19th Elektrisch Festival: from industrial pioneers to the new underground in Zwickau
The 19th Elektrisch Festival runs October 24, 2026 at Club Seilerstraße, Zwickau, with Portion Control, Escalator, OSZYLAYTER, Cyborg Projekt X and KRIEG-B.
Zwickau’s Elektrisch Festival returns on 24 October 2026 with a line-up that makes a convincing argument for electronic music as a continuum rather than a museum of separate generations. At one end stands Portion Control, active since 1979 and fundamental to the development of British industrial electronics; around them are Hungarian EBM veterans Escalator, the much newer KRIEG-B, and the contemporary projects OSZYLAYTER and Cyborg Projekt X.
The 19th Elektrisch Festival takes place at Club Seilerstraße, Seilerstraße 1B, 08056 Zwickau. Doors open at 19:00, with the programme beginning at 20:00. The final line-up announced by organiser emmobiz Records is Portion Control, Escalator, OSZYLAYTER, Cyborg Projekt X and KRIEG-B.
A festival with a rather unusual history
Elektrisch is not a newly invented festival carrying an impressive number. Its history reaches back well before the current revival. Contemporary reports document the 11th edition in 2007, the 12th in 2008, the 13th in 2009, and two editions, numbers 14 and 15, in 2010, then held at Zwickau’s BPM Club. Artists appearing during that period included names such as Absolute Body Control, Birmingham 6, Tyske Ludder and The Klinik.
Then Elektrisch disappeared for fourteen years.
emmobiz Records revived it in 2024 with the 16th Elektrisch Festival, now at Club Seilerstraße. That return was already sold out months in advance and brought together Calva Y Nada, Cat Rapes Dog, Digital Factor and Accessory. The 17th edition followed in October 2025 with Test Dept, NZ, In Strict Confidence, Supreme Court and To Avoid. In February 2026, the 18th Elektrisch expanded across two evenings, separating a synthpop-oriented first night from a harder EBM/electro programme on the second.
That history makes the 2026 autumn line-up apt: Elektrisch has repeatedly connected artists from different phases of underground electronic music instead of reducing EBM to one historical period.
Portion Control
The obvious historical heavyweight is Portion Control. Formed in London in 1979, the group emerged from the early British industrial-electronic underground and became important for its use of synthesisers, drum machines and sampling long before those methods became standard practice. Their influence has subsequently been acknowledged in connection with artists including Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Nine Inch Nails, Orbital and Nitzer Ebb; they also toured with Depeche Mode in 1984.
But calling Portion Control a heritage act would miss what remains interesting about them. They returned in the 2000s and have continued producing new work rather than maintaining the early catalogue. This August they released “1983-86 – Hit The Pulse to Purge…”, their first major Artoffact archival box, while their official site simultaneously continues to define the project rather succinctly as “uncompromising dark electronic audio.” Zwickau is currently one of only two forthcoming live appearances listed on their Bandcamp.
Escalator
Escalator brings another kind of history to the evening. The Hungarian project was founded in Budapest in 1988 by 2RT+TB and belongs to the late-’80s/early-’90s generation of European Electronic Body Music. Its musical roots lie in the harder intersection of EBM and industrial electronics, with early influences including Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA and Front 242.
Escalator’s history has been anything but linear; long gaps between releases and activity have been part of the project, yet its work has remained closely associated with the physical, stripped-back mechanics of classic body music. Their presence next to Portion Control is more than an “old-school” pairing: the two acts come from different geographical and chronological points in the development of electronic body music.
OSZYLAYTER
The German OSZYLAYTER represents a much more recent strand of the line-up. Public biographical information on the project is relatively sparse, so it is better not to manufacture a grand history that isn’t there. What can be verified is a growing Bandcamp catalogue including “Hate This Day”, “Lover Boy”, “Free Girls” and “Dig It in the Dirt”, while current Elektrisch coverage places the project on the modern dark-electro/industrial side of the bill.
In the context of Elektrisch, that relative newness is actually useful. This isn’t five bands demonstrating variations of exactly the same established EBM formula; OSZYLAYTER helps shift the evening toward newer club electronics and shows where some of those older physical principles have travelled.
Cyborg Projekt X
Cyborg Projekt X is similarly one of the less extensively documented names on the programme. The confirmed festival announcement places the project alongside OSZYLAYTER as part of the contemporary dark-electro and industrial side of the line-up, with an emphasis on forceful, club-oriented electronics.
That makes Cyborg Projekt X something of the unknown variable of the evening, especially for listeners arriving primarily for the established EBM names. In a festival whose history has always mixed recognised acts with smaller projects, that is hardly out of character.
KRIEG-B
KRIEG-B is much newer as a project but comes with considerable history behind its members. The duo was formed in June 2023 by Dominique Lallement, known from Kriegbereit, Cobalt 60 and K-Bereit, and Benoît Buyse, associated with Dreadfool, Anamorphosis and Nihiliste. The project describes its music as a meeting point between industrial electronics, EBM and darkwave, drawing on several decades of electronic music rather than one specific period.
Their debut album “War Drums’ Resonance” arrived in November 2024, with tracks including “S.C.S.N”, “Parabellum”, “Artificial Minds”, “Truth Lies” and “King of Emptiness”. In a sense, KRIEG-B makes a neat closing piece to the Elektrisch concept: a young project constructed by musicians carrying several earlier generations of European industrial electronics with them.
More than the line-up
The revived Elektrisch has also developed a strong physical-release component. The 18th edition was accompanied by exclusive 10-inch festival vinyl releases, while emmobiz has already announced a V.A. “19. Elektrisch Festival” 10-inch connected to this year’s event.
The appeal of the 19th edition goes beyond Portion Control finally returning to Zwickau. The five acts represent very different positions within the same broad history: British industrial experimentation, Hungarian old-school EBM, contemporary German dark electronics, and a new Franco-Belgian project carrying the experience of earlier industrial formations into something current.
That is probably the strongest reason to pay attention to Elektrisch. After a fourteen-year absence, the festival did not return simply to recreate the period in which it originally existed. Its current identity depends on putting that history into the same room with what came after it.
19. Elektrisch Festival: date, venue and line-up
- Elektrisch Festival 24 October 2026 Club Seilerstraße Seilerstraße 1B, 08056 Zwickau, Germany
Line-up: Portion Control Escalator OSZYLAYTER Cyborg Projekt X KRIEG-B
Doors: 19:00 Start: 20:00
Tickets are available through emmobiz Records.
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Based in Wrocław, I work as a music journalist and photographer covering electro, industrial, EBM, gothic, and darkwave. My work includes features and live coverage, as well as concert, portrait, promo, and theater photography. What interests me most is the connection between artistic intention, what the work communicates, and what unfolds live on stage, all in pursuit of the bigger picture behind the music.
