Mat Smith pays tribute to the Nitzer Ebb frontman and industrial music pioneer
“We started as school friends who enjoyed skateboarding, music and drinking cider,” Douglas McCarthy told me in 2012. McCarthy, who died earlier this month at the age of 58, was talking about his friendship with Bon Harris and David Gooday, his long-time bandmates in Nitzer Ebb.
Formed in Chelmsford in 1982, Nitzer Ebb should be viewed as one of the two most important electronic acts to emerge from the county of Essex. The other was Basildon outfit Depeche Mode, a major influence on Nitzer Ebb and a band they would later tour with.
Nitzer Ebb’s early releases were intense and rhythmic, leaning into the electronic body music style. The band’s parallel focal point, however, was the energetic and enigmatic Douglas McCarthy, whose vocals were delivered with a punk intensity. Not for nothing did NME journalist Biba Kopf liken their sound to “a beerhall putsch”.
“We took our influences from a fairly eclectic array of artists and styles,” noted McCarthy in my 2012 interview with him. “1940s jazz, 1950s rock ‘n’ roll, glam, disco, punk and the post-punk scene that was emerging as we were starting to go out. Bands like The Banshees, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, Theatre of Hate, The Birthday Party, Neubauten and Malaria! were all playing live shows that we went to. We were also listening to Cabaret Voltaire, DAF, Fad Gadget, The Human League, Abwärts, Virgin Prunes, Soft Cell and The Normal, among many more.”
Nitzer Ebb launched their recording career in 1983 with a cassette album, ‘Basic Pain Procedure’, which they hand-dubbed to TDK tapes. It garnered a cult following and inspired them to start their own label, Power Of Voice Communications. They created one of their key tracks, ‘Let Your Body Learn’, with future PWL mixmaster Phil Harding before signing to Mute for their first full album, ‘That Total Age’, which came out in 1987.
“Once we had signed with Mute, Daniel Miller took me and Bon over to Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin to remix ‘Let Your Body Learn’ with Gareth Jones,” recalled McCarthy fondly. “It was our first trip to Berlin. We had a very amusing journey, getting told off by the flight attendants. It was like being Daniel’s naughty nephews on a weekend cultural break.”
‘That Total Age’ included the landmark ‘Join In The Chant’, a metallic industrial track that became an unlikely Balearic club hit, with McCarthy delivering the lyrics like they were the commands of a malevolent dictator. ‘That Total Age’ was followed by the Flood-produced ‘Belief’ (1989) and the jazz-inflected ‘Showtime’ (1990), McCarthy’s vocals became stronger and more nuanced with each successive album.
A coveted slot supporting Depeche Mode on their ‘World Violation’ tour in 1990 led Alan Wilder to co-produce 1991’s ‘Ebbhead’ with Flood. It was with this release that McCarthy began singing more confidently, yielding some of the band’s best songs, including ‘Ascend’, ‘Godhead’ and ‘I Give To You”. The follow-up, 1994’s ‘Big Hit’, was anything but that, despite McCarthy’s voice reaching new levels of decisive anguish, and the record’s poor sales prompted Nitzer Ebb to split.
McCarthy subsequently became a seasoned collaborator, lending his vocals to tracks by Alan Wilder’s Recoil project, as well as MOTOR and Client. Hooking up with Terence Fixmer as Fixmer-McCarthy, the pair released two superb albums – ‘Between The Devil’ (2004) and ‘Into The Night’ (2008) – and McCarthy’s voice proved a perfect accompaniment to the heavy sound. His debut solo album, ‘Kill Your Friends’, followed in 2012 and was part mature reflection and part industrial techno monster.
The perhaps inevitable return of Nitzer Ebb arrived in 2010 with ‘Industrial Complex’ and the band’s constant touring brought them a deserved attention that transcended their appearance on the nostalgia carousel. McCarthy also partnered with Cyrus Makarechian under the name DJMREX, recording the soundtrack to the 2017 Genesis P-Orridge film ‘Bight Of The Twin’, which saw P-Orridge and McCarthy’s wife Hazel exploring voodoo. DJMREX ultimately morphed into Black Line, where McCarthy and Makarechian were joined by Bon Harris for the ‘Treason, Sedition And Subversive Activities’ album.
Douglas McCarthy spent the final years of his life living in both the UK and the US. He was relentlessly creative until ill health brought his output to an untimely end. A look at the many tender social media postings from friends and associates shows him to be an effervescent, irrepressible, larger-than-life and sometimes hell-raising force of nature, but also a brilliant companion and a dependable confidante. It had always been my intention to interview him again, as it felt like there was much more to explore and many more layers to peel back, but it was not meant to be.
“Ascend,” as McCarthy sang back in 1991. “Ascend, my friend.”
