Techno Animal

Frequent collaborators Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick (who've worked together on such projects as God and Ice) make up Techno Animal, a beat-oriented ambient group who fuse elements of dub-style production with thick, slightly paranoid melodic themes and heavily treated electronic rhythms. Although both Martin and Broadrick have their fingers in a number of different ongoing projects (most notably God with the former and Godflesh and Final with the latter), Techno Animal represents their most clearly focused and successful outlet of electronics-based composition. The pair released a debut album, Ghosts, on Martin's Pathological label in 1994, followed by a double-CD on Virgin, Re-Entry, before signing with the Rising High subsidiary Blue Angel in 1996. Techno Animal Versus Reality followed in 1998. Closely associated with other post-industrial dub and dark ambient merchants such as Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Scorn) and Bill Laswell (Automaton, Silent Recoil), both Broadrick and Martin, like Harris and Laswell, have been involved in a wide array of different recording projects ranging from monochrome ambient to death metal, industrial, and experimental jazz. Broadrick also doubles as a club DJ, and Martin works as a music journalist and critic, penning the liner notes to the celebrated Macro Dub Infection compilation and contributing regularly to new music magazines such as The Wire and Alternative Press. In 1999, the duo recorded the split-LP Symbiotics with Porter Ricks. The following year, Techno Animal signed to Matador and released The Brotherhood of the Bomb in 2001. ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide