"Inside a cage of sound, writhes a human soul. Cold waves of electronics are juxtaposed against voices that seep through cracks in the walls of machinery and wires. Lyrics dart out in bullets from soundscapes peppered in sharp vocals and sound bites. A viola plays in the distance, giving life to this inorganic mass...
Such is the imagery that spawns Attrition, who, with its marriage of the classic and modern, has brought to music the equivalent of a surrealist painting. From its earlier sparse and stark soundscapes, to a more expansive palette of orchestral work, Attrition has successfully melded several genres into one. The music flows - from gothic to industrial to experimental to classical - so smoothly, they might as well be making their own category.
With more than twelve albums of constant variety, and an ever-expanding sound, they remain one of music's darker and fascinating lights."
Akane.The Hand that feeds sleeve notes. 2000

"Picking fruit, from forbidden trees..."
ATTRITION are pioneers in a darker electronica...Carving out a unique slice of the creative underground for over two decades, fueled by a succession of critically acclaimed albums...selling over 50,000 to date...the band has toured all Europe and North America, Mexico and Asia, appeared at major festivals and had their music included on a number of film soundtracks....
Formed in 1980 by Martin Bowes and Julia Waller in Coventry, England, influenced by a mix of punk ideology and experimental art aesthetics, they emerged as part of the early '80's UK Industrial scene alongside contemporaries Test Department, Coil, Legendary Pink dots, In The Nursery, Portion Control et al.
Their music is an undefinable marriage of dark and light...of futures and pasts...probing unexplored sonic landscapes with an eclectic marriage of experimental and traditional sound, of electronics and acoustics, of male and female....

1980 Alternative Sounds. The Coventry music fanzine Martin published between 1979 to 1981. It ran for 18 issues, compiled an album of local music - Sent from Coventry on Cherry Red records, and Martin made an appearance on the BBC TV's Something EIse youth programme. It was never enough. He met Julia at a local gig. The first attrition shows were in their hometown area of Coventry, England in December of 1980 as a post-punk line up of guitar/bass/drums and vocals.....

1981 Julia's brother Ashley joins on synthesiser - replacing the guitar of Martin's brother Chris...the first demos recorded in a 4 track studio in Warwick...( remaining unreleased..)...tour much of middle England...open a show for legendary Sheffield band Artery ...after he misses a show the drummer is permanently replaced by a machine...the band begin to explore the sonic possibilities offered by the emerging new technologies...

1982 Fear/Devoid - two early home recordings appear as a flexi disc with Adventures in Reality 'zine - run by the bands live visuals engineer Alan Rider...also of synth pop band Stress...Early experiments with electronics and hallucinogens released as This Death House ..an instrumental ambient work released on cassette along with other early tracks on cassette compilations including contributions to the legendary Rising from the Red Sands tapes (a who's who of the industrial scene released on Gary Levermore's fledgling Third Mind label)...

1983 The first national recognition through Dave Henderson's "Wild Planet" column in Sounds. The Action & reaction cassette collaboration with US art-rock group Audio Leter released on Adventures in Reality. First London show with Coil in October, after an abortive attempt to open for Chris & Cosey a month earlier ended in a motorway breakdown... First appearance on vinyl proper - Dreamsleep on The Elephant Table album.. a double album of "difficult" music...from Nurse with wound to Coil to Portion Control... and the natural successor to the Red sands series.

1984 The first single - a split 4 track 12" with Swiss band Schamanen Circel - The Deliverance EP with Monkey in a bin ...their anti-vivi-section anthem and single of the week in UK music paper Sounds.....The song In your hand is included on anarchist punk legends Crass's "Bullshit detector" series...suprisingly open for the UK Subs in Blackpool!
The first tour on mainland Europe in the spring - Holland and Switzerland with The Legendary Pink Dots...(live recordings later released as "The Terminal Kaleidoscope"...) The band moves to east London, sharing studio and living space with the Pink Dots...The second Dutch tour in the summer culminates in a live performace on national VPRO radio. Sign to Third Mind Records and release The Attrition of Reason in August - the debut album recorded at home and mixed at Coventry's Cabin studios...dubbed "a punk Floyd" by Sounds...The Voice of God EP, recorded at the legendary ips studios in London, follows in November...
"If only they were humans we could fall in love!...." Zigzag/UK

