Listening to the pioneering 1980s industrial rock band KMFDM today, it sounds like the electronic equivalent of roots rock.
The band used then-new technology to create straightforward blasts of sounds and upfront beats. Nothing was busy or subtle, just lean and mean with an echoey industrial edge. The vocal effects resembled a bad subway PA. The drums merged the kinds of rolls and frills associated with metal bands with strict electronic dance beats. The riff-heavy recordings were enhanced with bloops and bleeps and sirens and revving engines which could make you think you were listening to the soundtrack to a much fuller multi-dimensional event, like an action movie or a futuristic political rally.
If you weren’t seeing KMFDM play live, you really were missing other elements which were a core part of the initial concept for the act. You can experience some of that aural and visual overload when KMDFM makes its first Connecticut appearance in over a decade at District Music Hall in Norwalk on Oct. 23. The tour marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s founding…