Chris Connelly

Chris Connelly spent most of the 1980s laying the groundwork for Acid House and Industrial music. His work with proto-programmers Finitribe offset his not-entirely-serious, mechanized hoedown collaborations with Revolting Cocks as well as brief associations with Murder Inc., Pigface, and Ministry. His coarse, angered screams did not go unnoticed by Alain Jourgensen, with whom Connelly worked in Revolting Cocks. As the '90s began, Connelly shifted gears and began to release a series of calmer, pop-oriented records owing more to the dark croon of Scott Walker and David Bowie than to anything from his previous clang-and-grind forays. Adapting the name the Bells, he continues to release lush, swaggering ballads full of his recently bound and published poetics.