1985 The song Shrinkwrap makes the cover cassette of the UK magazine Electronics & music maker. It becomes their next single. Julia is guest vocalist and Martin is cover model on Gary Levermore's Bushido project....Start a series of live collaborations with films and projections from Czawsa cinema. Tour Holland in the spring. John Peel plays. Start up the original Terminal Kaleidoscope distribution company with the Legendary Pink Dots...Julia leaves attrition for the first time and later joins the Pink Dots for the "Asylum" album as Poison Barbarella...Dutch girl Marianne joins a new band line up including Alex Novak of Venus Fly Trap and Pete Morris (who later appeared on Psychic TV's "jack the tab" series). Released the seminal Smiling, at the Hypogonder club, recorded at a country retreat in Sussex with producer Curtis Schwartz.
"a sumptuous and inviting package of attactive ideas..." Music Week/UK


1986 The Hypogonder line up dissolves...Mind Drop is included on the first sampler from new US label Projekt..co-incidentally a drum loop sampled from that song appears on the first Black Tape for a Blue Girl album!....
In the realm of the hungry ghosts ('82-'84) "dazzling, ice cold, beautiful music.. swinging winter landscapes..." Spex/Germany.
An archive collection of B-sides, rare, and un-released tracks, remixed at the Surgeons Lab, Ealing with Terry Burrows. It ends the era with Third Mind...Ashley leaves the band to pursue a lucrative career in computer systems...Martin moves to Holland for a few months and puts together a short lived line up of bassist, percussionist...and Julia joins him there for the first tour of Germany which ends with an appearance at the Berlin Interference festival with Young Gods..

1987 A reworking of Monkey in a bin is included on the massive Animal Liberation benefit album alongside The Smiths, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Howard Jones, Chris & Cosey, Nina Hagen & Lene Lovich, Colourfield...the first attrition song on CD....play the London launch party at the Limelight... This Death House is re-issued on vinyl....The For your ears only compilation is issued on Third Mind including the last two songs Ashley was involved with under the name All singing, all dancing....Play the Third Mind festival in Paris and make their first trip to Norway. Release the Take Five EP on Italian label Supporti Fonografici..recorded at Cabin in Coventry, Pete Morris guests again on bass. This record would have been the first attrition release to feature violin had Pink Dots violinist Pat Paganini not broken down in a snowstorm on the way up from London...


1988 As Julia takes a break from Attrition Martin collaborates with guitarist Garry Cox, who had already been providing live keyboards during '87. They sign to Antler-Subway in Belgium - home of EBM and Newbeat.
At the Fiftieth Gate "Tense, aggresive, minor-key synths, raw guitars, and dark, mysterious vocals". Option/USA.
Recorded in march with Ludo Camberlin (of Neon Judgement fame) in march at Anything but... studios below the PIAS offices in Brussels...closely followed by the Haydn remix singles...the final cut a mix from New Beat creator Jo Casters (of Poesie Noire).....
"A hypnotic, high pressured journey into the inexorable world of machines..." Rockpool/USA
Joined by percussionist Bob Oliver the band tour Germany and Italy in the spring (playing the Anhelo festival near Pompei)...Paul Tyers replaces Garry for the autumn tour of Austria, Belgium and a major tour of pre-war torn Yugoslavia ending in Sarajevo (touring in a Ford Fiesta...)....Martin moves to Holland again and marries Marianne in December 1988...The Pink Dots Silverman is best man...8 months later they split...

1989 Release the Turn to Gold EP combining tracks recorded with Ludo at ABS in Brussels with two remixes from Take Five... Marianne puts in a guest appearance....a notable recording session for being held up at sub-machine-gun point by Belgian police outside the studio!...the final record for Antler-Subway who are fast becoming a dance label. Martin returns to Coventry. He takes a 6 month break from music and returns to his earlier love of painting and sculpture...the themes of which are to re-occur in many subsequent attrition works..

1990 Recollection. The first full length CD and a compilation of ATTRITION's early years is released on Projekt records in the USA. (The cover of the original edition features one of martin's collages..) The start of a long label relationship. Martin works on a rhythmic industrial side project with Garry Cox..XYZ. the album remains unreleased...Julia rejoins...

