Youth Code

In 2012, Los Angeles residents Sara Taylor and Ryan George formed the duo Youth Code half a year after they began dating. They assembled the project at first to perform at Vacation Vinyl, the neighborhood record store that employed Taylor. Already steeped in the music community—George having led the straight-edge punk band Carry On while Taylor served as a tour manager—the pair drew swift notice for their ferocious fusion of EBM and industrial styles.

Several months after their first live appearance, four tracks they had just finished recording surfaced on a demo cassette. Their initial proper release arrived through Angry Love Productions, the label founded by Edward O'Dowd of Psychic TV, when the single Keep Falling Apart came out in mid-2013. Shortly afterward, Dais Records issued their self-titled debut album.

Because their sound overlapped the hardcore punk scene they knew and the worlds of EBM and industrial music, they were invited to support punk outfit AFI, shoegaze-inspired Nothing, and industrial pioneers Front 242 at the start of 2014. That September, Dais Records released the EP A Place to Stand, which received remixes from former Sandwell District member Silent Servant, noise-hop merchants clipping, and Florida-based dark electronica outfit God Module. One month later, the compilation An Overture collected every release the band had made up to that time.

They then spent a year of extensive, well-received touring with industrial legends Skinny Puppy before issuing their second full-length album, Commitment to Complications, in 2016.