WATER

Nine Inch Nails

Down In It1989

Trent Reznor formed Nine Inch Nails in Cleveland in 1988, and "Down in It"—released as the band's first single in September 1989—showed industrial music could reach mainstream rock radio. The track draws directly from Skinny Puppy's "Dig It," with Reznor himself acknowledging the musical debt, proving that industrial's power came partly from remixing and recombining existing sounds. Working with mixer Adrian Sherwood, Reznor created a template White Zombie would expand on just three years later: aggressive electronic textures married to rock swagger. The accompanying music video—showing Reznor sprawled motionless as the camera pulls away—became as iconic as the song, establishing an image of industrial rock as dark, physical, and genuinely unsettling. "Down in It" opened the door for harder industrial acts to chart commercially.

Galaxie 500

Ceremony1989

Galaxie 500's "Ceremony" builds on the post-punk foundation that ✝✝✝ would later reference in their own minimal soundscapes, stretching Joy Division's original into something slower and more meditative. Recorded at Noise New York with engineer Kramer in 1989, the track showcases why Mark Richardson of Pitchfork called it a contender for the best Joy Division cover ever made. Dean Wareham's hushed vocals drift over lo-fi arrangements that recall Jonathan Richman backed by The Velvet Underground—the exact sonic DNA of the band's 1989 album *On Fire*. Though Galaxie 500 would dissolve by 1991, this cover, performed 32 times across their career, proved how slowcore could honor post-punk's emotional weight while stripping away its urgency.

White Zombie

Thunder Kiss '651992

White Zombie picked up where Nine Inch Nails' "Down In It" left off—taking the raw industrial sound and cranking it into heavy metal territory. Formed in New York City in 1985, the band built their industrial metal approach with Jay Yuenger's crushing guitar riffs layered over Rob Zombie's hypnotic vocals. "Thunder Kiss '65" became their biggest hit, engineered by Andy Wallace, who also worked with Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine. The track's fuzzy, distorted groove proved that industrial metal could dominate mainstream rock radio without sacrificing its edge. White Zombie's Grammy-nominated run—they disbanded in 1998—paved the way for later industrial acts like Deathstars to push the sound even further into darker, more aggressive territory.

Sweet Trip

Chocolate Matter2003

Sweet Trip built on the dream-pop foundation that Dum Dum Girls would later channel through "Coming Down," but pushed the formula toward pure electronic abstraction. Released June 10, 2003, on their landmark album *Velocity: Design: Comfort*, "Chocolate Matter" showcases the Bay Area duo's (formed 1993) signature blend of shoegazey beats and glitch textures. Valerie Reyes's vocals float dreamily over stuttering, fragmented production that treats the voice like another instrument to deconstruct. This approach—using pop melody as raw material for IDM-influenced experimentation—directly anticipates Aphex Twin's own drift into melodic abstraction with tracks like "180db_ [130]." Sweet Trip proved you could marry shoegaze's emotional warmth with Darla Records' art-pop aesthetics and still land in the territory of laptop music.

Deathstars

The Last Ammunition2006

After White Zombie's raw industrial-metal blueprint from 1992, Swedish band Deathstars took the template further into darker gothic territory. Formed in Stockholm in 2000, they released "The Last Ammunition" on January 27, 2006, as part of their album *Termination Bliss*—a track that crystallized industrial metal's shift toward horror-themed aesthetics and precise production. Where White Zombie blended punk energy with synth noise, Deathstars layered orchestrated keyboards and theatrical vocals into their distorted guitar work, crafting a more cinematic approach. This song bridges the muscular electronics of the '80s industrial movement with the gothic sensibilities that would influence alternative acts like my bloody valentine, who'd later explore similar atmospheric density but through different sonic textures in 2013.

Crystal Castles

Alice Practice2008

Crystal Castles formed in Toronto in 2005, and "Alice Practice" became their first true signature song when released as a limited 7" vinyl in 2006. The track's lo-fi, chaotic production—courtesy of producer Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass—defined the witch-house sound that would influence darker electronic music for years. Where Bladee's 2018 "Be Nice 2 Me" brought melancholic rap-singing to the same sonic territory, "Alice Practice" had already pioneered that blend of melody and distortion a decade earlier. The song appeared on their debut album, which NME ranked at #39 in its Top 100 Albums of the Decade. By the time 2hollis released "poster boy" in 2023, the witch-house blueprint Crystal Castles established here had become a recognized genre language for artists mixing electronic noise with vulnerable vocals.