1991 A Tricky Business recorded at Cabin studios for Contempo records in Italy...includes the paen to love lost - A girl called harmony - "the most glorious gothic anthem since "bela"..." National Chart/Canada. Cover artwork from Mark P. Lomax includes the first appearance of the attrition "hand" logo. The Thin Red Line single precedes it with a remix from Pankow.

1992 Something in my eye...the follow up single with promo video shot on location in Rome. The Cage. Martin starts building the band's own professional studio...enabling a lot more diversity and experimentation and the first outside production work. Remix work begun for bands such as Die Form, Regenerator, Midnight Configuration, New Mind...Play Cold Spring's "Pushing against the wire" festival alongside Meat Beat Manifesto, In The Nursery, Legendary Pink Dots...

1993 Contempo collapses - label manager Sebastien Koch goes on to form Audioglobe -
The Hidden Agenda - "fusing classical textures to clean, precise minimal electronics..." Compulsion/UK - the first album recorded at The Cage...with engineer Mark Beswick (Martin later does live sound for his band Pillow...) The album and Lip Sync single released on Hyperium records, Germany...an early version of I am (eternity) appears on their Heavenly voices box set.
The Cage expands briefly into a promotion company for dark, ambient and industrial musics...

1994 Martin travels to Los Angeles to work on re-mastering the early Third Mind albums for CD re-issue on Projekt...they are re-issued over the next two years with the tracks from the singles and compilations included...perform at festivals in Europe including the UK electronica festival....an embryonic Apoptygma Bezerk open for them in Oslo...

1995 Ephemera - "a cutting-edge industrial masterpiece" - The Wire/UK...
A dark ambient instrumental follow up to the Death House album - initially planned for release as a solo album on the Artware audio label...released on Hyperium records when they hold martin to the contract!...Martin's first child Naomi is born....he co-founds the music technology dept. at City College in Coventry...later Garry Cox and Mark Beswick join him on the staff and several attrition extras are recruited from the students... Martin collaborates with Lydia Tomkiw (of Algebra Suicide) on her Incorporated album... attrition's classic haunting version of silent night appears on the first Excelsis: a dark Noel compilation on Projekt.

1996 3 arms & a dead cert. "an entrancing blend of insistent electronics and beautiful orchestration...Bowes is without doubt one of the greatest living composers..." Industrial Nation/USA.
The last for Hyperium and the first new album for Sam Rosenthal's Projekt Records. The first appearance of viola player Franck Dematteis. The band go to the States for the first time and play the Projekt festival at the Vic Theatre in Chicago ...Martin works the live sound for Black Tape for a blue girl...They follow this with their first North American tour. Joined by John Waller on keyboards (Julia's husband...). Sam Rosenthal handles much of the live sound with help from now tax-exile Ashley who helps out on much of the tour. The band perform 10 dates in the east and mid-west with Sean Bowley of Eden. After an exhausting tour Julia leaves the live line up for the last time...
Martin's side project Engram has it's only released track on the Alleviation compilation on Silber records... The band are featured in Mick Mercer's Hex files:the goth bible...

1997 Etude. - "...an elegant music of a baroque and even medieval cast." Alternative Press/USA
an album of classical reworkings of earlier material in collaboration with Franck Dematteis, a member of the orchestra of the Paris opera. On Projekt. The Eternity EP is a rhythmic electronic reworking.... Touring in Germany in the spring ends in a car crash hit and run in Braunschweig, thanks to a drunken member of their secret police...Polish dates are cancelled...the events are mentioned in the German parliament...Play the Carnival of Magick festival in the UK and with Die Form in Belgium....Martin introduces Franck to them and he contributes viola to their Duality album...Stromkern's debut album Flicker like a candle takes it's title from the lyrics of My Eyes from the Hypogonder club album...Martin remixes a song from that CD and also produces the Venus Fly Trap's Dark Amour album...a second successful tour of the US east and midwest in the autumn, including some shows with Lycia in Texas and a crumbling club 680 in Atlanta with Apocalypse Theatre...

1998 Tour Germany and Switzerland with In the Nursery. Festival tours in the U.K., Germany (The Leipzig Wave Gothic Treffen...the world's biggest gothic festival...with Christian Death, Clan of Xymox, Das Ich, L'ame Immortal etc....), The Teplice festival in the Czech Republic, Poland (headlining the first night of the Castle party festival with Inkkubus Sukkubus)...Martin starts an abortive collaboration with Caroline Seaman (This Mortal Coil/Heavenly bodies etc...)...

