Test Dept collect early studio & live work on 4xCD ‘Industrial Overture’
Test Dept collect early studio & live work on 4xCD 'Industrial Overture'
UK industrial group Test Dept will release “Industrial Overture. Studio & Live Recordings 1982–1985” via Artoffact on December 5, 2025. The band recently announced their signing to the Canadian label. The set documents the band’s formative years and coincides with European live dates in late 2025.
In this 4CD box set we first of all get the first reissue of the 1983 cassette-only debut “Strength Of Metal In Motion” (a.k.a. “History – The Strength of Metal in Motion”). Next is “Ecstasy Under Duress” (1984) which was long unavailable in physical formats. The 3rd disc holds “Atonal & Hamburg (Live)” which constitute of 1985 recordings from Berlin Atonal and Kampnagel Hamburg. And finally the fourth disc holds previously unreleased studio material, including two John Peel sessions from the era.
The 5-panel ecopak was designed by Paul Jamrozy and Stefan Alt, with a 24-page booklet including an essay by Alexei Monroe and period photos.
A live version of “Gdansk” which appears on “Atonal & Hamburg (Live)” can be streamed below.
Below is the video for “Shockwork”.
Test Dept live dates (late 2025)
- Oct 18 – Wrocław (PL), Gothic Hall | Industrial Festival XXIV
- Oct 25 – Zwickau (DE), Club Seilerstraße | Elektrisch Festival
- Dec 7 – Barcelona (ES), Ombra Festival
- Dec 20 – Stockholm (SE), Hus 7
About Test Dept
Formed in New Cross, London in 1981, the original core of Test Dept included Graham (Gray) Cunnington, Paul Jamrozy, Jonathan Toby Burdon, Paul Hines, and Angus Farquhar. Early work was self-released on cassette and issued through small imprints, leading to 1984’s “Beating the Retreat” and 1985’s “Shoulder to Shoulder” (with the South Wales Striking Miners’ Choir) on Some Bizzare/Ministry of Power.
Live recordings from Berlin Atonal and Hamburg followed with later Test Dept albums such as “The Unacceptable Face of Freedom” (1986), “Pax Britannica” (1991) and “Totality/Legacy” (mid-1990s).
After a hiatus, the group resurfaced in the mid-2010s; the 2019 studio album “Disturbance” was released on One Little Independent (One Little Indian). In 2025 the band signed with Artoffact to oversee a reissue series and to prepare a new studio album targeted for 2026. Current activity centers on founders Gray Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy.
The group is known for using found objects and scrap metal as instruments and for collaborations that link music, movement, film and political activism – including performances supporting miners during the 1984–85 strike and the formation of the Ministry of Power collective. Their 2015 book “Total State Machine” (PC-Press) documents this history; in 2023 they premiered the large-scale commissioned work “Furnace” with a/political. Read the review of ‘Industrial Overture’.
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