Having dedicated my life to this artform at the age of 21, I had run with my understanding of the artform from that moment, running further into the sonic / cultural void as hardcore punk rock no longer articulated the sonic / cultural visions of rebellion I originally sought. As the 50th anniversary of industrial was coming up, I had wanted to have the blessings of the other oracle of industrial as a genre, Cosey Fanni Tutti. Although many will say that industrial has evolved, that is mostly because they have no idea what the original vision was, and certainly didn't engage it on the same level of intensity as an artform. In my search to get in touch with her, I began to realize that I had been wrong in spending years giving Genesis P-Orridge the credit for the genre, which is what almost everyone did… including Gen, designating everyone else with a support role.

I can hear it now, "WTF?!?! You spent all this time pushing a version of industrial that you didn't even understand yourself?!" To be clear, I am fully aware of what the industrial ethos is, and have lived it deeply [while others grasped on to new trends that got connected to the artform] for over 40 of the 50 years industrial has existed. However, my confusion / mistake was over whom I was bestowing credit. As I mentioned, when I decided to seek the blessing of Sister Tutti, I also started doing a deep dive into who she was and had done. I must explain that I am not a fan of industrial… I am a creator within the artform. Over the last 40+ years, I have been 100% focused on executing my creative visions of industrial mixed-media composition and production, putting no time into "fan boying" anyone, which I have never done anyway… even to this very day. It was [and still is] against my / the punk rock ethos of no one being considered to be above anyone else, and loathing / destroying the concept of celebrity elitism, especially within eclectic culture. Since I had my own "jekyll and hyde" experience with Genesis, everything I discovered dovetailed with my own experience. The sadness of what I was finding really shook me for two reasons. The first being that I had elevated someone whose personal behavior flew in the face of the artform and culture they were credited for creating, making the second even worse. The second was that Cosey, who was really the person who honestly lived the industrial ethos for her entire life, and is still raging at 74 years old, was relegated to a fucking support role. And to be clear, my ignorance wasn't due to sexism. I have been drawn to and respected strong female figures my entire life. The reason was that I took the general idea that was put forth and didn't question it… because that seemed to be common knowledge. Since Gen took responsibility in every form of media, and had to me personally in conversation and on camera, one could understand my ignorance. I would fully assert that sexism, along with the non-manistream artwork and views of Cosey, are the reasons why the record has been only minimally corrected. To paraphrase a joke Chris Rock made about the Black community, "If you want to hide something from Americans, put it in a book." At least I am lucky to have been part of this artform long and deep enough to assist in correcting the record.

At this point, I would also like to point out that I love a wide range of music. Since I started DJing in the early 1970s, and was born in 1964 to a family that loved music and produced / attended dance parties, my sonic pallet spans from non-mainstream forms of soul, funk, activist folk, blues, 1970s slow jams, metal, new wave, no wave, prog rock, psychedelic rock, psychedelic funk, death rock, jungle, techno, drum and bass, roots jazz, afrobeat, hip hop, classical, noise, experimental, ect. Also, having worked in theater for so many decades, I have a very broad interest in performance and sonics of many styles and types. I say that because I am often accused of not liking anything other than industrial due to my fervent stance on the artform. Like someone who loves playing and hearing a piece played on a well-tuned Steinway piano and has no interest in hearing it played on a synth, but also loves a bunch of other instrumentation of all types, I too love industrial in its purest forms, while I enjoy and love many other forms of music in their purest forms. To get to the core of the matter, let's go beyond genre to what I believe is the primary issue. I have no mainstream interests, and many of the people who disagree with my fervent industrial focus are drawn to and interested in mainstream entertainment, which is why I understand that taking a stance like this will often not find agreement. My whole life has been about providing options beyond mainstream thought and behavior, in addition to taking firm stances on the fuckery I will allow around me, which has always [gleefully] damaged my chances for "likeable popularity." I say "gleefully" because without having values with clear red lines, I would be nothing more than a rudderless boat in the high tide of mainstream interests, being thrown around and struggling to keep my balance in the white water of fuckery that is the mainstream entertainment industry, no matter the genre.

