由Jack Danger 领军的Meat Beat Manifesto 自'88年成军起,便持续地在Break Beat,Trip hop,Drum n' Bass等电子舞曲方面尝试各类实验,并一再突破工业舞曲 / 电音的范畴。MBM独特的Electro Funk包含大量生动灵活Bass节拍,其影响甚至可及现下极为出名的Chemical Brothers,Future Sound of London或是Prodigy等。虽并未受到如上述各团般的重视, 但MBM仍在各处热烈拥护者的支持下不停的在地下埋首於各类独特的音乐实验。
MBM的音乐是 HIP HOP与INDUSTRIAL DANCE的合成物,其标志是JACK DANGERS一手贝司演奏绝活 噪音之间空灵氛围的铺陈。总体来说,MBM的作品不太吵闹,但与大多数优秀的INDUSTRIAL 乐一样,在并不多的歌词中充斥着失意和自毁,并且时不时引发DANGERS轻微的愤怒。MBM的专辑《ARMED AUDIO WARFARE》和《STORM THE STUDIO》直接促 成产生了现今电子乐界的两大重要派别:BIG BEAT和DRUM &BASS,并且影响了许多 后来人,这其中便有PRODIGY和CHEMICAL BROTHERS,当然就与SONIC YOUTH没有NIRVANA 那么流行一样,MBM的知名度远不及PRODIGY等乐队,甚至MBM今年为PRODIGY在美国的巡演做了几场暖场演出,DANGERS对此一点不作计较。随着队龄的增大, MBM 的音乐开始多样化,艺术性也得到了升华。其新专辑《ACTUAL SOUNDS AND VOICES》虽保留了MBM许多标志性的东西,但又新加入了JAZZ、JUNGLE、迷幻等元素,使许多欧美乐评家对它一致叫好。
Beginning in 1987 as an experimental/industrial duo inspired by the cut-and-paste attitudes of hip-hop and dub, Meat Beat Manifesto increasingly became a vehicle for its frontman, Jack Dangers, to explore the emerging electronics of techno, trip-hop, and jungle. Though the group was initially pegged as an industrial act (simply appearing on Wax Trax! was enough to do the trick), its approach to studio recordings influenced many in the new electronica community during the 1990s, even while Dangers remained a superb producer working in much the same way. Born John Corrigan in 1967 in Swindon, England, Dangers played with Jonny Stephens in the pop band Perennial Divide in the mid-'80s. The two formed Meat Beat Manifesto in 1987 initially as a side project, and released the singles "I Got the Fear" and "Strap Down" that year. The dense, danceable material surprised many critics used to the duo's previous work, and the singles received good reviews. Dangers and Stephens left Perennial Divide by 1988 and recorded an album that same year -- using a touring group of up to 13 members for occasional live shows. The tapes were damaged in a fire, so the two recorded Storm the Studio a year later. Just as dense and sample-heavy as the first singles, Storm the Studio included four songs but added three remixes of each -- no need to explain the title -- encompassing high-energy dub, hip-hop, and noise rock. With an American deal through Wax Trax!, Meat Beat Manifesto became known in the U.S. as an industrial band, though Dangers and Stephens felt themselves pigeonholed. The duo moved to the San Francisco area soon after, and formed a rough political collective with the members of Consolidated and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. (Jack Dangers and Consolidated's Mark Pistel co-produced early Disposable Heroes material.) Meat Beat Manifesto, meanwhile, continued their audio terrorism with 99%, a 1990 album that added some jazzy rhythms to the collage of noise. That same year, Wax Trax! recycled the remaining tapes from the aborted first album and released them as Armed Audio Warfare. When Dangers and Stephens signed away from Wax Trax! to the major label Elektra in 1992, the duo finally shook the industrial tag that had stuck with them previously. Instead, the media christened the follow-up, Satyricon, a techno album, due to both the duo's tour of the U.S. with Orbital and Ultramarine and the album's groove-heavy update of old synth groups such as Depeche Mode. Dangers' early material began to be name-checked as at least a partial motivation for the trip-hop and drum'n'bass movement, due to the studio mechanics inherent in the music. The late-'90s full-lengths Subliminal Sandwich and Actual Sounds + Voices increased Dangers' devotion to the experimental side of electronica, though his first Meat Beat Manifesto LP of the new millennium (RUOK?) was a more Spartan affair. Dangers moved Meat Beat Manifesto to the Thirsty Ear label in 2005. His first release on the label, At the Center, became part of Thirsty Ear's Blue Series, a series of recordings that explored new avenues of jazz. Keyboardist Craig Taborn, Bad Plus drummer Dave King, and flutist Peter Gordon joined Dangers on the album, which was followed three years later by Autoimmune on Metropolis Records. Dangers has also contributed to the Tino's Breaks series of records released on the Tino Corp. label he co-owns with Ben Stokes (aka DHS), and he has released several solo albums, including 2001's Hello Friends!, 2002's Variaciones Espectrales, and 2004's Forbidden Planet Explored. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide