Nitzer Ebb’s ‘Ebbhead’ turns 35 on 30 September
Mute Records released Nitzer Ebb’s fourth album, “Ebbhead,” on 30 September 1991, produced by Alan Wilder and Flood. The EBM album turns 35 this year.
British EBM group Nitzer Ebb released their fourth studio album, “Ebbhead,” on 30 September 1991 through Mute Records in the UK, with Geffen handling the release in the US. The album turns 35 this year.
Nitzer Ebb recorded “Ebbhead” between May and July 1991 at Konk Studios in London, following writing and programming sessions at Sync City earlier that year. Depeche Mode’s Alan Wilder and Flood produced the album together, with Steve Lyon engineering and co-mixing. The ten-track record introduced sampled metal guitar to the band’s sound for the first time, most audibly on the single “Godhead,” and brought in a fourteen-piece string and bass section arranged by Andrew Poppy on “I Give to You.” Issued on CD, vinyl LP and cassette, the album runs 44 minutes across “Reasons,” “Lakeside Drive,” “I Give to You,” “Sugar Sweet,” “DJVD,” “Time,” “Ascend,” “Godhead,” “Trigger Happy” and a remix of “Family Man.”
Mute lifted three singles from the album: “I Give to You” (27 August 1991), “Godhead” (30 December 1991) and “Ascend” (30 March 1992), while the “As Is” EP, issued in June 1991 ahead of the album, previewed the “Family Man” remix later included on the tracklist. “Ebbhead” streams in full on Spotify.
About Nitzer Ebb
Nitzer Ebb formed in 1982 in Chelmsford, Essex, England, when school friends Vaughan “Bon” Harris, Douglas McCarthy and David Gooday started the group, first as La Comedie De La Mort before adopting the Nitzer Ebb name. The trio self-released the demo “Basic Pain Procedure” in 1983 and met producer Phil Harding two years later, who produced their 1985 debut single “Isn’t It Funny How Your Body Works?” and helped them launch their own label, Power Of Voice Communications. Three further singles, “Warsaw Ghetto” (1985), “Warsaw Ghetto Remixes” (1986) and “Let Your Body Learn” (1986), followed before the band signed to Mute Records in 1986. “Murderous” (1986) and a re-released “Let Your Body Learn” (1987) built the band’s reputation in the EBM and industrial rock scenes, and “Join in the Chant” (1987) crossed into the emerging Balearic and UK acid house scenes.
Nitzer Ebb released their debut album, “That Total Age,” in 1987, and Depeche Mode invited them to open the European leg of the Music for the Masses tour that year. Gooday left after the tour, and McCarthy and Harris completed the duo’s second album, “Belief,” in 1989 as a two-piece with Mark “Flood” Ellis producing. Julian Beeston joined as a touring drummer and became a regular contributor. In 1989 the band also teamed with German EBM act Die Krupps to re-record “Wahre Arbeit – Wahrer Lohn” as “The Machineries of Joy.” The third album, “Showtime” (1990), moved toward a less confrontational sound, and its single “Fun to Be Had” reached the US dance chart in a George Clinton remix.
For their fourth album, “Ebbhead,” released on 30 September 1991, Nitzer Ebb brought in Depeche Mode’s Alan Wilder alongside Flood to co-produce, introducing sampled guitars and orchestral arrangement to their sound for the first time. The band promoted the album with a global tour that ran from the southern United States to Barnaul in Siberia. Their fifth album, “Big Hit” (1995), leaned further into live instrumentation, with Jason Payne joining on percussion and John Napier added on guitar for touring, and it remained the band’s final release for close to fifteen years. McCarthy went on to record and tour with Alan Wilder’s Recoil project and later formed Fixmer/McCarthy with French producer Terence Fixmer, while Harris relocated to Los Angeles and produced under the names 13mg and Maven.
Nitzer Ebb reconvened in Los Angeles in 2007 and, with Flood back on production, completed “Industrial Complex,” released in 2010 and reissued on double vinyl in 2015 with an Alan Wilder remix. The band toured through the 2010s, including dates opening for Depeche Mode’s Tour of the Universe, and continued to tour with Front 242 on the Join The Forces tour into 2023, with founding members David Gooday and Simon Granger back in the lineup from 2019. McCarthy died in June 2025 at age 58, and Harris has continued Nitzer Ebb with Gooday and Granger, discussing the band’s 2026 European tour and a new album in a recent interview. “Ebbhead,” the album that introduced guitars and orchestration to the band’s EBM sound, turns 35 this year.
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