1999 The Jeopardy Maze ... "an almost perfect example of darkwave-ambient"...Rocksound/UK.
The first album to feature cover artwork from renowned dark fetish artist John Santerineross...and liner notes from Australian writer Maggi Deguchi - on Projekt for the USA and German label Trisol for Europe...It is Franck's last appearance...
After a succesion of new female singers Christine Reid joins...
The third and eventful US tour...Boston to LA in a white cadillac - via CBGB's in New York and a show on Route 66 in New Mexico...braving snow storms over the Rockies , a car breakdown in Lake Arrowhead while visiting Regenerator and a narrow escape from an armed attacker in Los Angeles... lose keyboard player James half way through the tour in Chicago after a fall from the stage results in a broken leg...Pat Ogl and the late William Tucker help us sort out the mess....sound engineer Craig Ward takes over on synths for the rest of the tour...
Embark on the biggest UK tour for years and the first shows in Scotland and Ireland - including the Cerebus festival in Edinburgh with Sneaky Bat machine, Narcissus Pool, ...European dates in Belgium, Holland...the Dark Nights festival in Amsterdam... they walk out on a tour of Germany with Italian band Kirlian Camera after experiencing that bands right wing following first hand... .Kissing a virtual angel a limited edition 3" CD of classical pieces out on Ars Benevola Mater in Italy..(a divison of Amplexus).

2000 Esoteria "mesmerising and haunting" Black Harvest/UK.
a limited edition collection of ambient works culled from previous releases & rarities on Russian label Brudenia ....and Red Letter...100 copies on 7" vinyl on the Austrian Klangaleria label...
First shows in Denmark in January...
Martin is special guest on the music industry panel at the Goth Con festival in March in Atlanta. Georgia.
Release the first live album Heretic Angels compiled from the 99 US tour.
Collaborations with Indefilms result in a multimedia CD video package for Acid Tongue - the song is also included on K-Tel records Industrial comp music of the shadows 3 alongside Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Ministry, Neubauten etc...
Martin remixes The Klinik for their End of the line box set...
Simon Stansfield takes over from Craig as regular live keyboard player...
Headline the Convergence 6 Goth festival in Seattle in May with Peter Murphy, Voltaire, Unto Ashes... Christine misses the flight home...!
Play the 12th Dour festival in Belgium in July...with Covenant, Neubauten, Motorhead, Buzzcocks...
Martin records a yet to be released new version of the punk classic "Gary Gilmore's eyes" with TV Smith....
As Projekt records is forced to downsize operations they sign to Martin Atkins' Invisible records in the US.
The Hand That Feeds " a blend of musical dissonace and psychotic paranoia...one of the first essential albums of the new millenium..." Rocksound/UK.
Their remix album is released that summer with mixes from Chris n Cosey, In The Nursery, Regenerator, Stromkern etc...on Trinity for Europe (where it also includes a limited best of CD..) The year culminateswith the biggest ever US tour in October..25 dates in 6 weeks with spinmistress Batty...play variously with The Damage Manual, The Last Dance, VNV, Thou Shalt Not....Ned Kirby of Stromkern handles the live sound.....back home in November they play the Dark Celebration festival at the Astoria, London with VNV Nation and Spahn Ranch....
.
2001 Festival tours in the UK ( the spring Whitby gothic festival), Poland (a return to the Castle party festival...headlining by default as lightening storms cancel sets from The Legendary Pink Dots and Das Ich..!), Sweden (Electric gathering with Apoptygma Bezerk, In Strict Confidence etc), Italy, France.....
Martin's son Jordan is born...
Christine appears as contestant on the UK edition of Blind Date!...
Fly to Los Angeles at halloween to headline the Bizarre Vampire Bazaar in Long Beach...
Martin and Simon run a series of club nights in Coventry as The Glitch room, playing old school industrial to warped electronica...re-mastered versions of The Hidden agenda and Ephemera issued in the US on Invisible and the entire ATTRITION back catalogue is re-issued over the next year in europe on Big Blue (formerly SPV Poland) ...Martin contributes liner notes to "Rash"...a book by Charles Romalotti...Keepsakes and reflections released...a collection of singles and rarities...A girl called harmony appears in Germany on the Orkus magazine "best of the 90's" CD...