I need to say that Cosey, unlike Gen, hasn't created a cult of personality around herself, so I am sure that she may recoil when she reads that I referred to her as an "oracle," which is really not her vibe. But, I will do so to help in correcting the record, from my own perspective. So, for those who would proclaim that the direction of the artform has evolved over the years, here is how the oracle of industrial has continued to live and describe it. "That's what 'industrial' meant; it was about adopting a work and life ethic – to be independent, active, productive, thorough and committed." Cosey Fanni Tutti. As I reached deeper into this saddening abyss, I then learned of the abuse [physical, mental, and legal] she dealt with at the hands and mind of Genesis. So… I sent her an email back in December 2025 seeking her blessing for my upcoming endeavor. To my surprise, she responded to me. "Thanks for writing and your long standing commitment to the Industrial ethos." She followed by asking if I had read her book, especially based on the links I had sent her. I had not. Although I have put her book on my radar for February to fully understand her perspective, I did a dive into reading her interviews, which we are lucky to have a number of. That would inspire my rerouting, correcting how I would move forward.

To put the philosophy of industrial into context, when Cosey was [I felt] challenged in an interview to accept the fact that her work has now been acknowledged, thus meaning she has been accepted, she responded with the class worthy of being the oracle of the industrial ethos / artform. "I look at it like it's retrospective acceptance, so what I feel about the work when it was done is still there, it still has meaning for me. Of its time, it was unacceptable. I don't like acceptance, I distrust it completely, I think I've done something wrong, like I've gone off on a bad tangent and need to get back on track." She pauses. "I mean, I understand why certain things have found their place in history, so I can accept that. But I don't see it as acceptance of what I did then, because it wasn't. It's still loaded with that unacceptance." [The Guardian 2017] This was one more sign that I needed to remove myself from the industry elements of the scene that seek so much acceptance, which was scheduled to occur in a few days from her responding to me. This really needed to happen for me to focus on the culture. All of this led to the beginning of the de-Genesising. To get out ahead of the obvious yammer… calm the fuck down. I am not trying to "cancel" Gen, nor negating Their real contributions to the artform, nor somehow disconnecting myself from the work I did with Gen 25 years ago. What I am doing is focusing on the most pure expression of the artform that I have dedicated my life's creative expression to.

Having launched a 2.0 industrial movement where we return to its roots of having creative and cultural expression supersede the need for acceptance and / or popularity, and being entrenched in witnessing first-hand the petty bullshit that is behind far too many smiling faces in the scene, elevating the only true oracle of the artform that doesn't require me to accept their abusing of others as part of the movement was paramount. It was at this point that I removed Gen's quotes from any of the Industrial Culture For Industrialists promo media, replacing them with quotes from Cosey. In addition, I posted a few really dope interviews with Cosey, which I really have enjoyed because hearing her explain how she s[h]ees the world should be an inspiration to those who have been formatted by the prevailing industry understandings and pressures of the scene. Reformmatting industrial culture by rebooting it is the only way that I saw to rid it of the many elements nearly everyone has told me will always be part of whatever the hell that scene has become.

Having "industrial" as a genre within the club industry model is dead. With DJs being forced to "read the crowd," even nights billed as, and allegedly dedicated to, industrial find themselves being bound to playing more acceptable music depending on who walks through the door. That means, there are times when the attendees of "industrial" genre branded events aren't into industrial as an artform. It should not be forgotten that in addition to all of that, the conservative movement within that scene now has gained enough power to decide who plays a number of the popular clubs, and who doesn't, which is insane to me. Remember, the eclectic / underground culture of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s was in opposition to the conservative cultures of the UK and United States. Industrial and punk were specifically created in opposition to conservative ideology and culture. All of this renders the club model nearly obsolete for industrial as an artform, as I have fully articulated in prior volumes of TMRC. This isn't just about seeing this from the production perspective I have written about either. When I look at the venom and just unfriendly vibes behind the "dark dance" / "dark music" club scene, I also feel that the "comradery" within it is transactional… far too often. In any case, the takeaway from an industrialist perspective is… once someone does the easy math, none of that seems like anything an industrial performer and / or DJ could or would give a shit about being threatened to be exiled from. Cancel away fuckers.

