Description
The self-titled debut album by the American industrial band Under Midnight was released on Wonderland in 1992, a short-lived sub-label of Word run by Caesar Kalinowski (the mastermind behind labels such as Graceland and Intense). The album was written, performed and produced by D.B. Allen (a.k.a. Mark Robertson, later of This Train and A Ragamuffin Band fame) and Frankie (a.k.a. Caesar Kalinowski). Featuring additional guitar by Kurt Bachman of Believer as well as backing vocals by Tony Valenziano, Michelle Thompson, and Beki Hemingway. Under Midnight is a concept album about a cult using virtual reality to control people’s minds, all told with copious metal guitars and Blade Runner samples. “Thoughtfully conceived cyberpunk set to industrial clang.”
The PR and advertising for this album calls the industrial stew of ‘Under Midnight’, combining dance, thrash and techno-pop, “Cybernetic Apocalypso,” and for the first time since I started writing about rock music, I wished I’d said it first. The kind of creative thought that’s gone into preparing ‘Under Midnight’ for the market is second only to the effort that’s gone into the actual project. Like Mortal, UM has burst on the scene with a vibrant and mature industrial sound, but here, in the vein of Nine Inch Nails, there are memorable melodies and more emphasis placed on interactive rhythms.
All this, plus samples from the best Sci Fi movie of all time, ‘Blade Runner’, and a stroy-line narrative that ties the individual conceptual songs into a collective whole of imagination and human warmth. Not bad for high-tech art. Songs deal with the real dehumanizing forces of a politically uncertain future, and the human outcome of our own willingness to hurt the ones we love. That they still pay enough attention to sing-along choruses to earn a satisfying place on Christian rock radio, makes Under Midnight a breaktrough group for the Christian industrial/alternative scene. Now, talk to me about virtual reality. [Brian Q. Newcomb, CCM, November 1992]
CD tracklist:
01. Babylon USA – 4:11
02. Die To Myself – 4:03
03. Love, Pain, Truth, Fire – 4:30
04. New Way – 4:34
05. Cybervision – 4:42
06. Learning To Fly – 3:52
07. Two Worlds, One Cry – 4:53
08. In A Mirror Dimly – 3:34
09. Who Am I? – 5:03
10. Fear And Trembling – 4:35
11. Yes, I Am – 4:33
12. Arise – 3:55
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Wonderland.
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[youtube_sc url=”uy3UJxUX7zw” title=”Under Midnight – Cybernetic Apocalypso (1992)” autohide=”1″ rel=”0″]Under Midnight’s “Cybernetic Apocalypso” from cassette single Cybernetic Remixes (1992), issued to promote Under Midnight’s self-titled 1992 debut album.
[youtube_sc url=”eKocjCmDp0U” title=”Under Midnight – Under Midnight (HM Video Magazine Vol. 3)” autohide=”1″ rel=”0″]
Under Midnight’s Self-Titled Debut Was an Evangelical Industrial Concept Album.
The Christian industrial music scene was quite vibrant in the early-to-mid ‘90s, with artists like Mortal, Circle of Dust, globalWAVEsystem, Passafist, and Deitiphobia all releasing albums during the time period. This music tended to be a blend of metal and electronic sounds à la Ministry’s Psalm 69 and early Nine Inch Nails, i.e., fast n’ heavy riffage placed alongside programmed beats, copious samples (usually from classic sci-fi movies), and distorted vocals singing/screaming about social decay, technological concerns, and spiritual angst.
The first two Circle of Dust albums are arguably the best examples of this industrial rock style, but another, often overlooked, example is the self-titled 1992 debut from the duo of Frankie (Caesar Kalinowski) and dB Allen (Mark Robertson), better known as Under Midnight.
Kalinowski and Robertson had roots in Christian rock circles well before Under Midnight’s inception. Kalinowski was a producer for some of Christendom’s most celebrated metal acts (e.g., Whitecross, Vengeance, Deliverance) while Robertson had played with The Stand, Altar Boys, and Mark Pogue. But Robertson had also become increasingly fascinated with bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept, and Skinny Puppy, as well as cyberpunk fiction. Under Midnight was the logical end of those interests, particularly in its lyrics and storyline.
The concept album’s twelve songs spin a story set in a dystopic, not-too-distant future. A virtual reality technology called “Cybervision” has become increasingly popular despite allegations of mind control and links to a shadowy, cult-like organization called the New Way. The album’s point of view jumps back and forth between several characters: a boy (Johnny) from the wrong side of the tracks who’s trying to reveal the awful truth about Cybervision and the New Way; a former rich girl (Jamie) on the run from her dysfunctional life who falls in with the New Way; and Dr. Rubio, the Cybervision CEO himself.
It’s all a little on the nose, with no subtlety whatsoever; Under Midnight is arguably the most forthrightly evangelical album of Christian industrial’s ‘90s wave. There’s even an altar call or two within the album’s narrative. But several things save Under Midnight. First and foremost is Kalinowski and Robertson’s dedication to their concept.
«Babylon USA» sets the stage with an onslaught of metal riffs and a laundry list of the world’s ills, from the rise of a one-world government and too-powerful corporations to global warming, war, and social collapse. In «Love, Pain, Truth, Fire», Jamie (voiced by Beki Hemingway, who would later form This Train with Robertson) sings of the abuse (“Daddy use to beat me/ Daddy used to yell/ Sometimes he’d get friendly/ Make me promise not to tell”) that led her into the New Way’s “loving” embrace. Dr. Rubio appears in «New Way» to sneeringly sing the praises of his materialistic worldview (“No need for submission/ No god to obey/ You can write your own ticket/ Pave your own way… The only sin is the sin not to win”).