2002 Martin donates "heart and soul"... an ambient remix for the Lord Mayor of Coventry's children's charity CD...Marianne visits Martin for the first time since they split and contributes some vocals parts towards the as yet untitled new album...she later asked her name to be removed...CD Reissue of 1983's Action and reaction and The Eternity LP - a collection of the original EP and the kissing a Virtual angel tracks for europe...Martin contributes spoken words on Black Tape for a Blue girl's Scavenger Bride album...

2003 Recording sessions for Dante's Kitchen with Julia, Christine, Liz Green from Swarf and new violin player Raf (Franck was last seen somewhere in Paris...)...A '97 re-recording of the song Mercy Machine appears on the soundtrack and promo video for the cult vampire movie "Shower of Blood"...Martin plays synth onstage as surprise guest of Synthetic in Colchester in March...his first ever onstage performance outside attrition!...Two Gods is lifted from the album for the New Face of Goth sampler on Projekt...

2004 Dante's Kitchen "dark, atmospheric electro ...a trip through a shadowy house of mirrors"... Starvox/USA.
released on Invisible (USA)....launch party shows in London...Martin remixes the Damage Manual...The Last Dance, Black Tape for a Blue girl...Christine sings on the new Sheep on drugs album...The first ever drum n bass single remixed by renowned drum n bass act Rascal & Klone (of Grand Theft auto soundtrack fame...)...Martin is featured in Godiva Rocks...a book on the history of the Coventry music scene...

2005 Dante's Kitchen released in Europe on Big Blue.
The US tour runs for 25 dates in January and february...the most successful so far...joined on stage and on the tour by Laurie and Brian of US band High Blue Star...play the Gotham festival in London (with Clan of Xymox, Cruxshadows...) and the Castle Party festival - Poland (with Wolfsheim, Cruxshadows...) ...The Terminal Kaleidoscope live recordings from 1984 re-issued in beautiful packaging on French label Mecapop...Martin remixes Emilie Autumn, Zeitmahl, High Blue Star...
December 8th... 25 years since the first ever Attrition show....

2006 Two Gods appears on the soundtrack to independent film The Sun and the moon...
Cosmetic Citizen and Dreamsleep appear on the soundtrack to Mint in Box ...
The Tricky business album is re-issued on projekt as a 25 year anniverary edition with extra material... Skander Keynes (Edmund in the film Narnia..) featured on a bizarre remix of the title track to Dante's Kitchen.
First release of a critically acclaimed new video for A girl called harmony by Russian film maker Edward 209.
Coventry, England is a city twinned with Dresden, Germany after both cities suffered devastation during the second world war...
Two Gods chosen for the album Songs for Dresden celebrating that cities 800 years...
Martin contributes vocals and synthesisers to the upcoming Pigface album..(alongside Martin Atkins, Chris Connelly, En Esch, Die Warzau...)... Remixes for Russian bands Necro Stellar and Requiem... Martin working on the narrators voice over dialogue for upcoming horror film C for Chaos ...
Launch Two Gods the band's own record label with the debut release on april 10th..
Tearing arms from Deities.... the 25 year anniversary collection...
" A unique collection....Attrition provides a satisfying ride into the heart and soul of imagination..." Musictap.net, USA

Play the Convergence festival, New Orleans in April (with Stromkern, Rasputina, Bella Morte,Voltaire, Combichrist)...
Undergroundinc release an anniversary edition boxed set of 4 albums ...The Hand That Feeds. The Hidden Agenda. Ephemera & Keepsakes & Reflections...with new artwork from John Santerineross and a free poster...
Release a limited edition interview CD...45 minutes including extracts from "Tearing arms..."
Perform for the first time in Mexico in September... Dada X in Mexico City....Play the Eccentrik festival in North Carolina/USA in October (with Ego Likeness, High Blue Star, Americlone, Andars Magna).. Martin makes his film debut in a cameo role for C for Chaos ...
The second release on Two Gods is Something Stirs :a collection of those early 4 track and live recordings...1981 - 83
End the year touring the mid west and west coast USA - 18 dates again with High Blue Star as the first leg of the US anniversary tour

