Empirion are a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

industrial dance Electronic body music (acronymized to EBM) is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of industrial music and synth-punk with elements of disco and dance music. It developed in the early 1980s in Western Europe as an outgrowth of both ...

band from

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. They were formed in 1993, and the original line-up consisted of Austin Morsely, Bob Glennie and Jamie Smart.

Beginnings

Smart was a resident DJ at the Essex

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

s, Oscars in Clacton and TooToo's in

Frating Frating is a village and small civil parish of the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is about east of Colchester and northwest of Clacton-on-Sea. The parish includes the settlements of Frating Green and Hockley. The parish church (dedica ...

. He provided the vehicle for the band to release their music through their own

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, Wanted Records, and later went on to support

The Prodigy The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...

. Morsely and Glennie met on the local rave scene. They had both been playing around with basic music equipment for a few years, and came together when Morsley purchased a

Roland W-30 The Roland W-30 is a sampling workstation keyboard, released in 1989. It features an on-board 12-bit sampler, sample-based synthesizer, 16-track sequencer and 61-note keyboard. Overview The W-30's "Workstation" title stems from its incorporatio ...

synthesiser A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

which eventually spawned the track, "Narcotic Influence". The track was released and distributed by the band in November 1993 and, initially pressing 500 copies on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

, it went on to sell nearly 5,000 copies.

Signed to XL Recordings

They followed "Narcotic Influence" with two singles in 1994, "Quark" and the

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

"Ciao" / "Advanced Technology". During the latter part of 1994

XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six album ...

offered them a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

. XL chose to re-release "Narcotic Influence" in 1995 accompanied by a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, and it went on to sell 15,000 copies and peaked at #64 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. This was followed up with the release of the single "Jesus Christ" (1995) and the album ''Advanced Technology'' in 1996. During this time the band toured both the UK and Europe including the

Phoenix Festival The Phoenix Festival was set up by John Vincent Power of the Mean Fiddler Music Group in 1993 as an alternative to the established Glastonbury and Reading Festivals. It was held at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon and was one of the ...

in 1994 and 1995, and

Tribal Gathering Tribal Gathering is the original British electronic dance music festival that between 1993 and 2004 catered for different types of dance music cultures such as techno, house and drum & bass. After 18 years, Tribal Gathering returns in 2023 for a ...

in 1997 alongside

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

. They also toured with

. They also remixed The Prodigy's " Firestarter". The band toured the US in 1997 as a part of the big top tour, alongside

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. They released their debut album, '' New ...

System 7 System 7, codenamed "Big Bang", and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple Co ...

and BT. The same year they issued "BETA" ( UK #75) featuring remixes by

Front 242 Front 242 is a Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. Pioneering the style they called electronic body music, they are a profound influence on the electronic and industrial music genres. History Formation Fr ...

and Doc Scott, followed later in the year by "See Yourself" as a vinyl-only release. Tragedy then struck the group when Glennie was diagnosed with a

brain tumour A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondary ...

, and the band was eventually put on hiatus when it became impossible to complete the follow up to ''Advanced Technology''. Empirion parted ways with XL Recordings in 1998, and Glennie died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in 2005. Morsley went on to start his own project called

KLOQ (band) KLOQ (pronounced "clock") is an electronic rock band that was formed in Chelmsford, Essex in 2005 by Oz Morsley of Empirion. The current lineup is Dean Goodwin (Vocals), Oz Morsley (Keys, Electronics), Tim Jackson (Bass), and Chris Jacobs (Dru ...

, and released several singles through the 2000s culminating in his debut album, ''Move Forward'', in 2008. Kloq released their second studio album "Begin Again" on 8 October 2013 via

Metropolis Records Metropolis Records is a record label founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1993 by the late Dave Heckman. The label's all-electronic format closely tracked with European contemporaries, such as Off Beat, and, since 1995, has been instrumenta ...

. Smart continued to DJ, and remixed for

Leeroy Thornhill Leeroy Thornhill (born 8 October 1968) is a British electronic music artist and formerly a rave dancer and occasionally keyboardist for the British electronic group the Prodigy. Thornhill's live performances throughout the 1990s included his un ...

alongside Pete Crossman as Controlled Change, for the Flightcrank single "Amazing" in 2001, and the tracks "Machines" and "Depression" in 2010 on the Electric Tastebuds label.

Re-formed

In 2011, Smart and Morsley came back together under the Empirion name with a remix of the Victory Pill track, "Burnout". They have also embarked on several live dates throughout Europe, and are planning some new material. In April 2018, Empirion announced a new album, "Resume". In September 2018 they released an EP via new record label called Dependent Records.

Releases

Studio albums

* ''Advanced Technology'' (1996) * ''Resume'' (2019)

Extended plays

* ''Narcotic Influence'' (1997; remixes by Dave Clarke, Secret Knowledge & Meat Beat Manifesto) * ''b.e.t.a.'' (1997) * ''I Am Electronic / Red Noise'' (2018) * ''ADSR'' (2019)

Singles

* "Ayahuasca" * "PH1" * "Quark" * "Narcotic Influence 2" * "Ciao" (Remixes by Front 242 & The Advent) * "Jesus Christ" * "New Religion" * "BETA" (Remixes by Doc Scott) * "See Yourself" * "Ciao" (Ciao mix) * "Quark" (Remix) * "I Am Electronic" * "Red Noise"

Remixes

- " Firestarter" *

- "Headhunter" *

Terrorvision ''TerrorVision'' is a 1986 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Ted Nicolaou, produced and written by Albert and Charles Band and composed by Richard Band, all of whom would go on to found and work with Full Moon Features in 19 ...

- "Bad Actress" *

Cubanate Cubanate are an English industrial band from London, England, founded in 1992 by Marc Heal and Graham Rayner with Phil Barry and Steve Etheridge. The group became well known for their combination of electro-industrial with distorted heavy met ...

- "Voids" * Victory Pill - "Burnout" * Hate Dept. - "Release It" *

Fluke Fluke may refer to: Biology * Fluke (fish), a species of marine flatfish * Fluke (tail), the lobes of the tail of a cetacean, such as dolphins or whales, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Greek ...

- "

Bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and co ...

" * Vitro - "Mentally Dull" *

Hum Hum may refer to: Science * Hum (sound), a sound produced with closed lips, or by insects, or other periodic motion * Mains hum, an electric or electromagnetic phenomenon * The Hum, an acoustic phenomenon * Venous hum, a physiological sensation ...

- "

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

" *

Praga Khan Maurice Joseph François Engelen (born 7 January 1959), known by his stage name Praga Khan, is a Belgian electronic musician. Khan is considered one of the leading pioneers of the new beat/acid house/techno electronic dance music scene that origi ...

- "Luv U Still" * Twelve Trees - "Lost Tribe" *

China Drum China Drum are an English punk rock band from Ovingham in Northumberland, England, active initially from 1989 to 2000, playing under the name The Drum beginning in 1999. The group released three moderately successful full-length albums and to ...

- "Sleazeball" * Hyperdex-1-sect - "Mind"

References

External links

Official website

Discogs

Musicbrainz

Last FM

Soundunwound
{{DEFAULTSORT:Empirion English electronic music duos English techno music groups British industrial music groups British electronic body music groups English dance music groups Hardcore techno music groups Musical groups established in 1993 Musical groups from Essex