deluxe Edition May 30, 2018
Country: UK & Europe
Released: 1980
Genre: Electronic
Style: New Wave, Electro, Synth-pop

CD1.

                     

01. Plaza    3:56
02. He's A Liquid    3:02
03. Underpass    3:57
04. Metal Beat    3:01
05. No-One Driving    3:50
06. A New Kind Of Man    3:41
07. Blurred Girl    4:19
08. 030    3:18
09. Tidal Wave    4:17
10. Touch And Go    5:44

Flac Size: 252 MB

CD2.

              

01. Film One    4:03
02. This City    3:10
03. To Be With You    4:23
04. Cinemascope    3:27
05. Burning Car    3:16
06. Glimmer    3:39
07. Mr. No    3:19
08. Young Love    3:10
09. 20th Century    3:08
10. My Face    3:21
11. Underpass (Radio Edit)    2:49
12. No-One Driving (Single Version)    3:47
13. Like A Miracle (Alternative Version)    3:56
14. A New Kind Of Man (Alternative Version)    4:32
15. He's A Liquid (Alternative Version)    3:00
16. Plaza (Extended Version)    4:48
17. Underpass (Extended Version)    4:24
18. Blurred Girl (Longer Fade Version)    4:42

Flac Size: 410 MB

CD3.

             

01. A Frozen Moment    1:28
02. He's A Liquid (Instrumental Dub)    2:06
03. Mr. No (Alternative Version)    3:23
04. The Uranium Committee    2:17
05. A Man Alone    2:59
06. Over Tokyo    2:10
07. Terminal Zone    2:33
08. Urban Code    0:40
09. A Version Of You    1:30
10. Glimmer (Alternative Version)    3:42
11. Fragmentary City    2:31
12. Metamorphosis    2:22
13. Approaching The Monument    3:50
14. Critical Mass    4:36
15. Alamogordo Logic    1:04
16. Touch And Go (Early Version)    5:34
17. Miss Machinery    3:28
18. No-One Driving (Early Version)    3:57
19. Burning Car (Early Version)    2:45
20. Like A Miracle (Early Version)    4:00
21. No-One Driving (Alternative Version)    3:59

Flac Size: 300 MB

LINE - UP

John Foxx – vocals, rhythm machines (mainly Roland CR-78), synthesizers and keyboards
John Wesley Barker – additional synthesizers and keyboards
Jake Durant – bass guitar
Gareth Jones – engineer

Keyboards used on the album include the Minimoog, ARP Odyssey, clavinet, Elka Rhapsody 610, piano, Farfisa string synth, and Hammond organ.

JOHN FOXX - THE GARDEN 1981 (1993)

                            

John Foxx is somewhat of an underdog in both the Post-Punk and Synth-Pop scenes. After dropping

from his duties in Ultravox, Foxx felt completely comfortable to indulge himself in the emerging Electronic scene that was sweeping England. Metamatic was closer to what Gary Numan and Cabaret Voltaire were doing, than more Pop oriented groups. But after the robotic futurism of Metamatic, Foxx took his talents and created an album that was just as much as a dystopia as his solo debut, but enveloped New Romantic and Neo-Classical influences.
                          

John Foxx – The Garden
Label: Virgin – 07777 87778 23, Virgin – CDV 2194, Virgin – 263 368
Format: CD, Album, Reissue Apr 19, 1993
Country: Europe
Released: 1981
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Synth-pop

TRAXS

                          

01. Europe After The Rain    4:02
02. Systems Of Romance    4:06
03. When I Was A Man And You Were A Woman    3:39
04. Dancing Like A Gun    4:12
05. Pater Noster    2:35
06. Night Suit    4:26
07. You Were There    3:53
08. Fusion / Fission    3:50
09. Walk Away    3:57
10. The Garden    7:11

BONUS TRAXS

11. Young Man    2:55
12. Dance With Me    3:33
13. A Woman On A Stairway    4:30
14. The Lifting Sky    4:46
15. Annexe    3:07
16. Wings And A Wind    5:19

LINE - UP

Duncan Bridgeman – synthesizer, bass, percussion, bongos, cymbals, tom-toms, sequencer, brass, piano, the Human Host
Jake Durant – bass
Jo Dworniak – bass
John Foxx – synthesizer, piano, guitar, vocals, drum programming, tom-toms, the Human Host
Gareth Jones – percussion
Philip Roberts – drums
Robin Simon – guitar

NOTES

Producer – Gareth Jones (tracks: 11 & 12), John Foxx (tracks: 1 to 11, 13 to 16), Zeus B. Held (tracks: 12, 13 to 15)
Written-By – John Foxx
Tracks 11 to 16 are bonus tracks (although the rear artwork states tracks 12 to 16) and differ from the 2001 remastered edition The Garden.

