Smersh

New Jersey residents Chris Shepard and Mike Mangino formed industrial duo Smersh in 1981, recording noisy proto-techno tracks on primitive analog synthesizers and drum machines in their basement studio in Piscataway. The duo convened every Monday, wrote a song from scratch, recorded it, and never performed it again, existing solely as a studio project and never giving live performances. The duo's sound combined harsh, screaming vocals and distorted guitars with experimental yet danceable machine rhythms, creating a lo-fi precursor to much of the more popular industrial and EBM...