Empirion

Empirion
Empirion live in London; 7 April 2011
Background information
Origin	Essex, England
Genres	Techno, electronica, industrial
Years active	1993–present
Labels	XL, Beggars Banquet, Wanted Records
Website	www.empirion.org
Members	Austin Morsley Jamie Smart
Past members	Bob Glennie (deceased)

Empirion are a British industrial techno band, from Essex, England. They were formed in 1993, and the original line up consisted of Austin Morsely, Bob Glennie and Jamie Smart.

Smart was a resident DJ at the Essex nightclubs, Oscars in Clacton and TooToo's in Frating. He provided the vehicle for the band to release their music through their own record label, Wanted Records, and later went on to support The Prodigy. Morsely and Glennie met on the local rave scene. They had both been playing around with basic music equipment for a few years, and came together when Morsley purchased a Roland W-30 synthesiser which eventually spawned the track, "Narcotic Influence". The track was released and distributed by the band in November 1993, and initially pressing 500 copies on vinyl, it went on to sell nearly 5,000 copies.

They followed "Narcotic Influence" with two singles in 1994, "Quark" and the double A-side "Ciao" / "Advanced Technology". During the latter part of 1994 XL Recordings offered them a recording contract.

XL chose to re-release "Narcotic Influence" in 1995 accompanied by a music video, and it went on to sell 15,000 copies and peaked at #64 in the UK Singles Chart. This was followed up with the release of the single "Jesus Christ" (1995) and the album Advanced Technology in 1996.

During this time the band toured both the UK and Europe including the Phoenix Festival in 1994 and 1995, and Tribal Gathering in 1997 alongside Kraftwerk. They also toured with The Prodigy. They also remixed The Prodigy's "Firestarter".