Flac Size: 635 MB

The Tear Garden: Tired Eyes Slowly Burning 1987

 

The Tear Garden is an experimental/electronic band, formed by Edward Ka-Spel of The

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

Legendary Pink Dots and cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy in 1985 after Key served as a sound engineer on tour in Canada for Ka-Spel. An EP, The Tear Garden, was released that same year. While sustaining a stance in the Canadian industrial trio Skinny Puppy, cEvin Key also maintained several side projects such as Tear Garden and Hilt.
              

SKINNY PUPPY

Not as chaotic as Skinny Puppy, Key's ambient side work began in the mid-'80s when he and Legendary Pink Dots' Edward Ka-Spel teamed up to form Tear Garden. Tired Eyes Slowly Burning (1987) marked

the band's debut and sharply defined Key's talented programming skills to move him out from behind the blazing showcase of Skinny Puppy frontman Nivek Ogre. Key's keen ear quickly called out detail while searching for a lush composition versus the sonic disintegration of his other band, and this is what made Tear Garden enjoyably different.
                     

The Tear Garden released the album Tired Eyes Slowly Burning in 1987. It featured contributions from Skinny Puppy members Dwayne Goettel, Nivek Ogre, and Dave Ogilvie. The record featured a nearly

17 minute long track titled "You and Me and Rainbows", described by AllMusic's Sean Carruthers as "monolithic... but worth every second". A reissue of the album included the groups first EP, The Tear Garden, with the rest of the album.[2] Members of the Legendary Pink Dots would henceforth contribute to Tear Garden and in 1992 they released the full-length album The Last Man to Fly.
                   

While completing Skinny Puppy's The Process, things were suddenly interrupted by the 1995

DWAYNE GOETTEL

overdose death of keyboardist Dwayne Goettel. A bitter battle over the release of The Process prolonged into 1996, giving Key final creative control over his music due to Skinny Puppy's tragic demise.
                 

Not distraught by the horrible events brought on by the year before, Key plugged 1996's To Be an

Angel Blind, the Crippled Soul Divide and 1997's Paradigm Shift, while keeping a low profile, and Tear Garden solidly became his chief project. Two more albums surfaced in 2000, the extensive compilation featuring Skinny Puppy, Legendary Pink Dots, and Tear Garden material entitled Wild Planet: Subconsious Communications, and the new Tear Garden LP Crystal Mass.
               

Tired Eyes Slowly Burning is the debut album of the Canadian band The Tear Garden, released in 1987

through Nettwerk. It is the band's first studio album, preceded by their self-titled EP released a year prior. That EP is appended to the end of Tired Eyes Slowly Burning as tracks 7 to 10. AllMusic critic Sean Carruthers wrote, "it mixes together to create a dreamy electronic mix that owes something to both Skinny Puppy and The Legendary Pink Dots, but is nonetheless totally different.
               

Think Pink Floyd on a scary electronic acid trip and you're getting close." James Muretich of the

Calgary Herald felt the album was more enjoyable than the output of Ka-Spel and Key's respective bands at the time, and said that it "engrosses the senses with its eerie but enticing psychedelic/electronic sound". Tom harrison of The Province likened the album to the work of Pink Floyd and praised the two musicians for leaving their comfort zone to produce an album that he thought was "palpably romantic".
                            

The Tear Garden – Tired Eyes Slowly Burning
Label: Nettwerk – W2-30019
Format: CD, Album, Reissue
Country: US
Released: 1987    
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Industrial, Experimental

TRAXS

               

01. Deja Vu    4:48
02. Room With A View    6:06
03. Coma    4:10
04. Valium    5:38
05. You And Me And Rainbows (Parts One To Six)    16:46
06. OO EE OO    5:16
07. The Center Bullet    9:46
08. Ophelia    8:36
09. Tear Garden    4:50
10. My Thorny Thorny Crown    3:57

LINE - UP

THE TEAR GARDEN

              

Edward Ka-Spel – lyrics, vocals, music
cEvin Key – lyrics, music, engineering, mixing

ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS

              

Dwayne Goettel – keyboards (1, 2, 3, 5)
Dave Ogilvie – guitar and tapes (1, 5), engineering, mixing
Lee Salford – percussion (2, 5)
Lisa – vocals (4)
Nivek Ogre – vocals (5)

TEAR GARDEN LYRICS
                          

 

Our lady on the balcony in black and red
The band plays stronger
Spinning back we tread on broken glass
Our heels dig harder

I circle round inside your belt
I felt your heart race faster
Our eyes met with the eyes fixed in the sky
All seeing, knowing, probing, to the bottom of our souls

On tear garden
On tear garden

You moaned
We shivered
We cowered in the corner
We watch the arms go flying rigid
Heard them call his name again
Again

Pressed our hands to our ears
We waited for the rain
Waiting for the gentle rain to fall on tear garden
Waiting for the gentle rain to fall on tear garden
Tear garden

Flac Size: 410 MB