2007 Dante's Kitchen released on the Shadowplay label for the Russian territories with 4 bonus remixes.... Take on a short European tour in April...7 dates in Belgium, Germany, England and Scotland.... ...."Moments of euphoria like this are as rare as they come..." DSO zine live review The Two Gods reissue series continues with a remastered version of The Attrition of Reason and new versions of Esoteria , Action and reaction and The Eternity LP ... Return to the USA for the second leg of the anniversary tour...another 18 dates this time in the mid west and on the east and south coasts... Martin has a chapter on the infamous '97 German tour in Martin Atkins new book on the business of Touring...His Pigface track - Missing Angels - is included on the Undergroundinc label sampler... Perform for the first time in Portugal and the Recession festival in Denmark.. Etude and This Death House remastered and reissued on Two Gods...

2008
Start the year with the first ever Attrition tour in Russia - touring with Russian band Purple Fog Side...6 shows (down from 8 after snow storms cut off 2 of the cities on the itinerary..!)..including the first show in Asia - in Siberia...More re-mastered Two Gods reissues in Hungry Ghosts and 3 arms...
Play the Black Sun festival in New Haven, CT in March (with Assemblage 23/Seabound/Iris etc..)..All mine enemys whispers - the Story of Mary Ann Cotton is released on Projekt records to much acclaim and not an insignificant amount of drama....
Sin D'rella joins as new attrition vocalist....start touring in the UK in the summer with Sin's solo project Imprint as support ...with Martin joining her on live synths...Tour the west coast USA in October as the "Trial and verdict tour" ...Including the Conflux festival in Portland, OR...Ashley rejoins Attrition on stage for the San Francisco show after a 23 year hiatus!...in Los Angeles Shok from Zeitmal joins the band on drums....! ...play the UK Whitby gothic festival at Halloween..Artist Mark Lomax exhibits his art in his native Scotland as the "Ephemera" exhibition...including many of his works for attrition album covers.... the Ephemera album provides the soundtrack... .All mine enemys whispers used as the soundtrack to a UK documentary on victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton...First recording wirth Sin..."Lullaby" released on the US Sin-tech compilation...The song "Two Gods"featured on US vampire movie "Revival of Darkness"... At the fiftieth gate, Smiling at the hypogonder club and the Jeopardy Maze all reissued on Two Gods..

2009... Kill the Buddha... live on the 25 year anniversary tour of Europe , the USA and Mexico in 2006/07... released on Two Gods in Europe and Projekt for the USA... "a layered, haunting, hypnotic collection of genre-defying soundscapes that alternately seduce and frighten" Play Stettin in Poland and the first ever show in Greece in Athens in March... Across the Divide - Live in Holland. 1984 and Heretic Angels - Live in the USA remastered and reissued on Two Gods... completing a trilogy of Live recordings to represent each of attrition's 3 decades..... Play Vienna and Paris...for the first time in over 20 years!...More Two Gods reissues....release Wrapped in the guise of my friend - and album, and digital EP, of bands covering ATTRITION songs from over the years.....play Edinburgh and a first show in Kiev in the Ukraine in September, the amalgamation festival in Leeds in November and end the year with a show in Vicenza, Italy.... 2010... We enter our thirtieth year... The two Gods reissue series is completed with remastered versions of Ephemera and Dante's Kitchen...24 albums to date...Sin leaves ATTRITION to concentrate on her solo work... Tylean joins as new vocalist... Return to Russia for shows in Moscow and Kursk in March and play Manchester, England for the first time at Sacred Trinity church in April... . "Attrition is opera, Attrition is experimentation of the highest order, Attrition is in a world all of their own, orbiting some strange star with an atmosphere of fear to breathe.  Attrition is extraordinary music for connoisseurs of challenge" Musictap.net

"Attrition have always been a nexus of industrial fury, gothic drama, ambient structural finesse and classical chamber orchestrations. Stunning in scope, character and intellect, Martin Bowes has been a paragon of true creative prowess, holding in two hands the past and future of music, and smashing them together with a calculated and charismatic menace. Bowes builds his dark industrial music with all the compassion and attention to detail of a classical musician..."

Electroage /USA

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