"United/Zyklon B Zombie" is the debut single by

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

band

Throbbing Gristle Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...

. It was released in 7" vinyl format in May 1978, through the band's own

Industrial Records Industrial Records is a record label established in 1976 by industrial music and visual arts group Throbbing Gristle. The group created the label primarily for self-releases but also signed several other groups and artists. The label gave a nam ...

Background

The single's

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 ...

, "United", was called "one of the first

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

singles" by

Jon Savage Jon Savage (born Jonathan Malcolm Sage; 2 September 1953 in Paddington, London) is an English writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, ''England's Dreaming'', published in 1991. ...

., while the B-side, "Zyklon B Zombie", has been seen as a parody of punk rock music. "United" featured a minimal

drum loop In music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. Longer sections can also be repeated: for example, a player might loop what they play on an entire verse of a song in order to ...

and

synthesizer 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 ...

pattern with uncharacteristically positive lyrics, while "Zyklon B Zombie" featured little more than growling, distorted vocals and bass guitar with a frenetic guitar solo. Both tracks were later released in the CD version of ''

The Second Annual Report ''The Second Annual Report'' is the debut album by English industrial music group Throbbing Gristle, released in November 1977 through Industrial Records. It is a combination of live and studio recordings made from October 1976 to September 19 ...

''.

Release

The original pressing by Industrial Records had its own unique Label and Logo. After approximately 20,000 sales, re-pressing was taken over by Rough Trade and the single was re-cut with different messages ('Salon Kitty' on side B and '437 666 OTO' 'RE-CUT 4 Nov 79' and '20,000 DOWN' on side A). This version's "Zyklon B Zombie" with

Cosey Fanni Tutti Cosey Fanni Tutti (born Christine Carol Newby; 4 November 1951) is an English performance artist, musician and writer, best known for her time in the avant-garde groups Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey. Tutti first performed under the name ...

's guitar was much louder compared to the original version, being an improvement over the original. This version still had the same Label as the original pressing, bearing no difference in that regard. A third pressing was in white vinyl (1,000 copies) and clear vinyl (1,000 copies) and features around two minutes of rain and train sounds at the end of side two. "United" made an appearance in Throbbing Gristle's second studio album '' D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle'' as a 16-second sped-up version.

Track listing

Personnel

Peter Christopherson Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy, 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, and former member of British design agency Hipgnosis. He also found ...

Francky Vincent Franck Joseph "Francky" Vincent (born April 18, 1956) is a French singer, songwriter, record producer, painter, talent manager and musician from Guadeloupe. Biography Childhood Francky Vincent was born in Pointe-à-Pitre April 18, 1956, in Gua ...

* Chris Carter *

Genesis P-Orridge Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was a singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions arti ...

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:United Zyklon B Zombie Throbbing Gristle songs 1978 debut singles Post-punk songs