Killing Floor were a 1990s American

electro-industrial Electro-industrial is a music genre that emerged from industrial music in the early 1980s. While EBM (electronic body music) has a minimal structure and clean production, electro-industrial tends to have a grittier, complex and layered sound ...

group based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The original incarnation consisted of keyboardists John Belew and Christian Void before guitarist Marc Phillips, percussionist James Basore and bassist Karl Tellefsen were added to the line-up. They released two albums on

Re-Constriction Records Re-Constriction Records was a division of Cargo Music based in California. The record label, label was founded in 1992 and headed by Chase, who was previously the Music Director at KCR (AM), KCR, a student radio station on the campus of San Dieg ...

: '' Killing Floor'' in 1995 and ''

Divide by Zero In mathematics, division by zero, division where the divisor (denominator) is zero, is a unique and problematic special case. Using fraction notation, the general example can be written as \tfrac a0, where a is the dividend (numerator). The u ...

'' in 1997. The band ceased activities shortly after the release of their 1998 EP ''

Come Together "Come Together" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on the band's 1969 studio album ''Abbey Road''. It was also a double A-side single in the U ...

''.

History

Killing Floor was formed in San Francisco by John Belew and Christian Void, with Void on both vocal and keyboard/sampler duties. The band is named after the sonic torture chamber in

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

short-story ''

Johnny Mnemonic "Johnny Mnemonic" is a Cyberpunk short story by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It first appeared in '' Omni'' magazine in May 1981, and was subsequently included in ''Burning Chrome'', a 1986 collection of Gibson's short fiction. It tak ...

''. Their music was characterized by heavy use of samples and electronics over dance beats. Guitarist Marc Phillips joined the band in 1991, followed by percussionist James Basore and bassist Karl Tellefsen in early 1994. They caught the interest of the

label Re-Constriction and were signed in mid-1994. The band issued their debut '' Killing Floor'' on March 14, 1995. The band was praised for its original balance of guitar and

club music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. It is generally produced for playback by DJs who create s ...

oriented material, which critics claimed made Killing Floor standout in comparison to other industrial acts at the time. Their second album ''

'' was released on September 23, 1997. The band recorded in a more collaborative way because they had more free time to express themselves in studio. ''Divide by Zero'' was a change in artistic direction for Killing Floor and saw the band integrating stronger elements of

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

into their music, which drew them comparison to

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock Music genre, genre and subculture that emerged during the in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, particularly in Seattle and Music of Olympia, Washington, O ...

. The band released their final release, the single ''

'', in 1998. The band ceased activities shortly thereafter.

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Killing Floor'' (1995, Re-Constriction) * ''

'' (1997, Re-Constriction)

EPs

* ''

'' (1998, Re-Constiction)

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1989 Musical groups disestablished in 1998 1989 establishments in California Musical groups from San Francisco American electro-industrial music groups Re-Constriction Records artists