Nitzer Ebb
Nitzer Ebb (pronounced
night-zer or
nit-zer—the band themselves pronounce it either way) is a music group formed in
1982 by
Essex schoolfriends
Douglas McCarthy (vocals, synthesizer),
Vaughan (Bon) Harris on synthesizers and drums, and
David Gooday.
The trio began with shows in small local venues, but their arresting stage presence,
military image and energy garnered a growing base of followers and soon led to appearances in larger clubs and concert venues. They released their debut
single "Isn't It Funny How Your Body Works" on 7 January, 1985 on their own label Power Of Voice Communications, and their music soon became a fixture on the club scene. A double 'A' side single, "Warsaw Ghetto"/"So Bright So Strong", followed in 1985 to similar critical and dancefloor acclaim. Two further releases, "Let Your Body Learn"/"Get Clean" and "Murderous" were released on Power Of Voice Communications before they signed to
Mute Records.
In May
1987, they released their
debut album on
Mute Records,
That Total Age, which spawned a hit with the pounding
bass rhythms and barked vocals of "Join In the Chant" and "Murderous".
The second album,
Belief, was released in
1989. The band was now down to a core duo of Harris and McCarthy, with Julian Beeston on drumming duty. Three more albums,
Showtime in
1990,
Ebbhead in
1991, and
Big Hit in
1995 were also international successes as the band moved away from 4/4 130bpm stomping dance tracks and explored other musical forms - jazz, rock, blues - whilst still sounding like Nitzer Ebb, or, as Douglas Mccarthy described it in 1991, "simplistic dance music". Nitzer Ebb had also found favour with labelmates and international pop heavyweights
Depeche Mode, who invited them on their European tour in
1988, and in 1990, opening on the World Violation Tour in the US. Exposure to large stadium crowds and the intensity of the whole rock and roll business provided sufficient influence for the group to start to develop a more rock-oriented approach to their razor-sharp electronic dance music, and 1991's
As Is EP (produced by
Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman,
Flood,
Depeche Mode's Alan Wilder, and
Barry Adamson) paved the way for the aforementioned Ebbhead.
The momentum and progress built up around Ebbhead was serverly hampered by the band's (very expensive) 3 years recording Big Hit (drummers were sacked, producers changed), which created a critical fracture between Harris and McCarthy. The group ground to a halt towards the end of the Big Hit tour (final dates were advertised then cancelled). Although the group never officially split, the door was effectively left open for Harris and McCarthy to reactivate the band in the future once their differences had been resolved.
NovaMute later released a
remix series with three
12-inch singles between 2001 and 2004 - Shame/Join in the Chant, Control I'm Here/Let Your Body Learn, and Murderous/Control I'm Here. The remix of Let Your Body Learn was particularly fruitful as it was given a radical overhaul by French
techno producer
Terence Fixmer which led first to a friendship and then a recording project between Fixmer and Douglas McCarthy, called simply
Fixmer/McCarthy, and performing live shows around the globe, which included new versions of Nitzer Ebb songs. This also led to an album released as Fixmer/McCarthy, entitled
Between the Devil....
In late
2005, it was announced that McCarthy (now residing in east
London working as a video producer, having studied graphic design in
Cambridge after a couple of collaborations with
Alan Wilder on his Recoil project and appearing live with Empirion at 1997's Tribal Gathering), and Harris (now residing in the US, and producing/engineering for
Marilyn Manson and
Billy Corgan) had begun to talk about the possibility of a Nitzer Ebb reunion.
2006 saw Nitzer Ebb tour once more, focussing on the more electronic phase of their career, with
Mute Records finally releasing the 2 CDs set,
Body of Work 1984-1997 in June 2006. A companion piece Body Rework, featuring remixes from cutting edge contemporary
techno artists such as Motor,
Black Strobe, the Hacker,
Derrick May, and the Whignomy Brothers, only going to highlight the interest and respect still shown in this groundbreaking, unique, and original electronic outfit.
Albums
*
That Total Age (1987)
*
Belief (1989)
*
Showtime (1990)
*
Ebbhead (1991)
*
Big Hit (1995)
*
Body of Work - 1984 - 1997 (2006)
* Body Rework'' (2006)
EPs
*
As Is (1991)
Compilations
*
So Bright So Strong (1988)
Singles
| Year | Song | US Dance | US Modern Rock | | 1985 | "Isn't It Funny How Your Body Works" | - | - |
| 1985 | "Warsaw Ghetto" | - | - |
| 1986 | "Get Clean" | - | - |
| 1986 | "Murderous" | - | - |
| 1987 | "Let Your Body Learn" | - | - |
| 1987 | "Join In The Chant" | 9 | - |
| 1988 | "So Bright, So Strong" | - | - |
| 1988 | "Control I'm Here" | 14 | 25 |
| 1989 | "Hearts And Minds" | 16 | - |
| 1989 | "Shame" | - | - |
| 1989 | "The Machinerys Of Joy" (Die Krupps with Nitzer Ebb) | 25 | - |
| 1989 | "Lightning Man" | 14 | 28 |
| 1990 | "Fun To Be Had" | 5 | - |
| 1991 | "I Give To You" | - | - |
| 1991 | "Godhead" | - | - |
| 1992 | "Ascend" | - | - |
| 1995 | "Kick It" | - | - |
| 1995 | "I Thought" | - | - |
| 1995 | "Cherry Blossom" | - | - |
|
Tributes
*
Muscle and Hate - Nilaihah Records, (2005)
*
Mute's old Nitzer Ebb page*
Showtime - die offizielle deutsche Nitzer Ebb Webseite*
Nitzer Ebb at
Discogs*[
1] New Album and 2006 Concert Dates
