Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records (Julia Nash, 2018, USA/Belgium/Canada/Germany)

Industrial Accident tells the story of Wax Trax! Records, the legendary Chicago-based record label that came to popularize industrial music in the US during the late 80s. Starting as a brick and mortar shop in Denver during the 1970s ran by the couple Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, the pair specialized in records oriented around the nascent punk scene. Their travels to Chicago brought them into contact with a new scene, and they began to release records by artists such as drag queen Divine and a then unknown artist named Al Jourgensen. The film traces the rise and fall, and resurrection of the label.

Shaped largely by the personal tastes of Jim and Dannie, and operating largely without contracts (something that would later lead to the downfall of the business), the pair launched the American careers of artists such as Front 242, KMFDM, Laibach, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, and countless others. The sound that came to define the second era of industrial music was largely the Wax Trax! sound. The label became so well known in the late 80s that Wax Trax! dance parties were held at clubs around the country, with young people looking for the sounds of the label. The label also had a great sense of humor, with flagship artists like the Revolting Cocks.

Eventually, the company’s loose business practices caught up with it, and a takeover by TVT Records in the early 90s, along with the death of Jim Nash (father of the film’s director) due to AIDS, led to Wax Trax! becoming a hollow shell of its former self. The label has since been resurrected, and the film highlights a three day showcase at the Metro in Chicago which brought together fans of the label and its artists. The legacy of Wax Trax! lives on today with the revival of EBM.

8/10