Sleigh Bells

Riot Rhythm2010

"Riot Rhythm" bridges my bloody valentine's ethereal wall of sound and Dum Dum Girls' distortion-heavy pop sensibility by weaponizing noise itself. Released May 11, 2010, on Sleigh Bells' debut album *Treats*, the track pairs Alexis Krauss's clean vocal melody against Derek E. Miller's abrasive, heavily processed guitars—a collision of hip-hop beats, metal distortion, and pop hooks that defines the Brooklyn duo's approach. Rather than softening noise for accessibility like MBV, Sleigh Bells lets the ugliness stay ugly while the hooks stay irresistible. Miller's production strips away the dreaminess of '90s shoegaze and replaces it with something more aggressive and physical, setting the template that Dum Dum Girls would follow just months later.

Dum Dum Girls

Coming Down2011

"Coming Down" bridges Sleigh Bells' distortion-heavy approach with the dreamy noise-pop tradition, refining the formula for emotional depth. Released September 27, 2011, the track showcases Dum Dum Girls' Los Angeles–based sound, which drew its name from a double homage to the Vaselines' album *Dum Dum* and Iggy Pop's "Dum Dum Boys"—rooting the band firmly in punk and garage lineage. Producer Richard Gottehrer and Sune Rose Wagner shape Kristin Kontrol's vocals into a wall of shimmering guitars and driving drums, creating texture that feels both abrasive and vulnerable. The song moves beyond Sleigh Bells' raw aggression toward the melodic sensibility that Sweet Trip would explore further, proving noise-pop could carry genuine feeling without sacrificing its edge.

my bloody valentine

only tomorrow2013

"Only Tomorrow" arrives as My Bloody Valentine's return to form after a 22-year silence. The Dublin shoegaze pioneers released their landmark 1991 album *Loveless*, which defined the genre through distortion, pitch bending, and digital reverb. After two decades, the 2013 album *m b v* proved the band's sound remained essential—this track exemplifies their signature blend of noise and melody. Where Deathstars leaned into industrial heaviness, My Bloody Valentine threads ethereal vocals through dense guitar textures. The track directly influences what Sleigh Bells would do with noise-pop dynamics, proving that shoegaze's foundations could reshape contemporary electronic music. Kevin Shields' mixing and the band's layered approach here shows why their influence never truly faded.

plasterbrain

Nimbasa CORE2013

Where Galaxie 500's 1989 "Ceremony" built emotional weight through restraint and slowness, pLasterbrain's "Nimbasa CORE" (released March 23, 2013) takes the opposite path—compressing melancholy into frantic drum and bass and nightcore. The Chicago producer stretches feelings thin across just 2 minutes 44 seconds of glitchy electronic pulses, trading Galaxie 500's patient guitar drones for chopped-up samples and accelerated vocal fragments. Both tracks chase sadness, but pLasterbrain speeds it up until it becomes something almost danceable, almost unrecognizable. The shift marks how electronic music learned to hide emotion in velocity rather than silence—making you feel small and rushed instead of small and still.

Aphex Twin

180db_ [130]2014

Where Sweet Trip's 2003 "Chocolate Matter" layered dreamy electronics into accessible pop structures, Aphex Twin pushed further into abstraction. Released on his 2014 album *Syro*, "180db_ [130]" strips away melody entirely, leaving only fractured rhythms and brittle digital textures—pure glitch as composition. Aphex Twin, active since 1988 and described as drawing from techno, ambient, acid, and jungle, treats the laptop itself as an instrument here, the sound design so densely packed it borders on noise. The track mastered at Black Saloon Studios by Mandy Parnell maintains clarity despite its harshness. This sonic aggression directly paved the way for Girls Rituals' "I Know" in 2015, which would reclaim melody from similar digital wreckage—showing how glitch could still communicate emotion.

