Biography
Born in Düsseldorf, Jürgen Engler has earned acclaim as a musician and producer whose primary association remains his status as co-founder and frontman of the German industrial metal and EBM act Die Krupps. The artist launched the punk outfit Male during 1976, positioning the group among the foremost exponents of Neue Deutsche Welle, Germany’s domestic counterpart to the punk and new wave scenes. Together with Bernward Malaka he established Die Krupps in 1980, a name drawn from a German dynasty whose four-century history centers on armaments manufacturing. Critics have long credited the band, in tandem with Kraftwerk and Einstürzende Neubauten, as an originator of the industrial genre. Following the release of seven studio albums, Die Krupps dissolved in 1997, prompting Engler to form the kindred project DKay.com, which issued two full-length albums before entering indefinite hiatus in 2004. The next year the original band marked its twenty-fifth anniversary through festival performances and the issuance of two greatest-hits compilations. Having moved to Austin, Texas, Engler built a reputation as a producer for Cleopatra Records, collaborating with artists such as Iggy Pop, Sly Stone, Stabbing Westward, and Ministry. Die Krupps returned in 2013 with the eighth studio album The Machinists of Joy, followed two years later by V: Metal Machine Music. In 2017 Engler scored the Faustian supernatural horror film Devil's Domain.