Controlled Bleeding

Since its formation toward the end of the 1970s, the New York-based act Controlled Bleeding has ranked among the most consistently active and stylistically restless industrial groups from the United States, pushing into territories of raw sonic aggression as well as open-ended ambient dub. Across its catalog the band has shifted abruptly between approaches, moving from the abrasive textures of Body Samples in 1985 through the medieval-tinged material on Music for Gilded Chambers in 1989 and onward to the dancefloor-oriented industrial sound of Penetration in 1992. Later projects such as Gilded Shadows in 1997 and Can You Smell the Rain Between in 2002 incorporated ambient, dub, and jazz elements, while a reconstituted lineup during the 2010s issued the characteristically eclectic Lava Lumps and Baby Bumps in 2016.

Fronted by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Paul Lemos, who also worked as a high-school English teacher, Controlled Bleeding originated in Boston near 1978 before moving to Massapequa, New York. Its early new-wave-leaning EP Wall of China Love Letter surfaced in the first half of the 1980s, followed by several raw cassettes and then the full-length Knees and Bones in 1985. After the characteristically confrontational Body Samples, also from 1985, the 1986 album Between Tides saw the trio—Lemos together with drummer Joe Papa and keyboardist Chris Moriarty—expand into calmer, atmospheric territory. That direction persisted through Head Crack and Curd, both released in 1986, and by the time Core appeared in 1987, the first Controlled Bleeding album issued domestically, the music had turned largely instrumental and incorporated jazz as well as classical touches.

As the group’s appetite for reinvention increased, melodic concerns also surfaced, notably on the song “Rings of Fire” from the Wax Trax!-released Songs from the Grinding Wall EP in 1989, even though the same record’s opening track, “Crack the Body,” confirmed that the band’s commitment to industrial noise remained undiminished. In similar fashion the 1990 album Trudge ranged across multiple styles, among them a foray into techno on “Crimes of the Body.” Hog Floor, which arrived in 1991, gathered remixes, rarities, and unreleased recordings stretching back to Knees and Bones.

Roughly two decades after the band’s start, the mid-1990s found Controlled Bleeding concentrating on dark ambient music, exemplified by the two-disc collection Inanition issued in 1996. The full-length Our Journey’s End followed in July 2000, and two years afterward the group released Can You Smell the Rain Between on Tone Casualties. Subsequent years brought several compilations, among them Shanked and Slithering on Hospital Recordings and Before the Quiet on MVD Audio.

Before the original trio could resume work on new recordings, Moriarty died in March 2008; Papa passed away the following November. Lemos continued by assembling a fresh configuration of Controlled Bleeding that included drummer Anthony Meola along with programmers Mike Bazini and Chvad SB. This updated lineup returned in late 2016 with Larva Lumps and Baby Bumps, a two-disc set issued by Artoffact Records, and followed it in 2017 with the remix-focused double album Carving Songs.