But arguably the album’s most interesting song is the haunting, atmospheric ballad «Two Worlds, One Cry», which finds Johnny trying to convince Jamie to leave Cybervision and the New Way, and instead, find meaning and acceptance in God alone. At one point, she lashes out:
The God they preach on television seems to be a joke
The way they beg for money, you’d think that God was broke
He only loves the holy, He only loves the strong
He only loves the wealthy, it’s clear I don’t belongBy the song’s end, both protagonists join together in a single, heartfelt plea: “I have fears, can I trust you?/ I want a better way/ I need to know what’s real/ Do I measure up?… I need love.”
Again, pretty on the nose stuff. But also kind of prophetic, if you think about it. The album’s tale of technology run amok, unchecked corporate greed and power, and people trying to find meaning through technological connections came out years before Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Furthermore, if you didn’t grow up in fundamentalist or evangelical circles, then I don’t know if you can fully appreciate the impact of lyrics that painted a less-than-squeaky clean picture of reality or expressed doubts and spiritual fears – albeit within the context of a cyberpunk concept album – on the hearts and minds of young, struggling listeners (like the one I was). That’s something I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve grown older and consider the way such lyrics (and albums) have shaped my understanding of what it means to be an honest, faithful Christian.
As for Under Midnight’s music, it checks the necessary boxes. There’s an array of samples from sci-fi titles (e.g., RoboCop, The Twilight Zone, Blade Runner). There’s plenty of fiery guitar (e.g., «Die to Myself», «Cybervision», «Fear and Trembling») courtesy of Kurt Bachman (the lead guitarist from Christian thrash metal band Believer). But there’s also some funk («Yes, I Am»), the aforementioned cyber-balladry of «Two Worlds, One Cry», and even a song that’s essentially a cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s «Blues From a Gun» («Learning to Fly»).
Throughout it all, Kalinowski and Robertson’s production is topnotch, throwing in all manner of sonic details and flourishes, like the short vignettes that bolster the album’s narrative and world-building. (This expanded into the album’s liner notes, which included a libretto alongside the lyrics that fleshed out the storyline.)
When I write about Under Midnight, or any “classic” Christian industrial bands, I won’t pretend that nostalgia doesn’t factor in. I still remember when my friend Daniel, who introduced me to Mortal et al., excitedly told me about Under Midnight. We listened to it in his car while the rest of our church peers rocked out to Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline, and DC Talk. I enjoyed my youth group, but I often felt like a bit of an outcast. I never felt like I was the “victorious” Christian that I was supposed to be. Bands like Under Midnight – with both their edginess and willingness to sing about doubt and darkness – helped me feel a little less alone.
If you find yourself getting a bit skeptical at the album’s concept, I don’t blame you. I can’t deny that some of it hasn’t aged well (like the video for «Cybervision»). But nostalgia notwithstanding, the earnestness and ambition with which Kalinowski and Robertson made the album – in a 2014 interview, Kalinowski recalls getting inspiration from the pages of Wired while Robertson described the band as the “evangelical soundtrack to Blade Runner” – are still endearing, entertaining, and worth noting, even after nearly three decades. [Jason Morehead, Opus, 2 February 2019]
Chad Thomas Johnston: Where did Under Midnight come from, creatively speaking? What were the origins of the band, both in name and concept?
Mark Robertson: Caesar came up with the name. I was in a band called The Stand and we were signed to Wonderland. I coproduced the In Three Days record, and Caesar thought I had strong production instincts and asked me to come up with a project.
I’d been messing around a lot with sampling/programming, was a huge fan of Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept, Skinny Puppy, etc. I was also intrigued by the second wave industrial bands that used metal/punk guitar: Ministry’s Land of Rape and Honey and Nine Inch Nails’s first record, which appealed more to Caesar than the original industrial ‘musique concrete’ thing I was into. I had also gone off the deep end for cyberpunk literature - William Gibson, in particular. Blade Runner was a very obvious influence, with all that dystopian stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski: At the time, I thought we needed a name like PM Dawn - such a cool band name - and then Under Midnight came up. And then Thom Wolfe came up with the logo, and it was so freakin’ perfect.
[…]
It’s been 20 years since your self-titled debut was released, so we are living in the future - at least as your 1992-self might have thought of it. How does that future measure up to your expectations? Do you think there are elements of our present day and age that make Under Midnight’s records seem prophetic?
Mark Robertson: I think it’s exactly the way we envisioned it, but not because we were so smart. Orwell and Huxley saw all of this years before we were born. Things are moving along more or less the way it appeared they would back then. The cautionary side of those records is still the same: Be careful what you wish for.
Prophetic would be a very generous thing to say about those records. Maybe you had to be there, but the church was very concerned with virtual reality, the World Wide Web, all that stuff. And I was reading tons of cyberpunk and futurist writing. The concept seemed pretty obvious to me at the time. Think of Under Midnight as the evangelical soundtrack to Blade Runner. That’s the easiest way to describe it.
[Excerpt from Chad Thomas Johnston’s interview with Mark Robertson and Caesar Kalinowski of Under Midnight, as featured in Down The Line Magazine #16, March 2014]
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