Xtort

Xtort (stylized as XTOЯT), released on June 25, 1996 on Wax Trax!/TVT, is the ninth studio album by industrial rock group KMFDM. It was recorded in Chicago, Illinois, from the end of 1995 through early 1996, shortly after the death of Wax Trax! co-founder and band friend Jim Nash. Xtort features a variety of guest artists from the industrial music scene and studio musicians from other genres, but includes limited participation from core member En Esch.

The album was massively promoted by TVT Records, which pressed tens of thousands of free copies of the first single, "Power". Band leader Sascha Konietzko created his own form of promotion, issuing a press release that both disparaged and lauded the coming set. Xtort was generally well received by critics, with many calling it superlative, and is the highest charting and best-selling KMFDM album to date. After the original release went out of print, a remastered version was released in 2007.

Background

In late 1995, KMFDM had completed the "Beat by Beat" and "In Your Face" tours in support of their last album, Nihil. KMFDM frontman and founder Sascha Konietzko described Nihil as "the crown", and said the band had come as close to mainstream popularity as he wanted. He felt the band needed to move away from its success. In 2007, Konietzko recalled that he had "hated all the attention, interviews, photo shoots, etc.". After the tours, Konietzko returned to Chicago in order to be with his friend, Jim Nash, co-founder of Wax Trax! Records, who was dying from AIDS. Konietzko referred to the death of Nash that October as "the end of an era".

KMFDM

KMFDM (from Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit [sic], translated by the band as "no pity for the majority" [sic]) is an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project. KMFDM has released nineteen studio albums and two dozen singles, with sales of more than two million records worldwide.

The band has undergone many line-up changes and featured dozens of guest musicians. Its earliest incarnation included German drummer En Esch and British vocalist Raymond Watts, the latter of whom left and rejoined the group several times over its history. German guitarist Günter Schulz joined in 1990; both he and Esch continued with the band until KMFDM broke up in 1999. Konietzko resurrected KMFDM in 2002 (Esch and Schulz declined to rejoin), and by 2005 he had assembled a consistent line-up that included American singer Lucia Cifarelli, British guitarists Jules Hodgson and Steve White, and British drummer Andy Selway.

Critics consider KMFDM to be one of the first bands to bring industrial music to mainstream audiences, though Konietzko refers to the band's music as "The Ultra-Heavy Beat". The band incorporates heavy metal guitar riffs, electronic music, samples, and both male and female vocals in its music, which encompasses a variety of styles. KMFDM normally tours at least once after every major release, and band members are known for their accessibility to and interaction with fans, both online and at concerts. Members, singly or working with each other and others, have recorded under many other names, primarily Watts' Pig in 1988, Konietzko's Excessive Force in 1991, and Esch and Schulz's Slick Idiot in 2001.