✝✝✝ (Crosses)

This Is a Trick2014

After Harshwave's 2025 noise exploration, ✝✝✝ (Crosses) pulls back into dream pop territory while keeping the electronic edge sharp. Formed in Los Angeles in 2010 by Deftones' Chino Moreno and producer Shaun Lopez, the group merged industrial textures with ethereal vocals on their self-titled debut. "This Is a Trick" sits right between Harshwave's raw aggression and Galaxie 500's slower drift—it's got the synth-heavy production and processed vocals that echo 1980s industrial music, but wrapped in the hazy, detached tone that indie sleepwalkers like Galaxie 500 would embrace. This track shows how dream pop borrowed the cold precision of electronic production without losing its emotional distance.

Girls Rituals

I Know2015

Following Aphex Twin's dense digital breakdowns, Canadian artist Devi McCallion (Girls Rituals) released "I Know" in August 2015 as a sharper, more human-scaled take on glitch electronics. Where "180db_ [130]" buried melody under layers of processing, "I Know" lets voice and rhythm breathe through the noise—a shift that bridges harsh IDM traditions with the darker, more vocal-forward approach that Bladee would embrace on "Be Nice 2 Me" three years later. McCallion's work in Black Dresses had already positioned her at the intersection of witch house and electronic experimentation, but here on *Reddishness*, she distills that sensibility into something more direct. The song's 2:17 runtime makes no apologies for brevity, letting glitchy textures and fragmented vocals land without overstaying their welcome—a model for how underground electronics could stay abrasive while remaining emotionally legible.

Bladee

Be Nice 2 Me2018

Building on Girls Rituals' fractured vocal approach, Bladee pushes glitch-electronics into sadder territory with "Be Nice 2 Me." The Stockholm rapper—who formed Drain Gang in 2013—pairs fragile, auto-tuned singing with producer Rip's stuttering beats and digital artifacts. Where Girls Rituals explored vocal breakdown as texture, Bladee uses the same aesthetic to express vulnerability and emotional distance. Released in 2018, this track sits between cloud rap and emo rap, channels the digital distortion that Crystal Castles pioneered a decade earlier on "Alice Practice," but filters it through intimate, almost whispered delivery. The glitchy production doesn't overwhelm the melody; instead, it becomes the sound of hurt itself—crackling, unstable, but unmistakably human.

★ Black Dresses

WATER2019

This is the starting point of the lineage, and it earns that spot by sounding like it already knows where everything is heading. Black Dresses — the Canadian duo of Ada Rook and Devi McCallion — built "WATER" from corroded synths and blown-out drum programming, the kind of sound that sits right on the border between a pop song and something falling apart. Released in 2019 and self-produced by the duo, it carries the same abrasive DNA that Nine Inch Nails planted thirty years earlier with their debut single. The distortion here isn't decoration — it's structural. That commitment to noise as melody is exactly what connects this track forward to Trent Reznor's early industrial experiments, making "WATER" a logical zero point for any lineage tracing how harsh electronics learned to carry a hook.

2hollis

poster boy2023

Where Crystal Castles built jagged electronic walls in 2008, 2hollis strips the formula down to its skeleton. "Poster Boy," released April 11, 2023, takes the aggressive digital textures from "Alice Practice" and dissolves them into something hazier—cloud rap meets digicore, all compressed into 121 seconds of tight control. The Chicago producer, born in 2004, handles production, mixing, and mastering duties himself (with engineer Trayer Tryon), creating a track that feels both claustrophobic and weightless. This bridges the gap between post-industrial noise and the melodic experimentalism that Harshwave will push forward, proving the lineage doesn't need to get louder or busier—just stranger and more personal.

Harshwave

Imogen2025

Building on 2hollis's 2023 experimental rap with "poster boy," Harshwave's "Imogen" pushes the harshwave-hyperpop fusion further into abstraction and digital noise. Where 2hollis worked with glitchy production and fractured vocals, Harshwave escalates the aesthetic chaos—layering distorted synths and fragmented lyrics that prioritize texture over traditional song structure. This 2025 track shares DNA with ✝✝✝'s industrial-pop approach from "This Is a Trick" (2014), which similarly rejected mainstream polish in favor of raw, uncomfortable sounds. "Imogen" shows how a decade of underground experimentation has made abrasive production and anti-melodic composition central to hyperpop's toolkit. The track stands as proof that harshwave isn't just noise—it's a deliberate evolution of how artists use distortion and digital decay as storytelling tools.