Nocturnal Emissions started out, in the late 1970s, as a duo. A partnership between Nigel Ayers and Catherine Kaye Walters. The pair were part of a DIY music scene, a global network of folks making industrial / noise tracks that were distributed cheaply and independently on cassette. They ran their own label, Sterile, and their first release was a compilation that included a number by Geoff Rushton aka John Balance of Coil.

Based within South London’s squat community, Ayers described Nocturnal Emissions as “an underground cell of resistance” inside, battling against,  Thatcher’s Britain, and their music as “anti-capitalist sound art”. Sonically and visually their early releases were confrontational, and they referred to their gigs as attacks of “perceptual bombardment”, aimed at breaking social conditioning, programming, and control. However, in 1983, under the influence of the seminal compilation Street Sounds Electro 1, they produced the track No Separation. A big departure from their previous, sometimes harrowing output, this tune a little later featured on another important comp, called Funky Alternatives, where it danced side by side with acts like 23 Skidoo, New Order, D.A.F., and Chris & Cosey.

A year later Nocturnal Emissions was down to just Nigel, who pursued the more dance-y angle, and combined it with his interest in shamanism, paganism, and magick. In 1994 he cut the track Imaginary Time, which relates to quantum physics and a means of modelling the universe when physical laws break down. It also samples Stephen Hawking. Using a snippet of the famous theoretical physicist’s computer-generated voice like a robotic ritual incantation, set to slow steady beat that fuses traditional and metallic percussion. Mixing the cosmologist with Middle Eastern chants and buzzing, fizzing circuitry. In 1999, Ayers returned to the tune to create a 15 minute long “Revolutionary Industrial Trance” version. A hypnotic, rhythmic workout which evolves, step-by-step, from a hammer hitting an anvil. Adding a snare, a kick, then congas to forge an urgent funk.

These two takes both appear on a reissue 12, that comes care of Italian label, Sunny Crypt, where they’re joined by a new remix from mysterious techno figure Gesloten Cirkel, who’s possibly Russian, but whose stage name is Dutch. He fashions something far more furious, built around a big, rigid, stamping, gabba-esque stomp. Smashing the OG ’s frequencies into fractured tones, and, conversely, slowing Professor Hawking to a deep demonic growl. Making him sound like Felix The Housecat / Aphrohead.

Nocturnal Emissions’ Imaginary Time is out now on Sunny Crypt.

Much of the info on Nocturnal Emissions was taken from Matthew Collin’s brilliant new book, Dream Machines, which maps the post World War II development of British electronic music. Both the book, and Matthew’s accompanying interview archive / blog, are both invaluable resources.