"They put it on their own flyers, so we should read them properly." dh When one reads the promotions for nights that facilitate this scene, they put "industrial" in a list with other genres of music. Meaning that even on their own flyers, these things are shown as different components. To me, there are many forms of music that are derivative of industrial, but I have shied away from microgenres since my / the early punk days of the mid 1970s because over the years I have seen them destroy the diversity within a genre. For instance, our punk band was an aggressive blend of punk rock and hardcore punk rock. That was our special vibe. Punk shows in the early 1980s had new wave, punk, hardcore punk, ska, and noise bands. Like we played with Drunk Driving [Missing Foundation] at the original Anthrax Club in Connecticut, which was my first time being on the bill with an industrial band. [a funny aside… In the early 1990s, Abstinence played The Bank with Numb. At that show, Peter Missing of Missing Foundation was there and had put some type of firework under one of the TV monitors we had on stage, blowing it up during our performance.] By the end of 1983, those genres were mostly split up into different scenes and were on different bills, which sometimes made us too punk for hardcore punk events and too hardcore for punk events. With all of that said, it underlines and emphasizes the need for unadulterated industrial culture microscenes that are driven by the principles of industrial music composition and culture being fervently and unapologetically in the forefront.

Now, it is officially the 50th anniversary year of Industrial Records and industrial as an artform! Here's some bullet points for the future of the artform.

• Celebrate its 50th by taking industrial back from the clubs and compromised promoters and DJs. Make your own industrial microscene.
• We need to develop a new cadre of industrial DJs. It's not that we need DJs that only play industrial… ever. But, we 100% need DJs who are capable of, and determined to, exclusively play deep-cut industrial music at industrial nights, no matter who walks in the door. I specify deep-cut because that will address DJs that play the same tracks over and over because they know those tracks will pack the dancefloor.
• We need industrial nights that are exclusively "industrial nights." In the early 1990s, I created TRONIK NYC with producer Wolfgang Busch [who is still my production / business partner to this day] at Danceteria NYC, which was the only all-industrial series in NYC at the time. Dark music branded nights only push us back to the mid-1980s when we had to go to "alternative dance" events to dance to industrial in a club. Fuck the musical smorgasbord! Dare to play 100% industrial without apology.
• We need the death of industrial celebrities. There is too much false glamour that has been injected into an artform because of its connection to fetish and fashion. This artform prides itself on being real and raw. Remember the old punk rock ethos… "Those who don't have style, purchase fashion."
• Seek out new industrial art EVERYWHERE.
• Industrial DJs need to play deeper cuts. Stop playing the same songs by the same bands. For instance, at the Industrial Culture For Industrialists 50th Anniversary of Industrial Records DWI House Happening #1 in mid January, I opened my set with Skinny Puppy 200 Years, and closed with Skinny Puppy Burnt With Water. Both tracks NEVER get played in clubs… hence deep cuts.
• Book new people all the time. I have lived life seeking new artists to book since the 1980s. I booked Preston Sperlock for the DWI HH #1. He would NEVER have been booked as a feature performer in the "dark dance" or "dark music" scene of celebrity-minded performers. Even if he had, he would have gotten the early slot and been listed smaller than the other performers.
• Seek out new people and microscenes… ALWAYS! Don't get caught in a clique where subtle, and no so, mandates and fuckery float behind the scenes unchecked and unspoken. Also, avoiding being absorbed into a clique helps you maintain the autonomy to never have anyone keep you quiet about anything.

"We call for an Industrialist movement that breaks free from the genre constraints of having a prefix [i.e. goth-industrial, metal-industrial, ect.], and returns to the core principles of Industrial Records' 1976 founding: pro-experimental, multi-gendered, anti-mainstream, anti-conservative, anti-abusive, multi-ethnic, and 100% anti-xenophobic."

I have created calls to action, of all types, since I was a teenager. Nothing can inspire more than a rausing attainable plan for betterment, of whatever kind. By having a clear articulated road forward, the pop / asshole elements are minimized, if not eliminated altogether. Removing the celebrity rock star vibe will provide fertile ground for building non-toxic friendships and alliances in the scene. The hundredth anniversary is something we can and should build toward with pride and power, without accepted abuse or fuckery being a founding component of it in any way.

Let's do this.

Peaceness and Sledgehammers,

dh