Xtort
| Xtort | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Original 1996 Cover
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| Studio album by KMFDM | ||||
| Released | June 25, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | Late 1995 – early 1996 (Chicago, Illinois) |
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| Genre | Industrial metal | |||
| Length | 48:46 | |||
| Language | English, German | |||
| Label | Wax Trax!/TVT | |||
| Producer | Sascha Konietzko, Günter Schulz, Chris Shepard | |||
| KMFDM chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Xtort | ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Chicago Sun-Times | |
| CMJ New Music Monthly | favorable |
| Daily Herald | |
| Entertainment Weekly | A- |
| Rolling Stone | favorable |
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 KMFDM album to date. After the original release went out of print, a remastered version was released in 2007.
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".
En Esch, one of the longtime core members of KMFDM, had almost nothing to do with Xtort, contributing to just two songs. With regard to Esch's lack of participation, Konietzko said, "En Esch is just En Esch. He never made himself available to do this album, and so it's always my belief that the thing must keep moving; I had to do it without him." He also said the two were not in communication around the time of the album's release.
Xtort was pre-produced and tracked in Seattle at Hole in the Wall Studio, and recorded and mixed in Chicago at Chicago Recording Company. Konietzko contacted F. M. Einheit and had him come to Chicago in January 1996 to work on some tracks together. Konietzko also brought in a number of Wax Trax! alumni, such as Chris Connelly of Revolting Cocks and Bill Rieflin of Ministry, to help with the album's creation, along with assistance from more than a dozen studio musicians. Konietzko required all the album's contributors to be on call thirteen hours a day during production, saying "I don't care what they do on their own time, but when they do KMFDM, if they don't comply with the schedule, they're out."
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